The Cure

People have varying views of what causes sin, and in the way that they relate to its cure, or even if a cure is needed. Some may be reading this and ask, "What difference does it make?" The simple answer is that what we think causes sin will help to persuade us in the direction of a cure for it. After all, a cure for something involves negating the cause, does it not? No? I will try to illustrate what I mean. This may be a bit lame, so bear with me. If we fall off a cliff and break a leg, we need time to heal, but healing is not the 'cure' that I am talking about. The cure for breaking that leg would have been not to fall off the cliff.

Psalm 51:5 reads; "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me."

So what is being said here? Are we talking about a sin nature, or about sinful behavior which results from being in a bad environment? If sin were only the result of a bad environment, then the only thing necessary for eliminating sin would be to build a better environment, and sin would go away. Even at that, eliminating sin would be an impossible thing to do.

There's an ongoing add campaign which we're all familiar with. "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." That's fine if you're with a friend when he or she is about to drive drunk. What if that friend is across town, drinking when you have no clue he is drinking, and no clue he is driving? Are you still responsible for making sure that he doesn't get behind the wheel? How far does the responsibility in this friendship go? Can you really stop him from driving drunk? After all, you're his friend, and friends don't let friends drive drunk. It just doesn't work. If we got rid of all the bars, and stopped selling booze, making all alcohol illegal, people would still make their own, illegally. Ask anyone who works in prison law enforcement. Inmates manage to make their own booze.

The viewpoint that social reform will cure sin are in for constant disappointment. A proper Biblical view of sin tells us that mankind is sinful by his very nature, and that only regeneration through the healing power of the Holy Spirit, based on faith in the atoning, completed work of Jesus Christ will bring true change. Environment does play a powerful role in the temptation to sin, and there is nothing wrong with changing one's environment to lesson that temptation, but that is not the cure, or answer for sin.

Because man has a sinful nature, and because he lives in this world, where strong forces are constantly trying to get him to sin, man is extremely vulnerable to be led away from God's goodness and to the evil of sin. Psalm 51:5 to me, is clearly saying that men inherit their sinfulness. "Ridiculous," a lot of people would say. But David wasn't saying that he was born from an act of fornication or adulterous behavior by his mother. He said that he was sinful "at birth", even before he could speak. Anyone who has taught Sunday school, or spent enough time with two-year-olds, even as much as one can love those kids knows that this is true.

Romans 8:1 tells us; "THERE is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." -----There is the only answer for curing sin.

Social reform, generally speaking is fine, in the sense that it comes from a heart influenced by Biblical principles, but in and of themselves, social reforms will not cure sin, even in the most sterile of environments. The only hope for removing the condemnation for sins, which decay the heart, killing the soul, is through Jesus Christ.