What is Sin? Can you control what you do? Lessons from Paul and Science

Sin is a hard topic because it makes us feel ashamed. It makes us worried about being saved. But most of all it is confusing. In this fascinating episode, I talk about the science of sin. Do we have instincts like animals? Do animals sin? Must something be intentional to be sin? These are confusing questions, because we have been taught to fear sin. Paul tells us a lot about Sin in Romans 6 in a very interesting way. If you look closely, you can see that Paul invites us to not worry about sin, but to just be in Jesus. If Sin is a character in a play and Death comes from Sin, then Jesus is makes it so we don't have to be afraid, because when we are in Jesus we have already died and been raised in him in new Life! Paul makes these like characters so we can look at them without fear and that we can just live full lives without having to keep score about sin. 

Romans 6 begins the heart of Paul's letter. Paul speaks in an imaginary dialogue in his arguments to the Romans. He asks a rhetorical question like "Should we continue in Sin in order that grace may abound?" and then says "By no means!" again and again. Sin is portrayed like a character and Christ is the alternative that defeats Sin. We don't have to be slaves to Sin anymore! In this episode, I talk about Sin expansively. What make destructive behavior in animals not sinful? Why is it sinful when humans do these things? Most people will say it is because animals have no choice and they operate out of instinct, but humans are far more instinctual than we realize. So there much be another explanation. Matthew Croasmun's book provides a fascinating discussion about the emergence of Sin in the Christian consciousness. I also reference my discussion with Mattie Mae Motl in Season 2, Episode 15 and her recent Substack article on Romans 6 & 7.

Resource: 
The Emergence of Sin: The Cosmic Tyrant in Romans
by Matthew Croasmun, 2019

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome to the Real Bible Rub teamcast. And today I'm going to talk about a topic that you're probably very interested in, and it's also really kind of difficult at the same time, and that is sin. What is sin? Um, you know, you'd think it'd be obvious, right? And we've been told that, you know, just doing bad things or whatever, but there's a lot more to it. And you have to ask yourself a lot of some tough questions about, you know, is sin always something that you can control? Is it something that is um is it something that's in your instinct? Is it something that um is always something that you intend to do or not? And also I'm gonna ask some tough questions about, well, what about animals? Do animals sin? Do animals do everything instinct you know with through instinct? Are humans like this too? Um and why the and why is it difficult to and why is sin so confusing? A lot of times we look at sin and we're very afraid of it, right? We feel shame, you know, we did something bad, or we think that we're you know, we're not going to be saved, or you know, that we need to be saved. And it makes it it it makes it all so confusing, even though you would think that, well, yeah, sin is obvious, it's just doing bad things, but there's more to it. Now, Paul gives us in his book of Romans, gives us some ideas about how to deal with this in a way that can really help us too. And instead of having sin hanging over us, instead of people, you know, pointing their finger at you and saying, You sin, you sinner, well, Paul gives us a way of looking at sin that actually helps us manage it and understand it better and understand that how being in Jesus and having, you know, sort of like dying with Jesus, you know, through baptism and just through um, you know, following Jesus gives us new life. So we don't have to worry about sin anymore. We don't have to worry about the shame or the guilt that comes from sin. Because all of us, of course, uh, you know, sin just comes, it comes and goes, and none of us is a sinless person, but um, and all of us, of course, feel shame or uh feel guilt about things. But what Paul shows us is that by being this way, this truly full human being in Jesus gives us an opportunity to put that aside, that we don't have to be slaves to sin, he says. We don't have to have it rule our lives. And um, that's a really hard thing for people to do. And sometimes people will live their whole lives, especially if they go to a church or they've heard uh uh from people who constantly talk about sin and constantly want to make you feel guilty and ashamed, they're actually doing something that is not what Paul talks about and against what Jesus provides for us. So I'll talk about that a little bit too. If you do this well, you will be happier, healthier, and a more full human being, and you'll be closer to God. And as you get older, especially as you um become an adult and you have uh, you know, relationships and you have children and things like that, um, you know, life gets complicated. Well, don't let sin and the worry of sin get in the way of living a full life in Christ. So I'll do that and I'll ask a couple of interesting questions here to give you some idea about how to think about it. And I asked ask these questions in a um in a church service. I was giving a sermon and I was really worried. I go, are they going to get it? Um, you know, sometimes that happens. You want to, it's easy to preach a sermon where it's very obvious and everybody understands what you're doing, but to talk about a complicated topic that really shouldn't be that complicated, like sin. People, um, I worry, you know, are they going to get it? Well, they did get it. And um, so just be a little bit patient with the stories that I'm gonna tell you here. I started by saying in the past several months, in early 2026, there's been a civil war in Uganda. This is a country in the middle of Africa. And a lot of times we kind of know what civil war is like. We think about soldiers and things like that. But this is a different kind of civil war because in Uganda, there are, you know, it's right on the equator, so there's lots of um jungles and uh uh and so forth. And this is also where large numbers of chimpanzees live. And uh in Uganda's Kabale National Park. And there's a civil war this year between different tribes of chimpanzees, and it's been very interesting for scientists. So there's been a bunch of scientists that have gone to Uganda to sub um to study uh how they're acting, how these chimpanzees and how they're doing warfare. And what's so interesting about it is that when you look at how they approach war, how they're fighting with each other, and what they do, it's very much like hum human warfare. They have strategy, they have battle tactics, they make weapons uh of different kinds and they store them and they stockpile them. They and then they have truces and you know, and agreements, alliances. And then when they're done with war or they're ready to be done with war, they'll actually have peace treaties between these chimpanzee tribes. And the only difference between chimpanzee warfare and human warfare is just the how big it is, right? Uh, humans, because we are you know social creatures, very large communities, we have nations, uh, because of our technology and things like that, we uh have you know the sophistication of our weapons is so much greater. Yeah, it looks and it's much different, and it feels much more threatening, but the mentality, the way the war goes, the way um people or the way the chimps feel towards each other, and the way, you know, is very, very much like the with the way humans work. So we're not as different as you think we are. So the question that comes out of this is Is it immoral? Is it um a sin for a chimp to kill another chimp? Think about that. Really interesting. Is it you know, think about that deeply. I mean, they do it on purpose and they're in warfare. Is it a sin for them to do that? Then I went to another example and I said, um, I we talked about cats. So you may have a cat. You know, we all love cats, right? They're fluffy, they're they're cuddly, they're they're beautiful. We love cats. But the thing about cats is they're actually very cruel. When uh, especially at nighttime when they're out and they're hunting, and uh uh domestic cats like yours and my cats just have this urge to go out and hunt at night. They, when they uh encounter a bird or a mouse or a squirrel or something like that, they will lame it, they will um um injure it, um, and then they will play with it, they will torture the animal. Um, they will um they before they kill them, they might even not kill them, they might even just leave them lamed and damaged. Very cruel. And then after they um kill the animal, uh, especially if it's like a cat like yours and mine, who's a domestic cat, well fed, um, you know, and and has a house, those cats will tend not to eat them because they've already got food, they're already full. They might eat some, but so it looks like when a cat goes out to hunt, they are killing for fun, not for necessity, not for nourishment. So you think about it, you go, well, wow, if a human did that, if you and I went out and started um, you know, torturing people or animals or whatever, uh, well, if you and I would uh you know treat the people or animals like that, we would consider that a sin. In fact, we would say that's a big sin. Very immoral, right? So I'll ask that question again. Is a cat does a cat commit sin? Is a cat sinning when it tortures its prey? And then, you know, most people are more comfortable with this idea than the chimp idea because they'll say, Yeah, but we're not cats. You know, we're not chimps. And cats and chimps are acting on their instinct, what's built inside of them. They're just cats are just doing cat things. God created cats to be killers. And they so when they go out and kill small animals, they're just doing what their nature is, right? And you maybe it's a little harder to understand with chimpanzees because they're doing that willfully, they're going to war with each other, but you could say, well, you know, maybe they're like that. So the question is, are they sinning? And most people will say, no, they're animals, I'm human. They are acting, they are acting with their instincts, it's you know, naturally, and we humans have choices. We act intentionally. So when we do something that's wrong or evil or bad, um we have responsibility that they don't have. But there is so much uh work and so much science about how uh nowadays that we know that humans also are very we have a lot of instincts, we do a lot of things um that aren't we don't really have uh a choice about, a lot of control about. There's a lot of things about how uh are we part of um doing something that isn't uh something that we can uh that's just inside of us. So it's an it's a little bit easier to think of so if you know somebody who has a a really bad mental illness, for example, and they do something evil, or somebody who who's uh ha is disabled, mentally disabled, for example, and they just don't understand what they're doing. And they do something really evil, they steal, or they they um or they kill somebody or they you know terrible things, right? And we even have in our laws, we will say because of their um insanity or their inability to understand, um, they won't be charged. Well, or they won't be uh they won't be convicted of murder or something like that. They're not guilty. Well, huh. You can what I'm trying to show here is that there's this very gray area. There are definitely things where we plan and we do evil things and we do them on purpose, and there are other things that are evil and we uh and we do uh sin things and we don't understand what we're doing and why we're doing it. And uh so with that we have to ask a very important question. What is sin then if we can't really even define when it happens or not happens? Well, the idea is that you and I are organisms, right? We are a um, you know, we we are a being. My body, and I tell this to people, I go, my body has 10 trillion cells in it that are made are human cells. So are you so is yours. And um, but you may not know, and I'm sorry if it this makes you feel a little freaky, but your body also has about 40 trillion other cells. So these are things like viruses, bacteria, um, molds, yeasts, things like that. They're all kinds of things. So your body is almost like a whole ecosystem in itself, um, in ways that we don't recognize. Um you there's more than just you in your body. There are things and that your body depends upon, and there are things that other things that depend on your body for survival. Now, so you kind of go, well, I'm an organism, but there's also a bigger organism. And then that goes for other people. You, you and I, I can't live without other people. You can't live without other people. We need them because we are the kind of beings that you know God created us to be with other people, to depend upon them, both for you know, basic things like food and clothing and housing and stuff. We can't do that alone. Um, but also just to be uh together with them. And scientists kind of think of this as uh there's the organism, one person, and then there is the organism of a society or of people around us because we work together. And then on top of that, we live on the earth and we live, we um are interacting with the earth all the time, and the obvious things are things like you know, food and water and things like that. Um, we want to have things that are not polluted, that don't hurt us, and things like that. So that's kind of like a bigger organism. So, in a way, we are like this big organism, right? There's uh the organism uh of ourselves, but then there's what what scientists call the superorganism, and these are the larger things. So I think a great way to think of sin is that sin is anything that works against the organism. So you can sin, you you can work against your own body by doing bad things for your own body that we would consider sin. You can do things against other people, obviously, you know, and we read about these in the Bible, and we're taught about not how not to steal, lie, cheat, you know, all of the, you know, murder, all of those things hurt other people. Well, working against that is working sort of it's not it's working against the superorganism of our society. I think lately people more people are thinking, you know, it's a sin to pollute, it's a sin to destroy the environment. Um that that's part of our sinfulness is when we go out into nature and we do bad things to to the water and to the food and to the air and all of that things. God's creation. And that's kind that's a sin too. And you go, well, wait a minute, gosh, there's just sin everywhere. Well, uh let's talk about that for a second. And this is where Paul comes in and really helps a lot because we have been taught because of you know, where we grow up and we go to church and and we hear from people, we hear from parents and people about your sin, don't sin, sin, sin, sin, without realizing that um it's sin is conditional depending on who does it, where it happens, what it is, and so forth. So, what Paul does to help us understand this in Romans is he says he talks about sin being a big character. So, in fact, when you look at some versions of the Bible, instead of having sin as the little S S-I-N, it'll be capital S-I-N, and it'll be talked about by Paul as a character, as something apart, something that we can examine and look at rather than all of the little details. And um he does that, and he also talks about death this way, capital D death. He says that sin leads to death, and then he does this in a way that's uh very um much in tune with the way he was thinking, because in Paul's time in the first century, time of Jesus and so forth, there was a lot of like Greek philosophy around, and the Greek philosophers always talked about light versus dark, um, about good versus bad, about heaven versus hell, you know, the what we call, and we believe a lot of these things even today. These are called dualism. This is like you either one or the other, and that's why Paul talks about sin. He says there's sin and death, and then he says, but Christ having and having died, Jesus having having died has already conquered death, and that we're when we're in Jesus, we conquer death too. And that's the alternative to sin. So here's sin, and then here's here's uh Christ, here's death, and then here's new life. And he presents it in a way that's so interesting because that he says basically, when you're in Christ, you don't have to worry, you've already been through it with Jesus, you don't have to um worry about sin. Now, um he even says this in a way that is very interesting for a man from his time to say. In um Romans 7.15, he talks about himself. In most of the book, he's talking about you or they. He doesn't talk about himself, but in 7.15 he goes very personal and he says, I don't understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. Now you and I, I I don't you I'm sure you've probably felt this way too. How many times do I do something? I I have a bad habit, I have an an addiction, um I'm I'm so tempted to lie uh because I'm embarrassed about something, and I and I know that it's not the right thing to do, and I do it anyway because I don't really have control over that. And Paul is saying that too. Because in Paul's time, the idea was that a real man, you know, a really strong man, had complete control, complete uh mastery over their own body and who they were and what they said, and that it was only weak people who didn't have control over themselves. But we know that that's not true, is that no matter who you are, you can be the weakest person, you can be the strongest person. All of us have these times when we do things that we did that are wrong, that are bad, and we just we can't stop ourselves from doing it. So what Paul is saying is something that um 2,000 years ago people didn't understand very well, but now we understand so much better. He's basically saying is that people, all people, even strong people like Paul, who was a Roman citizen who was a man, you know, he wasn't in his mind, he wasn't weak like a slave or a or um a child or something. Even he doesn't have control. So what Paul is saying is. Is in a way that we understand as instinct that there are things that we can't control about ourselves, our biology, where we are, how we interact with other people. But what being in Christ allows us to do is to say, we're just people. I yes, I there, but I don't have to worry about that because I'm already forgiven. Yes, I've done, you know, I've been healed, or I've been hurt, and now I can be healed. I have hurt other people and I can and they I can be forgiven for doing that. Now, does that mean that I don't have to worry, or I don't have to do anything, or um I can still live and do those terrible things? No, of course not. In fact, Paul says that throughout um Romans 6 and 7. He says, of course not. You can't do that. Should I just go on sinning because now I've received the grace of God? He goes, definitely not. So I know this is a little bit hard as you got you say, well, should I feel guilty about doing something bad to another person or doing something bad in my own body? Yeah, maybe. Um, but you can let that go. You don't have to carry that with you. That you are forgiven, that God understands you. People come to me very, very often. They say, Oh, Pastor, uh, I I just I I'm I'm so bad, I can't, I don't think God will ever forgive me. And I go, Of course, God will forgive you. Sometimes you have things like addictions. I go, well, yeah, um, but and and people do. Well, do you work to stop those addictions or do you put yourself in a place where you don't are aren't tempted to do those things? Sure. But are you going to carry that guilt with you, that shame with you for the rest of your life? No, it's not that way. You have to, you have to, and this is where being in prayer with God, having good relationships with your with your parents, with your friends, with your pastor or whoever can really help. Now, sometimes if they say things that make you feel ashamed and and stuff like that, maybe you should stand back and say, maybe I shouldn't, because I'm in Christ, you know, Jesus has already forgiven me. But and it's okay to take advice from people, and it's good to take advice from people, but you don't have to carry the burden anymore. And that I think that can really help, especially when it comes from sin. So let's talk about that for a little bit. If you are in a church or a family or uh with friends that talk about sin all the time, you have to be a little bit careful. You've got to say to yourself, How are they talking about that? Are they talking about that to control you, to make you feel guilty all the time, so that you can never, that you can't function without them or something like that. Be careful for that. Because people will do that, um, especially if you're young, when you're young, because you don't have the experience of resisting that. But it happens throughout your life is that uh there are people who are um uh you know adults, and there are people who are much older, you know, people like my age or your grandparents' age or whatever. And they might feel so overwhelmed with guilt or shame that um and um that they can't get rid of it. And part of being in Christ helps us get rid of that. Or they may be manipulated by another person where they're saying, Oh, yeah, but you're guilty, you're terrible, you're terrible, you're terrible. And if you hear that often enough, you start believing it. You start believing that you're unforgivable. And that's that is not the message here. So Paul uses the word slavery, says that sin, he doesn't say that sin is gone when we are in Christ, because sin is still there. The difference is are we a slave to the sin and the sinful nature which leads to death, or do we is our loyalty in Christ instead? Do we become slaves of Christ in that word? I don't like that word so much because slave sounds like it's not voluntary, right? But really it's more about loyalty. Is our loyalty to sin or is our loyalty to Christ? And we can think of that in terms of not just Jesus that we hear about in church, but really anything that is in Christ. So it can be for people who aren't necessarily churchgoers or have struggle a little bit with their feelings about Jesus so much, but still the nature of Jesus, the fact that that Jesus came to release us from the slavery of sin, I think can uh be applied to all kinds of people. That anyone who calls on the name of God calls on God to say, help me, um, save me, God, that God gives that willingly. Whether you live in the United States or you live in uh China or you live in Uganda or whether you live in Europe or Argentina or something like that, wherever you are, whatever kind of person you are, whatever your upbringing is, is that God is always available and God is always ready to say, Yes, you're my child, I'll take care of you, don't worry, I can release you from sin. Now, does that mean we go on sinning or whatever? No, of course not. And that's what Paul says. Of course not. But do we have to carry the heavy backpack filled with rocks of sin and make it really hard in our lives? No. The sooner you uh are able to put that aside in your life, the sooner you realize that you are walked around beloved by God, understood by God, and released from the slavery of sin by God, then the happier you will be, the more integrated you'll be, the the better you will be toward yourself and toward other people. I always like to say this is that spiritually healthy people are people who do good service for others, are people who are loving toward others. That um the goal is not so much that you believe a certain thing in a certain way or be right about something. My goal as a pastor is always, always, no matter who I'm working with, is I hope, I pray for them to become spiritually healthy. Because when they're spiritually healthy, then they're open to being uh to doing the work of God. They're open to the teachings of Jesus. And I think the best way to be spiritually healthy is to understand that they are no longer slaves of sin, that you are no longer a you don't have that sin is there, it doesn't go away. You still do things that you shouldn't do, but you're not a slave to them. That you can get better, that you can put those aside, and that you're already loved and you're already forgiven. So I hope that that's really helpful. And I I I want you to think that way in terms of especially when you hear somebody talks about sin in a very shameful way, or maybe even worse, there are people who say sin doesn't exist. And you've got to worry about those folks too, because they're denying what we are, who we are, and what we are. The best thing to do is just say, yes, sin exists. It's part of our nature, it's part of uh when we were created, we were created with some choice. We were created uh with um the ability to decide. And we're gonna make bad decisions, we're gonna make mistakes. Sometimes we're gonna do them very intentionally, and sometimes we're gonna do them uh unintentionally because we weren't paying attention or because something happened. Uh, or some maybe because we're traumatized, or we're hurt, and we lash out and do something wrong because we're hurt. Well, that's just part of what it is to be a human being. So how do you get out of that? Do you feel guilty about it? Sure. Do you have some shame? Sure. But you can let that go because you're already forgiven, you're already loved, and you're not you don't have to be, you can decide not to be, a slave to sin. So with that, I uh say thank you so much for listening to me. I I hope that you uh get a lot out of these. Um share them with your friends, tell other people about them. I really hope that this podcast that's targeted to people like you, that toward younger people um who are exploring faith um in a deep way for the first time, um, these are the kinds of things that we need to talk about because each of us, as we get older, have to deal with some of these hard topics, these difficult things about sin. So, with that, I say thank you and God bless you.