Somehow, we’ve come to picture God as a scorekeeper, checking on us, watching us like Big Brother to keep score of our sins and wrongdoings. Like this painfully funny meme of Jesus saying that he saw what we did, we imagine Jesus as a drone-like presence in our lives that mistrusts our intentions and wants to punish us for our actions.
None of this is Christian. If anything, Jesus does the opposite, asking people what’s going on with them, and then invited them to a new path and way of living. This is rooted in love, hope, and grace. This vision of God is more like the ancient Zeus who resides among the clouds on Mount Olympus punishing and directing human affairs with lightning bolts and sneaky, lying treachery. In fact, Zeus often sneaks down in disguise to have sex with beautiful women and then dodges his responsibility to and for the progeny he creates. That vision of God seems to overcompensate for the vision of a devious divinity by having that divinity be a judge, police agent, punishing big brother who does any and everything to keep us moral, good, and on the right path.
But that vision contains no glimpses of freedom, responsibility, participation, and collaboration. Faith isn’t anchored in hope, love, or grace. Instead, it’s a sort of quid-pro-quo that we undertake to hedge our bets and ensure that we might get into “heaven.” In fact, that’s exactly how our president recently talked about faith and religion from the oval office – one of the central media centers of our nation and world.
The stories of the Bible wrestle with what it means to be alive, to be human, to be good and bad, to be both saint and sinner at the same time. They’re more than history, more than just stories of people who lived before, when we wrestle with them, we see and hear how they’re our stories – of what it means to be alive, to live in relationship with one another and with God, with what a good life looks like, with where we come from and where we’re going.
In our October Sunday series we’ll be sitting in this tension, looking at what sin is as we strive to understand what the good desired by God is and what we should be resisting against.
Here’s our schedule.
October 12 : Genesis 1:26-31 & 3:1-13 [PDF Study Sheet]
October 19 : John 9:1-41 & Romans 5:12-21
October 26: Romans 8:12-31
Resources you might find helpful in your own searching, study and reflection upon the good, the bad and the human.
Daniel Migliore’s Book Faith Seeking Understanding has a great chapter on what sin means in the scope of what God wants for us. Chapter 7 CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A PDF.
INTERESTING TIMES VIDEO INTERVIEW - 10/9/2025
A Interesting and Challenging Conversation about Sin and how Theocratic Christian Nationalists (in particular Doug Wilson) want to legislate morality and stop sinful secular Americans from making God angry through their sin. Video with Ross Douthat of the NY Times (roughly an hour)
If you take in the conversation there is a lot to say and think. Here are a few questions to help you process it all.
How does Dave Wilson define sin and the human condition?
How and who should legislate sin and evil to help reduce it?
What’s the objective of legislating sin and evil in that viewpoint?
How do you disagree with Wilson?
What points of Wilson’s theological perspective do you agree with? How so?
How is it just or unjust to aim to enforce this upon the whole American population?