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February 11, 2006
> 10:15 PM
brokenness > 3 Let me get this part out now in case there is someone thinking this: Is the pedophile more guilty before God than the naturally lustful person? Generally speaking, no. That's not the issue. Now, another question is, are they "worse"? That's more complicated to answer. Are they worse in reference to personal and intentional guilt or fault? No. Maybe that's the only place a word like "worse" needs to be used. Are they more deeply fractured as a person at the level of being? Yes, I'd say so. Does that mean that God doesn't love them or some nonsense like that? No. Does it mean we get to not love them or treat them as people whom God loves? No. It certainly should not. One of the problems is with the popular notion that "all sin is equal." Again, if we're talking about legality here then I don't know, maybe. But we're not, so let's say no - all "sin" is certainly not of equal weight at the level of a person's being, how damaged they are in order to think or do certain things, and how much that damages themselves or others. That's ridiculous. To shoot someone in the head for sport is most definitely worse than cheating on your taxes. Are both wrong? Sure - but again, we're not in a courtroom here, life is deeper than guilt and innocence. It's not the same thing. These two actions and the things underneath in those people which caused them to be the kind of people who respectively murdered and cheated are qualitatively different. There are different levels of brokenness being exhibited there, and the damage done to the person and to those around them are different. So, are they of equal weight? Certainly not. Some things are just harder than others to repair. This is another thing. It's not just a matter of being loved by God and forgiven of your wrongdoing and then you're good to go. Unfortunately it's more involved than that. Do you really want to be a whole person like people are supposed to be? God wants you to be. I think I'll risk wanting what He wants. If so, we've got to start seeing things at more than just a surface level. We have to look deeper. It may not even be comfortable to see what we see when we look there but so what. That's fine. It won't even sound right because we're so used to hearing things talked about on a merely legal level. To say some people are more broken than others won't sound right to many people. They'll think you're saying - some people are not as loved by God and aren't as save-able by God than others. That would not be the case. That's not what I'm saying at all. Go back and read it again and that will hopefully become clear. Again, if some things or people, or parts of people's "insides" are more broken, then some of those things will take more and longer to repair. Some of them will seem impossible to us. Some of them we will develop theories about how it's not really broken at all. I think of the line in the Depeche Mode song - "I give in, to sin, because I have to make this life livable." Of course we do this sometimes, and then sometimes we turn it around as if we're not giving in to anything. Brokenness gone to seed. This whole world is messed up and swirling with shatteredness. Everything effects everything and that is our state. If some end up more fractured than others, then it's all a result of the collective darkness in everyone and in the world. But it's still broken, crooked, not fully Human. It's still a dysfunctional reality which needs fixing. And in Christ, we have been given everything required for the job. It's in Him. It takes a while to see it sometimes and to realize what's actually there, what's real and what's not, what's broken and what's not and how broken. But that's what we've entered into. That's what this New Life is in Jesus. It is a life of recreation, or ontological repair, of transformation. It's a life of real transformation and not just calling something changed that never really is. It's not about feeling nice and comfortable and happy. That's gotten us into enough trouble in the past - you'd think we'd know better by now. Maybe not. technorati tags > brokenness, sin, original sin, theology, spiritual formation, discipleship, spirituality Labels: spiritual formation, theology 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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