Searching out sin? Is that all?

I was recently at a Christian talk for women where the speaker said, "If you don't know how you've sinned today, you need to get on your knees and ask God to show you your sin... We can't be right with God unless we confess our sin." Then she went on to her next point.

As soon as these words came out of her mouth I was honestly upset. Her words were said with great emphasis and passion, as if it would solve life's problems. And honestly, I was actually upset because these words encapsulate the desperation and despair that used to strain my relationship with God.

I've heard countless well-meaning preachers and teachers encourage healthy introspection. I had always taken this exhortation very seriously, even to the extreme — think "Martin-Luther-battling-it-out-with-Satan-in-a-cold-confession-booth" extreme. In college I reached a point of despair and serious questioning of God's existence because of it.

There is a demonic subtlety to this type of exhortation, especially if frequently repeated, that can creep into our subconscious minds. It's the lie that anything I do or say can earn God's approval, forgiveness or favor. It's living under the Law. It's the leaven of the Pharisees. It's what Paul condemned the churches in Galatia for doing when they forsook the gospel. It's from the pits of hell. It's a slippery slope to self-hatred, depression, and hopelessness.

Of course, the Law is our tutor in this area and shows us where we have gone wrong. Even the apostle John in his simplistic, uneducated writing style said that to deny you are sinful is to make God a liar. The prophet Jeremiah tells about the depths of wickedness contained in each human heart. The apostle Paul quotes several psalms when he says to the church in Rome that all people, Jew or Gentile, have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But even that verse cuts off Paul's sentence, for in the next breath he says, "and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."

Jesus Christ is our atonement sacrifice. He is our intercessor and mediator. He took God's wrath from us. He removed our sin and made us clean, and one day we will be saved to the uttermost when he comes back for us. 

I've long since my college days grown weary of making the searching out of sin the centerpeice of my Christian spirituality, because it's not. Where is the good news and the gospel in this? The gospel is not, "Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead so that you can realize how sinful you are and pray about it." No! 

For all the time we spend thinking and praying about our sins, we should spend exponentially more time enjoying God in all of his beauty and awesomeness, which we could never know without the work of Jesus our prophet, priest and king.

Furthermore this "search for sin" mentality tends to be blasphemously incomplete in that it ignores the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God will convict us of our sins when he needs to. We should trust him to do that in his own time. Plus the Holy Spirit doesn't only show us our sin, but he shows us Christ. He testifies with our spirit that we are God's children, he grows in us his fruits of love, joy, peace.... He glorifies Jesus in our hearts. He causes us to sing and make music for him. He gives us power to witness about Jesus. He comforts us. He helps us pray. He gives us wisdom when we pray for it. He brings to mind everything we've learned about him.

Jesus said that he wouldn't leave his followers alone, but that he would send a Helper to guide them. To guide us in our Christian spirituality. Therefore, I don't think we should try to do his job for him. And instead of searching for more and more ways that we have failed God, we need to search the Scriptures and our lives for ways God has never failed us.

Thanks for reading.

Scriptures references: 1 John 1, Acts 1:8, John 16, Romans 3, Romans 8, James 1, Jeremiah 17:9, Galations 3-5