It’s No Mistake, It’s the “S” Word

Sin. It’s such a pesky word. We don’t like to use it anymore. When your kids do something wrong, you don’t call them and say, "You sinned." You know, you don’t use that word. Or, imagine how weird it would be if you really mess up at work and your boss calls you in and says, "You sinned against the company." Or, if you are pulled over for something, the police don’t use the S-word. It’s like, you broke the law; you violated something. You get a “past due” letter – there may be some harsh words in it but you won’t find the S-word, will you?

Sin makes us think of God. Sin makes us think of judgment. Sin would mean there’s some giant set of “rules” out there, and I’m accountable and if I’ve broken those laws or those rules that God has set up, then I’m in big trouble because I’m accountable. There might be a judgment and I might have to beg for forgiveness. Or, probably, if there’s such a thing as sin, that I’m going to be punished, right?
Here’s what the dictionary says the definition for sin is: "Sin is a transgression [and here it is] of divine law." That’s why you don’t tell your kids, "You’ve sinned against me." It’s a transgression of divine law, which means there’s like a divine person or God or something that has a law. "Any act regarded as such a transgression, especially, [here it is] a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle."

So, sin means I did it on purpose. Sin means it was willful. You know, I planned this and I did this. Sin means I knew it was wrong when I did it, and that doesn’t make me feel very good about myself. In fact, if I have sins, then after a while I think I’m kind of a bad person. So, we don’t use that word. We like to say: "I just made a mistake.”
Now let’s read the definition of mistake. "A mistake [you gotta love this] is an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment [and check this out] caused by poor reasoning." "Oh, I just wasn’t thinking straight" (carelessness) or "Oh, I didn’t see that" (insufficient knowledge). "Well, I didn’t know any better," etc. See, this is a lot better word, because when you catch me, I can say, "Ah, my bad! My mistake."

And then if you kind of get a little forceful and if it’s you and your husband or your wife, friend or co-worker and you’re having an argument, you can say something like, "Okay, okay. So I made a mistake. Is that the end of the world? Nobody’s perfect.”

So let’s just take every possible, imaginable, bad thing we can do and let’s just dumb it down to where it’s just a mistake."

"Okay, spouse/friend/boss/coworker/etc., you caught me in a lie or whatever. Okay, so you caught me. Okay, okay. I’m sorry. It was a mistake. Can we just move on in our relationship?" "Okay, the expense account thing. I’m sorry, because I can say I’m sorry. It was a mistake. Can we just keep that in the category of mistake, which means you can’t hold this against me; you can’t punish me because, after all, nobody’s perfect. I made a mistake. I’ll try harder next time."

There’s a big, big difference between sin and mistake. Mistake, I don’t really have to ask you to forgive me. I can just say, "I’m sorry, okay? Can we just move on?" But Sin, now that’s a different thing altogether, I’m accountable. But if everything I do wrong can kind of be dumbed down to where it’s just a mistake, then that makes me a mistaker, which means I don’t have sin.

But if I’m a sinner, then I probably owe somebody something. I probably deserve something I don’t even really want to think about. If I’m a sinner, trying harder isn’t going to help me. If I’m a sinner, I need a Savior. But, if I’m not a sinner, I don’t have any need for a Savior.

The problem is that we know ourselves and we know better. When you’re looking at yourself in the mirror, you know the truth. You know that it wasn’t unintentional. You did that on purpose. You just didn’t think you’d get caught. Not only did you do it on purpose, you’ve done it before. Not only did you do it before, you’re hoping you can do it again. And the only problem was that somebody brought it to your attention. You were just able to pass it off and say let’s go on and move on with your relationship or whatever it is, but you know in your heart that what you did was more than a mistake. It was not unintentional. It wasn’t because of a bad calculation, or it wasn’t because of poor reasoning. It wasn’t careless. It wasn’t because of insufficient knowledge. You knew exactly what you were doing. You knew exactly what you were doing when you did it. It wasn’t a mistake. It was, uh oh, here its comes, SIN!

And then what about guilt? You see, we don’t need to feel guilty about a mistake, do we? You know a mistake is a mistake. We didn’t mean to. We didn’t have enough information. Well, sort of--in a way, it wasn’t even our fault. We weren’t informed enough. We weren’t paying close attention. Whatever it was, we don’t feel guilty for a mistake. However, we feel guilty for sin. But if there’s no sin and we’re not a sinner, and there’s no need for a Savior, where is all that guilt coming from?

After all, if it was just a mistake, there shouldn’t be any of that. But it is, and here’s why: because culture may tell you you’re just a mistaker who makes mistakes, but if you’re honest with yourself, you know it’s deeper than that, because you’re a sinner who sins.

Now speaking of a Savior, Jesus came with two messages: #1: You’re a sinner; you’re in trouble. You’re hopelessly lost. #2: God loves sinners and has sent a Savior, Me, to find you.

And here’s the rub! Until we embrace the fact that we’re a sinner, we’re not open to embracing the fact that God sent us a Savior. As long as we think we are a mistaker, we don’t feel the need of the Savior! But we have to finally come to grips with the fact that no, we don’t accidentally do things. There’s something fundamentally wrong with you and with me. And we need a Savior to fix this “thing”.
Once we recognize/confess/admit/understand that we have sinned there is some Good News.

Perhaps one of the most well known stories Jesus told was about the prodigal son. In this story, Jesus makes it really clear that the father in the story represents God and the son represents all of us, people who’ve strayed from God. And the story was told to help people understand what God’s attitude toward sin was.

Do you remember the story? The son comes to the father and says, "Dad, I wish you were dead (He didn’t say that, but that’s what he communicates.) because then I’d get half of your . . . I’d get my inheritance, but now I’ve got to wait till you die. Would you just pretend like you’re dead and go ahead and give me half of your inheritance?" That’s what he was saying. He insulted his father, took half of his father’s estate, went to the city, to the town, and blew it on wild women and partying and just had the time of his life for several weeks or months. We don’t know how long it went on. But he finally spent all his money. There was a famine in the land. He had to go get a job. And one day he realized, "You know what? I should go work for my dad. I mean, I’m not going to go back and try to be a son again. That’s over, okay, because, after all, I mean, there’s no way he’s going to take me back as a son. But, you know, the guys that work for my dad? They get treated better than they’re treating me here in the city. I’ll just go back and ask my dad for a job."

And he comes up with this speech, and he rehearses this speech. And here’s what he says when he gets to his father. Listen to these words, because Jesus is telling this story so we understand God’s reaction to sin and how God views sinners who are coming back. This is in Luke Chapter 15, verse 21. Just listen to this: "Father, I have [what’s the word?] sinned." In other words, he didn’t say, "Dad, I’m back, dude. How’s it going? You know, things didn’t go too good. Hey, I made a few mistakes. I’m young and stupid, okay? I should have known better. I should’ve listened. Can we just kind of move on, ’cause, okay, I made some mistakes, alright? I’m embarrassed, but can we just move on?" Uh-uh. He says, "Dad, I have sinned against heaven and against you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son." In other words, "Dad, I’m here to say you don’t owe me anything. I’m pleading for mercy because I’m a sinner."

It is very important to note here that the father did not go and bring the son back. The son realized what a mess he had gotten into and came “humbly” back to the father and confessed he was sinner!

Now what did the father say? "’Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him.’"

"Why so quick? Shouldn’t we let him grovel here a little bit?" "No, quick. Listen, Now that he’s recognized that he messed up, I want this relationship restored as quickly as possible.

And this is how it is in our relationship with God through our Savior, Jesus Christ -- the sooner you and I admit our sinfulness, the sooner we ask forgiveness, the sooner we have a “change of heart” (repent) about what we’ve done, (another lesson, another day!) the sooner you and I are candidates for God’s grace. The sooner we see our misdeeds as sin, the sooner we are, the closer we are, to knowing what it feels like to be forgiven. And reestablish our relationship with our FATHER!


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