The Asylum (1)

What say we say then?  Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?  Romans 6:1  NASB

Increase – I guess a “little” grace isn’t enough for some.  God pours out His favor (in Hebrew, hen).  He lifts away the deserved punishment.  He designates us “Not Guilty.”  He calls us His adopted children.  But apparently we are prone to demand more.  Just like petulant children we often test the limits of God’s goodness.  We push the boundaries, proclaiming, “If You really love me, You will forgive this one more offense.”  We challenge His grace by asking Him to extend it once more to prove to us that it covers deliberate rebellion.

Are we insane?  Yes, I am afraid we are.

In his 599 page volume on sin, reformed theologian G. C. Berkouwer notes that sin is insanity.  It is the declaration that what harms me, what ultimately condemns me to eternal punishment, is good.  It is the claim that my evaluation of what has value is superior to God’s evaluation.  It is the proclamation that I alone know the difference between good and evil and that my way is the right way.  Sin is insanity and we are all mentally diseased.

“But the point remains that we are inclined to minimize the biblical witness concerning the truly alarming character of our sin.  We then fancy our sin as ‘deficiency,’ or ‘lack,’ or ‘hiatus,’ or ‘mistake,’ or as something to be ‘regretted;’ but sin is not a ‘disaster’ or ‘catastrophe.’  Sin is no longer a disconcerting and ominous snare, to be resisted by ‘putting on the whole armor of God’ (Eph. 6:11).  It is not a damning power which holds our lives in peril.  It is rather defined by a number of circumstances and is always ‘not yet’ in contrast to what ‘will be later.’  Therefore, if we give enough time the restrictions on our present circumstances will be lifted away.  Obviously, that standpoint is congenial to the notion that sin does not affect or pollute the deepest being of a man.  It only impinges on the periphery of our living.  Sin does not break down the harmony of life.  Man retains his intrinsic power to resist and to restore.”[1]

What should assault you about the truth of Berkouwer’s insight is the hubris of our attitude toward sin.  “Mistakes,” “errors,” “peccadilloes,” “slips,” “omissions” – how else might we minimize the godlessness of our excuses.  Are we so arrogant, so blind, that we presume on God to prove His faithfulness?

Today is mental health day.  Today is the day for scrupulous examination of attitudes and excuses.  Today sin must be seen for what it is – death disguised as an angel of light.

Topical Index:  increase, pleonase, to be much, sin, Berkouwer, Romans 6:1, insanity