This weekend’s preview of Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence reflects on the issue of sin — a selection that resonates with the season of Lent. In these paragraphs, I relate a story from seminary (I went to Gordon-Cornwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, an evangelical seminary) when I realized I disagreed with a lecture on the nature of sin.
This sneak peek is from a longer section on original sin — and the diversity of views on sin in Christianity. I was in my early twenties at the time, and I was struggling with how the ideas presented in the classroom conflicted with my own experience and theological intuition.
Lots of Christians wrestle with the idea of “original sin,” and I wrote this section of the book to help those who disagree with such ideas to know you are not alone. There are many ways of understanding sin — and how Jesus saves.
The extended chapter explores sin, the nature of salvation, and atonement theories.
STRUGGLING WITH SIN
From Freeing Jesus, pp. 85-86.
c. Diana Butler Bass, 2021
In 1983, as I was sitting in a classroom at an evangelical seminary, the professor was holding forth on the doctrine of sin in American theology. Early New England theology was in the line of Augustine, as interpreted by John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards, complete with sophisticated arguments about the nature of the will but still maintaining a doctrine of utter human depravity. In the 1820s, however, Yale theologian Nathaniel William Taylor dared to question these ideas and, as my professor said with more than a hint of malice in his tone, taught that “sin is in the sinning” and human beings were not corrupt by nature. Taylor upended New England theology, resulting in debates, heresy charges, and a split within the church.
Although the professor went on in detail about the controversy — known as the Taylor-Tyler debate — I got lost in a single line: “Sin is in the sinning.” When he quoted Taylor, I looked up from my notes and stared at him. Sin is in the sinning. That’s what I thought, what I always thought. There is some good in us, however wounded, however damaged, however obscured — an intuition, a whisper, a memory of some other way of being. Sin is not our nature; rather, goodness is. Sin is a choice, the wrong path. I remembered my own conversion, a kind of turning, what scripture referred to as metanoia, returning to the deepest part of myself, finding the path again after having lost my way, rediscovering the road I knew I was intended to travel.
I looked around the classroom. Everyone else was taking notes. No one else seemed to hear “sin is in the sinning.” I looked back to the professor. “Taylor,” he explained, “was not orthodox. Tyler defended the true faith, biblical Christianity.” So sin is in the sinning — not orthodox. I looked back down, scribbling away: Taylor bad, Tyler good. That would be on the exam. I did not want to be the only heretic in the room. Seminary taught me one thing: ignore the promptings of your own heart; your experience does not matter. Theology is a matter of submission to ideas shaped by men who were smarter than you. Orthodoxy is everything. Keep your head down.
*****
I would later understand that my sin was not being myself, subordinating the gifts and insight I brought to studying history and theology to what others insisted I must believe (under, I must add, the threat of hell). I allowed myself to be colonized by a system that wanted to silence me and participated in the kind of obedience that slaughters the soul. I found myself in a theological cage, one, sadly, that I helped to build. My sin was not pride; I did not want to be God. My sin was the negation of my own self, in effect killing myself in favor of the person others told me I must be. Sin does indeed lead to death.
Eventually, I learned that the early church thinker Irenaeus was right when he said, “The glory of God is the human being fully alive.” Sin is the rejection of the beauty and goodness of God’s image in every person. Jesus lived such fullness perfectly, and he revealed the deep wisdom of that truth; Christ the Word speaks this into the world. The Light of the World, the flame of our hearts. Jesus saves.
Some reflection prompts:
Do you remember a time when you seriously disagreed with a teacher or preacher about an important doctrine?
Did you keep your questions to yourself or share them with someone?
How did your questions shape your spiritual life going forward?
How does your understanding of sin have an impact on how you understand Jesus?
What does it mean to experience Jesus as savior?
Over the next several weekends, I’ll share sneak peeks of my forthcoming book here at The Cottage. Of course, there will continue to be the regular essays on faith and what’s going on in the world and in the news more generally (usually on Monday or Tuesday). But I’m pleased to invite you into an early look at Freeing Jesus — a book I hope will inspire new questions about what it might mean to follow Jesus in these fraught days.
INSPIRATION
Petulant priests, greedy
centurions, and one million
incensed gestures stand
between your love and me.
Your agape sacrifice
is reduced to colored glass,
vapid penance, and the
tedium of ritual.
Your footprints yet
mark the crest of
billowing seas but
your joy
fades upon the tablets
of ordained prophets.
Visit us again, Savior.
Your children, burdened with
disbelief, blinded by a patina
of wisdom,
carom down this vale of
fear. We cry for you
although we have lost
your name.
— Maya Angelou, Savior
The words “savior” and “salvation” are not found exclusively in the New Testament, and certainly not only in reference to Jesus Christ. The term is used extensively in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and we see it particularly around the story of the Exodus and the stories of the Babylonian Captivity. In these instances the term “savior” has nothing to do with the after-life. It refers to liberation from oppression. “The Lord has become our salvation” “God is the savior who brought us out of Egypt.” Nothing to do with the afterlife, nothing to do with sin. The word “savior” appears in stories of the exile more than most any other place. For the most part refers to deliverance from enemies and illness.
— Marcus Borg
For booking events, including events based on Freeing Jesus, please contact Chaffee Management. We’re booking virtual events through spring 2021, and blended and in-real-life events for later 2021 and into 2022.
For podcast, media, review, and interview inquires and availability regarding the book launch, please email Dan Rovzar at HarperCollins publicity: Dan.Rovzar@harpercollins.com.
Luke 9:23 has always been a favorite of mine; especially since we were showered with the phrase, "Put America first." Of course when Jesus says this, he has not yet been crucified; so his disciples would have heard that differently than we do now. They had seen crucifixions because Rome wanted them to see them. But what would that image mean to them before Jesus himself was crucified? - Doug Carpenter, Birmingham
I think of sin as the brokenness or "flaw" that runs through each human - some weak point or line is where we are tempted toward "sinning". As a pastor and theologian, I see that not everyone is broken the same way - some of us are drawn to additions, some to moral failure, some to breaks in relationship (pride, greed, gossip, etc.) That break is still a vulnerability, but Christ continues to heal us in every way.