The Mind of Sin

The opening verse of Psalm 36 is, “The transgressor, that he may sin, speaks within himself; the is no fear of God before his eyes.” Here we find a man who has to convince himself that his actions and thoughts are not really sinful. He is saying sin is not a problem for me. I am ok. I think this is what many people do today. They spend much time and go to great lengths to try to say within themselves, “I am doing no wrong, there is no sin in me. I never do anything to bad.” But what is this problem with this? The key issue is that sin breaks down our relationship, not only with God, but also with one another. Every action and thought that we have has a result upon something or someone else.

We see this on display in the Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14). Jesus tells the parable it those, “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.” My thought is that this situation, this way of thinking, must have been as bad then as it is today. The parable continues, “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!” We have the Pharisee who is doing fully what the Psalm verse describes, he is telling himself, standing within himself, and saying, yes God I am a good person. He proclaims and boasts of all the outward devotions that he does, then at the same time we find his inward heart and mind are corrupted by the sins of pride and arrogance. He is trying to “speak within himself” that there is no sin, no stain upon his soul. But he truly must know that things are not right within himself. That he is not in a truthful relationship before God. Life is very easy when all we do is exalt ourselves, but never kneel before another.

Then with the other actor in the parable, the Tax Collector, we see the opposite and correct response, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Yes, Lord I know I am a sinner, please help me in my many sins. Transform my mind and heart by your powerful Spirit, we hear loudly in the background. The “fear” of God spoken of in the Psalm, then becomes the knowing that I need God in my life. The realization that I cannot do this on my own. Is this “fear” only of judgement? I think it’s more about the “fear” of not living up to the expectations that God has for each one of us. He made us a certain way and he desires us to go to work on his behalf. We have no “fear” when we do not care about these things. So be it if something, if some sin, takes me away from God and others, I have no fear of this! As with the Pharisee, I am good with what I am doing. I stand alone in myself and here I am.  As we all know, this is not God’s design or his plan.

St. Paul quotes this same Psalm verse in Romans Chapter 3 and I think he is looking at this “fear” in the same way that we are talking about here. There Paul gives a long list of quotations that speak about how all of mankind, both Jew and Greek are under the power of sin and our verse come at the end of this passage (Romans 3:9-20). Paul then adds the important fact that, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (3:23) He is saying that everyone, not matter who the person may be, is not living up to the plan that God has for him. That sin and the power behind it, has taken the place of the “glory” that God gave man when he created the world. As Psalm 8 says, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.” (8:4-8) With this we are able to tie together sin, fear, and glory; when we sin, we lose the proper fear that we should have before the creator God, and therefore “fall short” of his glory. Paul has also made this same point back in Chapter Two of Romans, “For God will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.” (2:6-8) I think we are able to see here plainly the two actors in the Parable that we have been reflecting upon. The Tax Collector, through godly fear seeking God and the Pharisee not obeying the truth but seeking and finding his own wickedness.

We as Christians living today have to practice often St. Paul’s command to us that we, “take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Cor 10:5) When we enter into true communion with the Living God through Jesus Christ, this is what happens. Our thoughts no longer become our own, but they are then centered in and around Jesus. He becomes the focus of our minds and hearts instead of our own sinful and ungodly desires. Yes, this is hard work. Many of us fall into the trap of the Psalm and say within our wicked heart, “I never sin, what I am doing is not that bad, I never gossip too much. And so on…” Then looking in the mirror at ourselves and knowing full well this is not true. Only through the action and work of the Holy Spirit, by our prayers and other devotions can we bring Christ in and allow him to change our thoughts to obey him and not sin. Let us all pray that we may realize fully we are fallen sinners and only through our proper relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church he established, will we become the people that God truly desires us to be. If we try to live life in any other way, we are destined to fall. To fall into the very depths of our Psalm verse, “The transgressor, that he may sin, speaks within himself; the is no fear of God before his eyes.”