Sin: Ignorance or Defiance?

Tuesday 3/20/2012 4:47 AM

I have always been intrigued by David’s prayer in Psalm 19:12-13, “Forgive my hidden faults.  Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.”  I have often reflected on those verses and I have looked at my life, attempting to distinguish between those that are hidden faults and those that are willful sins.  As most people are wont to do, I sometimes rate sins from bad to worse.  In my book, the willful sins are the worst because I know its wrong but I do it anyway.  Hidden sins seem like sins of ignorance while willful sins seem like sins of defiance.  In my mind it is like a child who does something wrong but is unaware that it is wrong versus doing something wrong immediately after being told not to do it.

My psalm for the week is Psalm 36, also a psalm of David, and he seems to make a similar distinction about the wicked at the beginning of the psalm.  Verse 2 describes the sinfulness of the wicked like this, “In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin.”  David implies that it is hidden from them because they have such a high opinion of themselves that they don’t even see the wrong they are committing.  Verse 4 continues with these words, “Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong.”  That seems to describe my conception of a willful sin to a tee.  I don’t know the chronology of the psalms but it almost seems like the verses above could have been written after David’s encounter with Bathsheba.  2 Samuel 11 says that spring, the time when kings go to war, David stayed home in Jerusalem.  Perhaps David thought, “I am the king, I can do what I want.  Let the others go fight my battles.”  He had flattered himself so much he thought he could do anything because he was king.  The chapter goes on to say he got up from his bed and saw Bathsheba bathing.  I wonder if the verse about the wicked plotting evil on their beds, committing to a sinful course and not rejecting what is wrong came from his reflections upon his own actions long after the actual act.

My life is much like David’s.  Sometimes I commit an act and suddenly I am aware that it was not a loving or God-honoring way to act and I find the need to apologize to the offended party and ask for forgiveness.  That sin seems to be one of ignorance.  At other times, even though I am fully aware that something is wrong, I follow through and do it anyway.  That seems to be a sin of defiance, one I rank more offensive on my personal sin-scale.  Those sins of defiance are the ones I find to be the most troubling.

My New Testament reading today is Romans 6:1-14 which, in my Bible, is entitled “Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ.”  Verses 5-7 say, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”  Paul then goes on to verses 12-14 where he gives this challenge, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.  For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

He makes it all sound so simple, don’t offer yourself to sin; offer yourself to God.  How hard can it be?  Why do I struggle so with that very simple thing?  I suddenly remembered that Romans 7 immediately follows Romans 6 and Paul, who gives this simple challenge, changes his tune and is suddenly ruing the fact that he does not do the good that he wants to do and, the evil that he wants to avoid, he finds himself doing.  In frustration, he finally asks, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”  His answer?  God, in his grace.

I am in good company in my struggle against sin.  I am standing shoulder to shoulder with men after God’s own heart.  More importantly, I am standing shoulder to shoulder with my brother and friend, Jesus Christ, who has delivered me from sin’s tyranny.  Oh for the grace to live in that freedom daily!