The Effect of Sin
I have been reading a book lately: Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church by D.A. Carson. I came across a fascinating quote that has some great application. I thought I would toss it out there to foster a little discussion.
"God's gracious 'common grace' assures us that even systems that are deeply structurally flawed will preserve some insight in them somewhere; our sin ensures that even a system closely aligned with Scripture will be in some measure distorted."
I have some to understand this quote as simply saying that no matter how off base the idea/belief is there is a pinch or dash or twinkle somewhere in it of truth. But more than anything, no matter how right we think we have it, or close to the inerrant Scripture we have come, our sin still distorts it in some way. His insight is dead on in my opinion.
PS: Do you hate it when people put IMHO(In My Humble Opinion) on posts? Doesn't saying that preclude you from telling the truth about yourself? Just a side thought.
"God's gracious 'common grace' assures us that even systems that are deeply structurally flawed will preserve some insight in them somewhere; our sin ensures that even a system closely aligned with Scripture will be in some measure distorted."
I have some to understand this quote as simply saying that no matter how off base the idea/belief is there is a pinch or dash or twinkle somewhere in it of truth. But more than anything, no matter how right we think we have it, or close to the inerrant Scripture we have come, our sin still distorts it in some way. His insight is dead on in my opinion.
PS: Do you hate it when people put IMHO(In My Humble Opinion) on posts? Doesn't saying that preclude you from telling the truth about yourself? Just a side thought.
posted by Professor X at
7:47 AM
6 Comments:
i would agree especially after reading c.h. spurgeonj's sermon about the remnant from isaiah 5.
BANDIT, El Bandito, My man, you have found me out. I think we have all as a convention forgotten that sin does indeed effect every part of us. Including our theology, and our definition of holiness. My favorite quote in the entire world is from Martin Luther:
"Reason is the devil's greatest whore."
A lot of people have forgotten that.
Very interesting thought. Thanks for sharing it. Makes me now wonder, could it be said that the more sin there is in our life, the more distorted our understanding of Scripture becomes?
guymuse,
I think that what is difficult is that the sin nature each of us carry naturally seeks to distort truth in our lives. We all have sin in our lives. I think increased sin is a symptom of a lack of spiitual depth in a Christian. For a non-Christian they just don't know better. Perhaps, it is a chicken or the egg question. Does sin increase in our lives as we grow farther from God, or is sin a constant and it is out attitude towards and response to sin that drives us away from God? And when we are far from God I think we would all agree that we have a much greater condition of distortion of truth.
IMHO, I wandered what that meant. Good points.
Does "deeply structurally flawed" mean only in it's design? I think there are systems/beliefs/ideas with no insight into truth what so ever. But, as this quote probably deals with systems inside the faith then I can see the point, and whole heartedly agree with the depravity of man distorting everything we put our hands on. Nice thoughts!
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