sacred sin

Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.

Ecclesiastes 3:16

There isn’t an institution touched by human hands that isn’t tainted by depravity. Sin is pervasive. It can dirty even the most noble concepts. From a strictly human perspective (that is what “under the sun” implies each time you see it in Ecclesiastes), sin infects human truth, human justice, and human standards of right and wrong. Our falleness brings even our highest and brightest aspirations down into darkness and sin.

So we should not be shocked when we hear of police or court officials whom we have tasked with bringing justice instead caught in some scandal themselves. Sin will taint what we try to do well. Even the human leadership of the church without exception will bring shameful sin into what God is making holy. And sin keeps lowering standards of morality away from God-given, scripturally revealed holiness. Societies will always find a way to wriggle out of truly obeying God’s Law. And in the place of righteousness, wickedness in some form will be heralded as good, noble, or free. Human hearts are naturally sympathetic to sin and will always lower aspirations into wickedness. And then the sin will be treated with a special kind of respect bordering on the sacred.

The standards of human behavior lauded in human society, when uncorrected by God’s wisdom, will pervert justice and fall far short of righteousness. New virtues replace true holiness. Abhorrence of sin will be replaced by acceptance of sin. Tolerance of what is wrong will be a new standard of human achievement. Obedience to the rule of a holy God will be dismissed as harmful and instead the mandate to follow one’s own heart and inclinations will be the noblest and most buzz worthy philosophy of life. Actually, that is what has been going on for thousands of years of human history. 

As our wicked imaginations remove all rules from the game, the resulting free-for-all will continue to bring chaos and pain. Don’t be surprised then to find that mass killing, war, hate, and abuse continue unabated... they are the children born of the new virtues hooking up with our ancient depravity. And humanity will applaud our wicked freedom... yes we will... even as it spawns a generation of sin that kills us. The wages of sin is... death.