Mark Thompson: An unavoidable truth: the doctrine of sin today

The heart and wellspring of all evangelical theology is the cross of the Christ. It is in the light of the cross that we truly understand God and truly understand ourselves.

It demonstrates God’s deep and determined love and it demonstrates God’s deep and determined love for sinners (Rom 5:8). I cannot avoid the reality and seriousness of my sin when I attend to the awful glory of what happened outside the walls of Jerusalem 2000 years ago. I cannot avoid the determined and loving purpose of God when I consider who it was who died there. The innocent Christ of God, the Word made flesh, the glorious Son who took to himself in the fullest way possible the form of a servant, was butchered as an insurrectionist by those who denied the Father who sent him. Since God was certainly not powerless to prevent it, nor does he take some kind of perverse pleasure in such acts of gross injustice and cruelty, especially when directed towards his Son, we are forced to ask what made it necessary. What was so serious that such a grim remedy was needed? What turns this divine and human tragedy into an act of love?

In the light of questions like these, it is no surprise that the doctrine of sin has long been a critical part of the Christian gospel. When the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians of the things of ‘first importance’ he began with “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures…” (1 Cor 15:3). Our gospel is the gospel concerning God’s Son, the crucified Messiah, whose death was all about dealing with our sin. The cross is an act of love because it deals with our sin. It is a wonderful victory because it deals with our sin. It opens up a path to a renewed and perfect creation—a ‘new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells’ (2 Pet 3:13)—because it deals with our sin.

As you read through the New Testament it soon becomes clear that any theology which unfolds from the gospel with its centre in the cross of Christ must not minimize the reality and seriousness of sin. And yet, in so many theologies and in so many churches and Christian lives, the doctrine of sin is either missing or redefined beyond all recognition. Keep reading