In Scripture, all sin is sin against God ("Against you alone have I sinned …"). And only God can "make right" our sins by his forgiveness. It was precisely Jesus’ claim to be given the power to forgive sin that got him into such trouble with the religious authorities.
Sickness has replaced sin as a condition to escape. One is forgiven for sin. One is not forgiven for being sick; one is cured of being sick. In The Triumph of the Therapeutic, Phillip Reif has written about the substitution of therapy for salvation, of sickness for sin, thus making forgiveness as irrelevant to human foibles as it is to tuberculosis. Are we becoming so modern that we have forgotten the real problem of human nature, moving from salvation to self_realization?
Do we sometimes bend Christianity to serve as a means for self_esteem? The claim of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of Jesus Christ has at its heart the forgiveness of sinners. "I feel good about myself," the apparent end of therapeutic man, is not only unbecoming and self_indulgent, but it expresses a condition invulnerable to and insulated from any grace of forgiveness.
Do we deny real guilt? Whole nations can reflect an individual psychosis. Nazi Germany, for instance, showed as a nation the characteristics of schizophrenia. Post_modern man is not in danger of becoming schizophrenic or paranoid, but of becoming sociopathic. A sociopath is characterized by the inability to feel guilt. Are we bent resolving problems of being human by eliminating any sense of guilt, neurotic or real? Guilt, as painful and as destructive as it sometimes is, especially in its neurotic forms, is necessary for any responsibility and maturation.
A culture without guilt maybe sick, for real guilt is essentially an issue of responsibility. Without responsibility there can be no growth, without guilt there is no forgiveness. Hence, God’s forgiveness is inaccessible to modern Christians so long as we substitute self_realization for salvation, sickness for sin, and avoid acknowledging our guilt before God. Salvation is indeed true realization of the self, but the self’s self_indulgence, self_centeredness and self_damage must first be broken, turned, "lost," "washed," "converted," "buried," "baptized," before one can be healed and saved. The root of many of our problems may be that we wish to be the center and that is God’s spot. As patients frequently resist doctors’ attempts to get at the source and root of medical problems, so we too resist the deeper treatment wishing for others to "fix the symptoms."
We are unable truly to repent and to perceive fully the seriousness and consequences of sin until and after we have been forgiven. The Prodigal Son’s awareness of his condition must have been substantially deeper after he had returned and received his father’s gracious and joyful reception. Surely he could then observe, "When I was in a faraway country, I was miserable and I could have done better at home, even as a servant. Now I see the hurt I caused my father and am much more sorry for what I did than I was before coming home."
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