Good News: You are a Sinner

 

Many young people have a fear that the future will be worse than the present, and many people are convinced things have gotten worse compared to the past. For instance, many of us live in fear of violent attack, and think that chance of getting attacked is higher now than in the past. A funny instance of this that I saw recently was a family that was building an off-grid home high up in the mountains of Idaho on a road so bad that for much of the year it is nearly impassable. The dad was still so worried about possible intruders that he was putting up multiple security cameras on his property and wanted to make sure that his guns were always ready to be used against possible human threats if necessary.

So is it true that life in the United States is actually more dangerous now than in the past, or have we perhaps been fooled into more fear by the 24-hour news cycle and the immediacy of internet news where we hear negative news all the time. Well, the Pew Research Center shows an interesting contrast between reality and perception. In the 25 year period from 1993-2017, both violent crime and property crime fell sharply, 49% and 50% respectively, in the United States. On the other hand, they report that in 18 of 22 Gallup polls during that same time period show that 6 in 10 people thought that crime had gone up from the previous year, even when it had actually dropped. There may be lots of reasons why crime has been dropping, and there is no guarantee that it will continue to drop, but some more good news is that some programs to help criminals stop from reoffending are fairly successful. For instance, several studies in the US and other countries have shown that if a prisoner participates in a faith-based program like ones run by Prison Fellowship, their likelihood of reoffending drop by at least 50%. One of the reasons that these programs work is that they teach the prisoner that change is possible, but one of the first steps in that process is recognizing their need to change.

The Christian faith provides the same good news that we all need to hear, namely that you are a sinner that needs to change and that you can change. Now I suspect that reading Romans 3:10, "There is none righteous, no not one," or Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," does not initially seem like good news to anyone, but in fact compared to the modern naturalistic view of man, it is good news. You see in the modern view of man, your problems are not primarily your fault. Your problems are the fault of where you were born, how you were raised, the color of your skin, the wiring of your brain, or any number of other factors outside of yourself. If you believe that, then you also have no real control of your own life, because you are simply a machine that is being driven by forces outside your control. The Christian claim on the other hand, while not denying outside influences, makes it clear that each individual also has the ability to make choices about what they do and how they think.

Therefore, by acknowledging that we are sinners, we are acknowledging that at least part and maybe most of our problems come from within ourselves. Understanding and admitting where the problem really lies is the first part of dealing with any problem. That is why both in the Prison Fellowship programs and substance abuse recovery programs, admitting that you have a problem is one the first steps to making positive change. Christianity does not claim that we can fix the sin problem on our own, but the Apostle Paul in laying out the whole good news in Romans does start by making it clear in chapters 1-3 that every one of us is a sinner that needs change. In future articles, I will explain even more of the good news, but if you want a sneak peek, I recommend reading chapters 4-8 of Romans for the best possible news in the universe! The good news is that you are a sinner, but that you do not have to stay trapped in sin.