SIN & True Religion

It has taken me 28 years to figure out what the heart of the Christian message is and now that I understand it- I want to share it!
I have heard many sermons which defined sin as “missing the mark.” I always assumed that the bull’s eye that I could never hit was a standard of living, i.e. not breaking any of the Ten Commandments. I erroneously believed that the bull’s eye was to avoid committing all of the deadly sins. This makes sense after all since we have all fallen short of the glory of God.
But the glory of God is not a standard of living- like the ability to live a lust-less, envy-less, glutton-less, pride-less, or selfish-less, sloth-less, or angry-less life. I never fathomed that this is not glory. In fact, this is the opposite of glory. This is exactly what Christ preached against when he rebuked the Pharisees- the religious leaders and experts of his time. The Pharisees practiced keeping the religious duties of their day- honoring the Sabbath, not eating unclean meat, tithing, and the like. They performed everything they needed to perform and it was still not enough. They fell short too not because their efforts were useless but for another reason. It wasn’t their efforts that God was rebuking. In fact, Jesus tells them that they should continue to do all the things that they were performing. These acts are all the right acts to perform. So if Jesus wasn’t rebuking their actions what was he commenting on? Was it their motivation?
Like the Pharisees I thought that living such a “spotless” life is the glory of God. After all we are called to be perfect like our father in heaven is perfect, right? And then I reasoned…But his perfection is not in his actions-God’s perfection is in his heart. God embodies the invisible while man embodies the physical. It is man who looks at the outward appearance but it is God who looks within a man’s heart. Could this possibly have something to do with the “bull’s eye” definition of sin?
And then I felt God asking me “ Tony, exactly what is the bull’s eye? What is my glory? What is it exactly that all the laws hang on?” I started thinking about the two greatest commandments: Love the lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. And the second is just like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.
And that is when I got it. I mean really got it. Not just pretend to get it because that is what I was supposed to say even though I said it before that my faith is about a relationship with God because it sounds like it is true and I want to believe it is true and I convinced myself it was true but I still couldn’t fully fathom what that meant and so it quickly became a cliché that I would nod my head to when other people say it or when I said it myself. I know that that was a run on sentence. But that is exactly what my life felt like. There was no chance to take a breath.
So I want to share with you what I found. The bull’s eye isn’t performing outward religious duties. The bull’s eye is actually God himself. The target that we keep missing is not in the performance of some righteous act but the ability to see God for who he truly is. Because we fail to see our creator for who he is, we also fail to see ourselves for who we truly are and who others truly are. So if the definition of sin is missing the mark or the bull eyes from which all other rings fan out of- is it possible that the bull’s eye is the soul? We sin because we fail to see our identity and the identity of others in God?

So if I look at pornography the sin I commit is that I lust after a created being for my own pleasure, for my own self-worship. Isn’t that what masturbation is – a form of self worship?
And if I am impatient with others, isn’t the sin that I commit t is that I fail to see other’s needs by valuing my own wants above theirs?
And if I am greedy, isn’t because I exploit other’s weaknesses so that I could fulfill my own needs, wants and desires?
So when I fail to see others for who they are, that is when I will either worship them or ignore them. I will either make them superhuman or not human at all. To those I worship- I will give more respect, admiration, power, and control than they deserve. To those I ignore- I will not even acknowledge their existence as a fellow human being. I will cast them off, dis-empower, invalidate, abuse, use, and throw away.
I will use a standard of judgment to decide who falls into what category. I will evaluate everyone based on gender, race, religion, physical ability, social economic status, sexual orientation, nationality, age, power, occupation, talent, and even ADDICTIONs. I will judge people on what they can do for me-will they help me gain better status or will they ruin my reputation? Will they fill my needs or will they demand that I fill theirs? Will I benefit from them or will they benefit from me?
To the ones I worship- I sacrifice myself. I put myself on their alter and I worship a false idol. To those that ignore, I demand to be worshiped! I demand a sacrifice! Thus sin is to misidentify who people are for our gain- for our own self worship.
Isn’t this exactly what Adam and Eve did in order to become like God? Isn’t his what we do everyday?
Jesus lived a sinless life. What exactly does that mean? To use my new found definition of sin- it means Jesus never confused who he was, he never lost his identity and he never lost the identity of those around him. Jesus was able to hang out with sinners, tax collectors, lepers, and prostitutes because he was able to see their true identity.
He gave voice to the voiceless. He gave sight to not only the blind but to the invisibles. Jesus acknowledged the invisibles in his society. He focused on the soul not the body.
Thus the message of Christ is seeing- seeing the invisibles on this earth and making them visible, seeing the soul in others and in ourselves.