Mar 26, 2023
Crimes vs. Sins
3-27-23
The “issue” of crime is in the news these days. In some polls it is the major concern of citizens, at least as troubling as the virtual invasion of millions of illegal migrants and the rotten economy. Unchecked immigration is a literal crime (“il-legal”); and high prices are cursed as virtual “crimes” by every shopper making every tough choice every day…
But across international stages, to our nation, cities, and towns, on sidewalks and in schoolrooms, crimes are on the rise as an epidemic; crimes being ignored and therefore spreading. Ignored… except by the victims. Spreading… because lack of punishment encourages their proliferation.
Crimes and sins are related – maybe in the chicken-and-egg context – but essentially, crimes are legal questions and sins are moral questions. That’s how “legalism” would define the differences. But there are deeper distinctions.
A crime is an act; sin is a tendency. The moment you commit a crime, you are guilty. A guilty act, and formal verdicts of guilt, can be pardoned. Sins, however, often have worse consequences, whether they lead to actual crimes or not. And where crimes can be pardoned, sins cannot.
Sins can only be forgiven.
Weeks before Easter, this still is an Easter message. In fact it is the message of all Scripture, the whole Bible, all of life.
Jesus was condemned by “legalists” who accused Him of crimes, and He was charged, tried, sentenced, tortured, and killed for “crimes.” We know that He was, of course, sinless. His “crimes” were twisted accusations by haters – healing people on the wrong day of the week; showing compassion to the wrong ethnic groups; citing prophecies – and, much like today, the authorities ignored what they should have respected and were upset by things they ought to have ignored. Does this sound like today?
The eighth chapter of John’s Gospel, despite its events chronologically well before Holy Week, addresses the centrality of Easter’s message: Forgiveness. The stark contrast represented by Jesus’s death on the cross was on one hand the crimes imputed by both the state and religion, and the sins of humankind on the other. More so, between the connivance of the malignant forces of state and religion… versus the liberating peace, freedom, and salvation offered by God: Forgiveness.
John chapter 8 begins with the religious hierarchy of Pharisees – Legalists – hauling an adulteress before Jesus, demanding that He approve her imminent stoning as punishment for her sins. Their first priority was to trap Jesus in a legalistic argument. Their second purpose was to scorn, hate, condemn, and kill the woman. Their last thought was to counsel her and lead her to repent. Least of all, Forgiveness.
Scripture tells how Jesus was diffident during their rant, casually writing in the dust; it does not explain what He doodled. My idea was the numbers 1-10, because He then challenged, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” reminding them, perhaps, of the Ten Commandments. In any event, as they dropped their murderous rocks and silently walked away, Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.” The usual interpretation is that He spoke only to the woman, but the message was also to the “Holy” mob… and to us.
Today, too many in the Establishment of media, education, and the state – and, sadly, the Church – want us to confront sin, but find a “welcoming” way to meet it halfway. Jesus spent much time, we read, with sinners. But in the Gospels it was they who went away changed, not Him.
Then John 8 records how the Pharisees engaged in debates with Jesus over His claims about prophecy, and Father Abraham, and fulfilling the Law of Moses, instead of what He taught and how He lived. Legalism was deadly, being a convenient excuse for those who would not see.
And Legalism is no less deadly today, as a crutch for those who wallow in their own sins and errors, rebellion and destruction.
Legalism, so much a component of organized religion, has sent more people on paths of misery straight to hell, than have accumulations of sinning… because it enables sin.
What Jesus taught that day, and spoke through the Message of the Cross, and pleads with us today, is that sin is the problem; not the sinner.
Willingly deaf to His words, the Jews in this chapter did not relent; they peppered Jesus with challenges (“You are not yet 50 years old, and yet you say you have seen Abraham?”) and their logic about the Law of Moses (to which He replied, “I am the Law of Moses”). They found the stones again, to throw at Him… but He disappeared out of the midst of them. His time was not yet come. Holy Week, as we call it, Good Friday, the Cross, and the Resurrection, were yet ahead.
But in the meantime, as we read, when He beheld Jerusalem, Jesus wept.
Surely He weeps today over America and this world of sin and error. He weeps for an apostate Church and a culture that prattles about what is “fair”… but not as much about what is pure, and just, and holy.
Let us weep too. Not to respond and act would be more than a crime. It would be a sin.
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Crimes and sins; good food for thought, Rick.
Thank you.
Rick, thank you for your fascinating analysis of sin and crime, their differences and their I ate relationship. Most important is where our Lord Jesus Christus is situated in His dealing with both. Your citation of John 8, with the account of Jesus, the Pharisees and the adulterous woman, whom He frees from the power of her sin and the legalism of her accusers, is indeed a central message for our being enabled to truly live. The culmination of the account and the validation of it for our lives and being is truly Christ’s crucification, death and resurrection, including His ascension to eternal power. All being proof that sin, crime and death are not to ultimately determine our fate.
With your distinction between sin and crime, I am reminded of the German words for both: Sünde, Verbrechen. Sünde, our state of being in the face of God and His Commandments, comes from “Sund”, the separation of two dry grounds, divided by erroding water. It is our separation from God, being eroded by all forces incongruent with God’s purpose and will.
Verbrechen comes from the word Brechen, to break. Brechen means tearing apart, seperating by force. The prefix Ver implies a description of happening. Crime is indeed a forced breakage or tearing apart, actively sperating.
In this sense sin is the root of crime. Crime can be pardoned and the damage repaired, like repairing broken items with glue or replacement parts. Sin must be forgiven, meaning: removed, disempowered.
And this is what Christ does in His great sacrifice. Embodied in Him, and He in us (John 6), we are enabled to participate in this disempowering of sin and repairing the damages caused by it, especially in our interpersonal relationships.
We therefore can’t celebrate enough of our Lord’s Easter, the greatest action ever! “Sin is forgiven. Alleluja. Jesus enlivens. Alleluja” (Easter hymn from Tansanian Christians).
Crucification and Easter blessings to you, Rick!
In Christ!
John
Thank you so much for your reaction; more, for your response. In modern life we tend to be too busy or too careless to understand the significance — and the consequences! — of words. Words, of course, have power, and in our field of vision it is important that we reinforce God’s WORD to our brothers and sisters. I ESPECIALLY appreciate your explication of the German words — so much more of a precise language than English. Thank you!
I pray blessing on you in these upcoming days… including (and thank you for mentioning) 40 days AFTER Easter, Ascension Day. I have the clear impression that this observance (which after all, addresses the ultimate confirmation of Jesus’s divinity) is more important in the German church, or Europe in general, than in the US. Is it so? Is it still so?