Sin and Grace

Two years ago I was called to visit a young lady who attempted suicide on Easter Sunday. As I visited with her in the Intensive Care Unit it was clear that she was broken. I shared with her the peace that Christ can bring into our lives. I invited her to tell her story. Afterwards, I told her how God desires to be a part of that story and bring redemption to move forward. We had prayer together. I left broken. She was not a part of our church community or any church community for that matter. On the way home from the hospital I asked myself, “What difference would grace make in her life?”

Ministry reveals the brokenness of our lives. One does not have to serve long in the ministry to have the Apostle Paul’s point proven: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The shattered pieces of life are a result of sin. The human condition is one of brokenness because of original sin. Randy Maddox reminds us that, from a Wesleyan perspective, the result of our corrupted nature is “our understanding is darkened, our will is seized by wrong tempers, our liberty is lost, and our conscience is left without a standard.” From the spiritual corruption spring our actual sins, which result in the brokenness of creation. Sin is a broken relationship. The effects of sin leave us incapable of a relationship with God, neighbor, and creation. It also leaves us with the inability to restore those relationships on our own.

Wesley lays out his argument for Original Sin not from the story of Adam and Eve but from the story of Noah. He points to Genesis 6:5: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” For Wesley and his contemporaries that condition has remained unchanged. Sin is a malignant disease which results in a fallen and broken world. The only cure for our brokenness is the grace of God. God’s grace is sufficient. As the Apostle Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20).