From Timothy Keller’s book ‘The Reason for God;’
Many have the impression that the Christian doctrine of sin is bleak and pessimistic about human nature. Nothing could be further from the truth. When I was brand new to the ministry a young man came to see me whose wife had just left him. He was feeling angry at what she had done, guilty over his own flaws that had led her to do it, and despondent before the whole situation. I said that what he needed more than anything was hope. He quickly agreed and asked how he could get some. As gently as possible I said that the good news was—he was a sinner. Because he was a sinner he wasn’t simply the helpless victim of psychological drives or social systems. Years later I came across a passage in a sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor, who said more eloquently what I tried to say that day.
“Neither the language of medicine nor the law is adequate substitute for the language of [sin]. Contrary to the medical model, the essence of sin is not [primarily] the violation of laws but a wrecked relationship with God, one another and the whole created order. “All sins are attempts to fill voids,” wrote Simone Weil. Because we cannot stand the God-shaped hole inside us, we try stuffing if full of all sorts of things, but only God may fill [it].1
Andrew Delbanco is a humanities professor at Columbia University. Some years ago he was doing research on Alcoholics Anonymous and was attending AA meetings around the country. One Saturday morning in a New York City basement he was listening to a “crisply dressed young man” who was talking about his problems. In his narrative he was absolutely flawless. All his mistakes were due to the injustice and betrayals of others. He spoke of how he was going to avenge himself on all who had wronged him. His every gesture gave the impression of grievously wounded pride,” Delbanco wrote. It was clear that the young man was trapped in his need to justify himself, and that things could only get worse and worse in his life until he recognized this. While he was speaking a black man in his forties, in dreadlocks and dark shades leaned over to Delbanco and said, “I used to feel that way too, before I achieved low self-esteem.” Delbanco wrote later in his book, The Real American Dream; A Meditation on Hope:
This was more than a good line. For me it was the moment I understood in a new way the religion I had claimed to know something about. As the speaker bombarded us with phrases like “got to take control of my life,” and “I’ve got to really believe in myself”—the man beside me took refuge in the old Calvinist doctrine that pride is the enemy of hope. What he meant by this joke of self-esteem was that he learned that no one could save themself by dint of his own efforts. He thought the speaker was still lost—lost in himself, but without knowing it.2
By “low self-esteem” the man in dreadlocks did not mean that the young man should come to hate himself. He meant that the well dressed young man was “lost in himself” until he could admit that he was a very flawed human being, a sinner. He would never be liberated to see his own flaws in their true light, to forgive those who had wronged him, or to humbly seek and receive forgiveness from others. The Christian doctrine of sin, properly understood, can be a great resource for human hope, but what is that doctrine? (This theme is continued with a previous post. See. . . ‘The Meaning of Sin’).~Timothy Keller, The Reason for God (New York, New York 10014) Penguin Books 2008,2009,2018), 166-68
#self-esteem #sin #hope
