Notes on the Nature of Sin, Part Two

Idolatry, Idols and Idol-Clusters.

In our proud unbelief and self-trust we turn away from a worship-relationship with God.  But, when we stop worshipping God as God, we necessarily worship something in his place; we adopt god-substitutes. The first thing we worship in God’s place, the first god-substitute we choose, is ourselves.  In our unbelieving state we dream of being god (Gen. 3).  In other words, we not only rebel against God, we seek to usurp his throne and take his place. This is the first dimension of idolatry produced by the root-complex of sin: the idolatry of self rooted in our desire to be god.

Ezekiel 28.1-3: 

1The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre,  Thus says the Lord GOD: "Because your heart is proud,  and you have said, 'I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas, yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god…"

 We all seek to make ourselves gods in certain ways; most fundamentally, we aspire to transcend human limitations and secure God’s glory, his “godness” or transcendence.  Keller suggests that there are four primary aspects of God’s transcendent glory that we strive to secure in our pursuit to be gods: comfort, approval, control, and power. 

Comfort: pleasure, freedom, lack of care/stress, rest, play/fun.

Approval: affirmation, love, acceptance, intimacy, beauty, relationship.

“Glory”              Control: order, security, certainty, discipline

Power: success, winning, influence, responsibility.

These are the self-oriented “heart idols” that generate all other sin in our lives.

In order to attain one or more of these ultimate ‘glory’-goals, we go on to partner with immanent idols (Keyes): some aspect of creation that we think will give us what we’re after (Jer. 2.10-13, Romans 1.18-25).   It’s important to see that we always employ our immanent idols in the service of our ultimate, transcendent idols.  For example, we use sex (an immanent idol) to gain god-like comfort; or we use strict religious performance to gain god-like approval from others; or we accumulate massive wealth to attain god-like power.

Here is an expanded list (partly drawn from Keller) of other aspects of creation that we may worship as immanent idols: physical beauty, body/fitness, image/reputation, safety, work, sex, alcohol/drugs, success, art/creativity, sports, sleep, religion, possessions (car, clothes, house, watch, vacations, etc), morality, performance, other people (spouse, kids, parents, friends, boss), some group (church, guild, peers, club, the ‘inner ring,’ race, culture, city, family), suffering, politics/agendas, knowledge, expertise, technology, information, talents, intellect, emotions, etc. 

Calvin said our hearts are idol factories.  We really can worship just about anything.  And the combination of immanent and transcendent idolatries are almost endless.

It’s possible to group immanent idols into idol sets or clusters.  Broadly speaking, we see two primary idol sets or clusters in the Bible: idols of “religion/morality/duty/order” and idols of “rebellion/immorality/desire/freedom.”  These produce, respectively, the “sins of moral/religious people” and the “sins of immoral/irreligious people” (Keller).  See the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18), the Younger and Older Brother (Luke 15), Simon and the Prostitute (Luke 7), the 2 sides of the flesh in Gal. 3 and 5 (Gal. 3 is the flesh idolizing goodness, responsibility, tradition, duty, law, roles, work and Gal. 5 shows the flesh idolizing pleasure, immorality, freedom, sex, money), pagan type sins in Romans 1 and religious type sins in Romans 2.  (Interestingly, these poles also align with the ancient Apollonian and Dionysian poles in Greek religion and the Gnostic and pagan categories one finds across various world religions and philosophies where either the immaterial/spirit/soul or the material/body is worshiped).

A friend of mine (David Jones) suggests that another pair of contemporary idol sets are idols of achievement (rule) and idols of belonging (relationship) and that each person and culture tends to gravitate to one or the other.

Notes on the Nature of Sin, Part One

What follows below is something I wrote up for our elder training this past spring.  It summarizes thoughts on the nature of sin that have slowly come together over the years. Alot of the ideas below are influenced by Sinclair Ferguson, Tim Keller, Richard Lovelace, Jack Miller, et al. 

Notes on the Nature of Sin & Idolatry: Part One

Introduction:  Sin is notoriously hard to define; in fact, some theologians say that since evil is by definition absurd, explanations of it will always be impossible.  In any case, we can summarize Scriptural teaching on sin and one of its primary expressions, idolatry.

Towards a Definition of Sin.

One classic biblical definition of sin is to say that sin is breaking God’s law; or, as the WCF puts it, “sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of God’s law.”  Sin always violates God’s moral standards that are communicated to us in his Word, witnessed to by the order of creation and human conscience.  We break God’s moral law in thought, word, deed, in sins of omission and commission.  But, while sin is never less than breaking God’s law, it is much more than this.

One way we can more deeply grasp sin is to understand that sin has an internal root that bears external fruit in our lives. External sins involve more obvious expressions of rebellion against God and his order: murder, adultery, verbal cruelty, preening self-righteousness.  Such external sins are the fruit of more internal, root sins of the heart, mind and human personality.  For example, the root sin of anger can produce, if unchecked, the fruit sin of murder.  Therefore, if we’re going to understand sin we need to understand its root as much as is possible.

Sin, at its root, is the natural human disposition against God that is a blend of pride, unbelief and self-reliance.  Lovelace, following Luther, argues that unbelief is logically primary: unbelief that God is good and good to me, and therefore unbelief that God’s word to me is reliable, true, trustworthy. (Or, to put it the opposite way, sinful unbelief is actually the belief that God is not good, trustworthy, or just – see Genesis 3.1-6.  I discussed this more in a post a while back here). But note that already inherent in this unbelief are a host of other sins.  Unbelief contains an inherent self-reliance or self-trust (Jer. 17.7-9): every time we disbelieve in God we are automatically believing in or ultimately trusting ourselves and our goodness, judgment, knowledge more than God’s. This, of course, is incredibly arrogant – thus, unbelief also partakes in the sin of pride.  Perhaps these three parts of sin – unbelief, self-reliance and pride – are best thought of as perspectives on the heart of sin as it operates in fallen human beings.