Sin and Hell

I can't quote the whole chapter, incomplete as it is to give an exhaustive exploration of the subject of hell, but in Surprised by Hope, by N. T. Wright, there's a statement he makes in relation to hell, that stood out to me for other reasons. Wright was discussing the inconsistencies in various traditional and current views on hell and judgment, and as he was addressing aspects of the liberal annihilationist view, that says "non-believers" are annihilated at death, since they claim a good, loving God could not eternally torment an image-bearing human for a short lifetime of sin. Relaying to you Wright's conclusion on that would take too long, and, though interesting and thought-provoking, it wasn't what really grabbed my attention.

This is what stuck out to me:

Sin, we note, is not the breaking of arbitrary rules; rather, the rules are the thumbnail sketches of different types of dehumanizing behavior.

In a culture that is so politically correct and afraid of offending people, this quote does a great job of articulating the essence of sin, in relation to human interaction. We'd be remiss to neglect sin in relation to God—worshiping any created thing or idea over the Creator. We all know that there is right and wrong, justice and injustice. We tend to bend the rules for ourselves most times, conveniently reserving swift judgment for Hitlers, child rapists and those who commit genocide rather than pointing the finger at our own pride, impatience, vanity, laziness and consumerism. We sin. We have to face up to that. Yes, we absolutely need to acknowledge that we've sinned against God. But as a starting place to accepting that sin is a real concept, deserving our acknowledgment and a place in our vocabulary, we can admit that we sin against each other. We hold grudges. We steal from each other. We make fun of each other's weaknesses. We commit adultery with other people's spouses. We drive selfishly. We belittle and devalue those in our society that don't have the same standing as we do. We treat each other with impatience and rudeness.

So, all this to say is I think that it's good to own up to the fact we sin against each other and feel free to use the word "sin" in our normal conversations about things that matter. I think Wright's description of sin gives us the gracious and logical space to do that.