Thursday 03 January 2008

Background

The name 'Jesus' means "Jehovah is salvation", or in shorthand,'Saviour'. But what does Jesus save us from? Is sin simply a listof perceived wrongdoings (or a lack of right doings) that mightchange from generation to generation? Perhaps it's an outmodedconcept attributable to our nurture, genes or temperament and bestdealt with by therapy?

Christians have often defined sin in terms of a breakdown inrelationships - as anything which becomes a barrier between us andGod. And if our child/parent relationship with God is out of syncthen that has spin-offs for our relationships with others andindeed for our own wellbeing. So sin or sins may be different fordifferent people, but are certainly more than a tick or crosscolumn.

Global sins or the corporate sin of the Church are worth reflectingon too, lest our focus be too narrow.

But there's perhaps a more important question. What does Jesus saveus for? Because the danger with reflecting on our sin and notmoving on is that we can be all consumed by it and end up in aworse state than before. But Jesus, through his death on the cross,saves us for a reason.

Zechariah, in his picture of Jesus as a mighty saviour, reminds usthat the "for" of the above question is that we might serve himwithout fear (Luke1:74) which I guess means that he frees us to be the people hehas made us to be and so find joy in life and in the service ofothers for his sake.

To Ponder

Do I need saving? From what? For what? Can it bedone?

What are global sins? Or the sins of the Church?How do I contribute to them if at all?