Vertigo of Sin

The first Thursday of each month our men’s ministry sponsors a fellowship in Crofton, Maryland. Our men, young and old, gather to share a meal, laughter, and memories. Often our discussions turn toward religion. That was the case in our August dinner.

As we talked about men and our favorite sins, I used that term loosely, there were differing opinions. A correlation between David and Bathsheba, and Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings was suggested. As men, we often take for granted our status and disregard the rights of others, especially women of less social rank. I suggested that Bathsheba was raped and that “mistress” was a political euphemism for what happened to Hemings.

There was no argument that David and Jefferson abused their power and used coercion to satisfy their desires. Social conventions gave them presumed power superior to God’s moral constraints. Such social latitude is very real in America today. It allowed us to elect a convicted criminal to the highest leadership office in the land despite the obvious social discord it would cause.

The discord in our men’s group was over the mechanism that allowed and condoned such behavior. I suggested that there are only two sources of power – good or evil. Everything we do in life is under the charge of one or the other of those competing principles. There is no exception.

I pressed further—that everything in our world, whether media, entertainment, politics, or culture, serves one of those masters. There is no exception. My supposition met with mockery. Some insisted on a third way, a neutral ground. I countered that there is no neutrality in spiritual warfare. I argued that the reason we do not see what is obvious is because our thinking and emotions have been manipulated. We have been so well deceived and indoctrinated that we take pride and privilege as men’s inalienable rights. We mistake self-righteousness for righteousness.

The prophet Isaiah wrote:

“Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed. Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked. The LORD looked and was displeased to find there was no justice.”

That is how God sees our world with its systemic evil. But we don’t see ourselves this way because of induced blindness. The Apostle Paul confirms this; he wrote:

“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”

The vertigo of sin is that it spins us until we lose all sense of direction. We no longer know what is up or down, holy or profane, good or evil. We no longer measure ourselves by God’s Word, but by each other. Like men stumbling in darkness, we comfort ourselves by comparing our shadows. “At least I am not as bad as him,” we say. But that is not God’s measure.

God’s standard is Himself. His law is perfect, His holiness unbending, His justice unyielding. And when we place ourselves against that light, we are all exposed. David’s sin with Bathsheba was not excused because he was a king. Jefferson’s abuse was not justified because of cultural norms. My sin, your sin, our sin—it is never excused by comparison to each other or our society. Only God can forgive sin; it is blasphemy when men attempt it.

The vertigo of sin convinces us that our stumbling is balance, that our fall is flight. But God’s Word steadies us, if we dare to look into it honestly. The only cure for blindness is light, and the only cure for deception is truth. That truth is not found in man, but in Christ, who alone can cancel the curse.

The question for us is this: will we keep spinning, dizzy in self-justification, or will we plant our feet on the Rock?

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