10.12.07
Sin and faith
My teammate Ethan Magness quotes from Luke Timothy Johnson’s Romans commentary in his blog. Another section from the same commentary that clarifies my thinking on sin “Both Jews and Greeks can be virtuous – the can do good deeds … As Paul uses the concept, sin has to do w/ the human relationship w/ God – or, better, w/ the breaking of the human relationship w/ God. In this sense, the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith…. It is a matter not of ’sinful acts’ but of a fundamental disposition of human freedom, a basic rebellion of the will against God.”
If I am understanding the scholarly language correctly, this means that while the slowly-becoming-a-better disciple still commits sinful acts, because of faith, he or she is no longer in rebellion against God. I still make mistakes, I still commit sins, but even these don’t break my relationship w/ God through Jesus.
