It doesn’t matter a bit what you call it, the Bible is clear about what it calls it—and leaves no doubt. Sin is “sin.” You can’t cover sin from God’s eyes (or from the eyes of a biblically-astute counselor) no matter what terms you may use to describe it. Sin is “sin.” But what is sin? In the eyes of some it is transgressions against another human being. Is that sin? Yes, but not primarily so. Sin is first, and foremost an offence against a holy God Who will not allow you to mislabel it. When the Lord Jesus) gave us the parable of the Sought-and-Found son (Luke 15) He put into the mouth of the repentant prodigal these words: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and you.” There is the two-fold nature of sin. All sin against another human being is also a sin against God.
Again, what is sin? John says that sin is “lawlessness.” And that is precisely the nature of much sin today—believers who disregard the commandments of Christ (Mt 28:20) and do as they please. In effect sin is saying to Him, “Don’t You know that you’re standing in my way? Step aside! I want to go that direction.” You can’t tell God to get out of the way without sinning. But, in effect, as Proverbs constantly tells us, sin is taking the wrong path.
My counseling friend, never minimize sin. Don’t allow a counselee to do so. Sin is “sin.” Now, we don’t want to call anything sin that isn’t sin, but we don’t want to call anything that is sin anything else. To call what is sin, “sin,” is to do a counselee a favor—though some counselors must not think so. Jesus came to die for sin. That means it can be forgiven, erased, cleansed. You do no one a favor by calling sin genetic, a mistake, some sort of cultural more, or whatever. Jesus didn’t come to deal with those matters. But He did come to deal with sin.
So call it what you like—but no matter what you say, sin will always be sin. And your sanitizing language can’t change that! Counselor, you deal with much sin; be clear about it and God will bless your counseling by enabling you to help others avoid or repent from sin.
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The last sentence in this excellent post is a gem! It reminded me of a question I’ve been dancing with of late. What is true repentence? There is so much drivel, emotionalism, and sham which dons the cloak of repentence when it might just be selfish regret. If you are right about the terrible reality of sin, you can be right about the pathway of true repentence. Wrong about sin, wrong about the solution. Dr. Adams helps us get it right!