Edgework

About a year ago, I wrote a series of essays on the topic of original sin, based on John E. Toews’ book, The Story of Original Sin. In my mind, Toews does a masterful job of up-ending the commonly held notion in the West that every person begins life with damnation hanging over him or her. I repeat a few quotations from his book here that I used in that series. “There is not a hint in the Hebrew Bible of sin as an ontological reality that is transmitted ontologically from one generation to the next via sexual intercourse as proposed by Augustine (93). Sin language in the New Testament is volitional, relational and political. There is no hint of ontological corruption; in fact the language of ontology is completely absent (95).”

But leaving the idea of original sin behind creates somewhat of a vacuum. If the concept of original sin is not valid, what is the alternative?

The answer to that question came to me recently through reading Danielle Shroyer’s book, Original Blessing: Putting Sin in its Rightful Place (2016). She notes that instead of sin and separation being the headline of the gospel, “original blessing” takes that priority position. “Far more than just being made in God’s image, original blessing claims we are steadfastly held in relationship with God. Original blessing reminds us that God calls us good and beloved before we are anything else. Sin is not the heart of our nature; blessing is (xi).

That is a major step forward. From this perspective we begin to see that we are designed to belong to God. “This story begins with God-with-us and ends with God-with-us, and everything that happens in between declares God-with-us, including but not limited to God’s son” (5-6). God’s relationship with you is fully intact. Your relationship with God may differ from day to day, but it is never located anywhere far away or at a distance. You are not way down here and God is not way up there. You are in God, and God surrounds you. Do not doubt that God holds you, and do not doubt for one minute that God loves you” (9-10).

Shroyer goes on to note that original blessing means that we do not have to work “against” our human nature to live the life God has intended for us. “When we rest in original blessing, we recognize we are kept by God, seen by God, and given peace by God” (16). It is God’s sovereign choice to love his creation, which then means that this original blessing is much more of a great leveler among us than our common experience of making sinful choices. “Original blessing means realizing your sin is not the most important thing about you, even if the world – or the church – makes you feel like it is” (24).

In section two and three of her book, “Revisiting the Garden” and “Rethinking Sin,” Shroyer, summarizes most of the arguments against adopting original sin as our starting point that John E. Toews made in his book. So I will only highlight here a few thoughts that arise from her work. First, it is important to note that the Eastern Church has never accepted Augustine’s perspectives on original sin, articulated in the 4th century A.D., as did the Western Church. So the fact that I was introduced to the doctrine of original sin was basically an accident of birth. The Eastern Orthodox Church has to this day stuck with what most of the early church fathers held to, namely, original blessing.

Shroyer suggests that we tend to read too much into Genesis chapter three, even though for the most part the rest of the Bible doesn’t elaborate on it. She contends that the three times Paul does speak about Adam and Eve’s sin (Romans 5:12-17, I Corinthians 15:21-22, and 2 Corinthians 11:3) he is using that story “typologically,” in other words, that Adam and Eve – just like us – yielded to choosing sin that is always crouching at the door (Genesis 4:7). To summarize she says, contrary to original sin, “…original blessing invites us to enter each stage and aspect of human life as a gift…We do not need to become less human to follow Jesus, but more fully human, embodying both the image and likeness of God” (163).

Shroyer contends that the doctrine of original sin diminishes Jesus. Jesus is more than a “debt officer” or a “ticket out of trouble.” Jesus is more a “Great Physician” come to heal that which has gone wrong, than a Stern Judge intent on dealing with what is bad about us in a legalistic manner. Jesus came, “Not to fix our sin problem but to fix our blessing problem, which is that we are in the terrifying and tragic habit of forgetting we have one, and that it comes from a God who will do anything and everything to be with us” (191).

Further she notes that as we practice walking in this original blessing it creates pathways to the life God has designed for us. Original sin would have us believe that our human nature always and only leads us to self-centered evil. Original blessing acknowledges that the deepest level of our human nature is designed to hear God’s voice and walk in his way. Another way of saying that is that our “center of gravity” is original blessing.

This is, indeed, the great news of the gospel! And it has major ramifications for everything that pertains to life and godliness. It means that the trauma of eternal separation that haunted me as a youth was an unnecessary diversion in my journey toward acknowledging God. I am being drawn eternally into a deeper relationship with a God who loves unconditionally, not a god who is willing to damn me if I don’t return that love in appropriate ways.

An old star has reappeared in the heavens. And I intend to follow it!