Augustine's Confessions has been slowly approaching all semester, and finally, we have reached it. Augustine, on page 47, depicts sin as a self-inflicted wound against man's own soul. It does not hurt God, it hurts the perpetrator by tainting his soul from its purpose. This is different than the God we see pictured often in our culture today. Today, God is often seen as hurting, crying, whimpering when we sin; He weeps at our fall, for He is hurt that His beloved would reject Him. Though God does love His children, I think that Augustine was closer to the reality of sin than most would be. He says that it hurts the sinner, not the lawgiver. God is above man; we cannot injure or hurt Him. If we could, how lowly a God would it be that we serve! Sin is a perversion of self; no one is hurt more than the sinner...
I commented on: Darby Callicut and Hannah Atkins' posts.
Finally, the time has come for Augustine!! I agree with your take that Augustine is closer than most Christians are today on God's reaction to sin. I believe He is hurt, but it is not a weak type of hurt when your boyfriend/girlfriend betrays you. He is God. He is hurt because He created us to love and worship Him, and I feel is hurt when we choose sin.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point. We so often act and believe God to be lesser than He must be, and I think that is to comfort us in some way, like if he is closer to human by feeling hurt and weeping for us, then we can understand Him better.
ReplyDeleteI too think Augustine has a more accurate portrayal of how God reacts to sin. We discussed something similar to this in class when we talked about whether or not God could be disappointed in us. But that would imply that God's expectations of us were too high aka His expectations were wrong and God can't be wrong..We decided instead that God is not disappointed in us, but for us. Because the most abundant life we can live is one entirely lived for Him, so when we stray from that, as you said-we aren't hurting God, we're hurting ourselves. We're taking ourselves out of the abundance that God has for us.
ReplyDeleteI think that many "churches" today also neglect the fact that God is truly angered by sin, and must punish us for it. God's reaction to sin is not sadness, it is anger. However, God is saddened by the fact that many do not repent and trust Him, because He loves us.
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