The Terrible Trinity

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp. Devotional is indented.

Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! Psalm 51:1 – 2

The Bible doesn't pull any punches as it describes the scary reality of sin. You have the powerful words of Genesis 6:5: "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time". Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time! Could there be a more forceful way of characterizing the pervasive influence of sin on everything we do?

Isn’t that the battle we face? Evil is always staring us in the face. The world is always trying to squeeze us into its mould. If we let down our guard, sin will get the upper hand.

Psalm 51 is also one of the definitional passages when it comes to sin. David employs three words for sin that really define the nature of what our struggle with it is all about. The first definitional word he uses is the word transgression. To transgress means to acknowledge the boundaries and to step willingly over them. I transgress when I knowingly park in a no-parking zone. I know I'm not supposed to park there, but for the sake of personal convenience, I do so anyway. Often our sin is just like this. We know that God has forbidden what we're about to do, but for personal success, comfort, or pleasure we step over God's prohibition and do exactly what we want to do.

When I was a young Christian I heard a teaching that pointed out that I am to obey the laws of the land. This includes things like speeding. It changed the way I drove. Another good benefit is that it probably kept me from getting a lot of traffic tickets. That’s what came to mind as I read this description of transgression. There are a lot of things I want to do because they benefit me in some way but they are wrong to do.

But not all of our sin is conscious, high-handed rebellion. So David uses a second word, iniquity. Iniquity is best described as moral uncleanness. This word points to the comprehensive nature of the effect of sin on us. Sin is a moral infection that stains every thing we desire, think, speak, and do. Sadly, no infant since the fall of the world into sin has been born morally clean. We all entered this world dirty and there's nothing we can do to clean ourselves up. Iniquity is like inadvertently putting a pair of bright red socks into the wash with a load of whites. There'll be nothing that escapes the red stain and remains completely white. In the same way, sin is pervasive. It really does alter everything we do in some way.

Bad to the bone fits with this description of iniquty. This is the stuff we don’t even think about; it’s what we are. It’s why selfishness and self-centeredness are so a part of my life. I view everything through this lens.

But there's a third word that David uses that gets at another aspect of sin's damage. It's the word sin. Sin is best defined as falling short of a standard. In our moments of best intention and best effort we still fall short. We're simply unable to reach the level of the standards that God has set for us. Sin has simply removed our ability to keep God's law. So, we fall short of his standard again and again and again. In your thoughts you fall short. In your desires you fall short. In your marriage or family you fall short. In your communication you fall short. At your job you fall short. With your friends you fall short. We simply are not able to meet God's requirements.

Isn’t this frustrating? I know what I should do and want to do it but I don’t. I don’t want to speak evil with my mouth but the words just slip out.

This "terrible trinity" of words for sin really does capture with power and clarity the nature of the war that rages inside each one of us. Sometimes I do not do exactly what God requires, but I don't care because I want what I want, and so I step over his wise boundaries. Sometimes I look back on what I've done, having thought that I'd done pretty well, only to see ways in which my words and behavior were once more stained with sin. And over and over again I'm confronted with my weakness and inability. I fall short of God's standard even in moments of good intention.

How can this terrible trinity do anything other than drive us to seek the grace that can only be found in the divine Trinity? In our sin we need a Father who's not satisfied with leaving us in this sad state of affairs but will exercise his sovereign power to set a plan in place that will rescue us from us. In our sin we need a Son who is willing to take our punishment so that we can be forgiven. And in our sin, we need a Spirit who will dwell within us, empowering us to do what we would not otherwise be able to do.

A question from the meditation:

How do the three biblical words for sin - transgression, iniquity, and sin - help you to understand the daily battle in your heart between right and wrong?

One way it helps it to show the different battles I face. There are the desires I must fight against. There is my nature that needs to be transformed. There is failure even when I want to act differently.

Thankfully, I am not in this battle alone. I don’t have the strength or ability in myself but with God’s strength and grace I can do different that I have before.

Philip


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