Sin and Redemption

By Elliot Ritzema

Scripture Reading: Genesis 3:1-13, Genesis 3:22-24, Isaiah 59:1-3, Romans 3:23, Isaiah 53:1-12, Ephesians 1:7-10, Romans 8:31-39

Theologians have argued for a long time about a question that goes like this: Would God have become human even if Adam and Eve had not sinned? It’s impossible to know the answer, of course, which is why the argument has lasted so long. The only world we know is a sin-suffused one. When God became human in our world, He came to redeem it from sin.

Still, this question helps us think about the interplay between sin and redemption in our world and our individual lives. Toward the start of Ephesians, Paul wrote that God’s plan was “to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). In our world, what it took to bring everything together was Jesus’s sacrificial death. But even in any other world, wouldn’t it still be part of God’s character to hold us in perfect unity with His love ”in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39)?

There have been times in my life where I have been tempted to see sin as a problem that can’t be solved. Whether it’s my own persistent sins that I can’t seem to shake or large-scale sins that affect entire organizations or cultures, I sometimes can’t imagine a way out. I feel stuck and helpless.

There have also been times, though, where I get a taste of redemption’s power to surprise and heal. I get a sense that God has refused to abandon me, that “the hound of heaven,” (in the words of poet Francis Thompson) has sought me out. It can happen when I’m ashamed to name or confess a sin, afraid of rejection, but am met instead with assurance of love and forgiveness. It can also happen when I see someone I love freed from persistent destructive behavior or when I see justice done in a situation where I cynically thought evil would win and people would never be held to account.

It is in tension with sin that the joy of redemption shines brightest. Because we often come face-to-face with sin, we can also see the lengths to which God has gone to bring us back to Himself. Because we are all prodigals who have run away from home, we get to experience the great relief of being accepted when we didn’t deserve it. Would we have been able to experience such comfort and joy in a world without sin? Maybe—I wouldn’t put anything past God. But in this world, the height of God’s redemption shines brightest in contrast with the depth of destruction wrought by sin.

In our world, the interaction between sin and redemption is a mystery. We might wish that sin did not exist, especially when great suffering confronts us. But ultimately, we live in the world we live in. We don’t know what would have happened if sin did not exist. We only know that, because of sin, we can see what it cost God to become human and to seek us out and even die for us when we were hiding from Him.

Written by Elliot Ritzema