The older I’ve gotten, the scarier the word sin has become.
Some of that has been my growing understanding that this Christian concept of
sin is a complicated one. But some of my fear over the word sin is because I
just don’t like the idea that I, and everyone else I know, are in desperate
need of forgiveness. But what if its true? What if I do need forgiveness? What
if I won’t be a whole human being unless I know the forgiveness of God? Well,
then I probably need to understand sin.

Psalm 51 was written after David recognizes his sin in
committing adultery with Bathsheba and then arranging for her husband’s murder.
It helps me think about my own sin and need in three ways:

I need to recognize my sin

I need to remember God’s love

I need to receive God’s healing and restoration

This Psalm wouldn’t exist unless David recognized his sin.
When he first slept with Bathsheba and had Uriah murdered, he didn’t recognize
his offense. Only when the prophet Nathan confronted him did David recognize
the extent of his wrongdoing. So that’s the first step–acknowledging our sin
and the impact it has on other individuals and our community.

But before David launches even talks about the extent of his
sin, he remembers God’s love.

The Psalm begins:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion blot out my
transgressions.”

In other words, David asks God to see his (David’s) sin in
light of God’s love, not in light of the Ten Commandments or the other legal
and moral codes spelled out for God’s people. David has failed utterly by any
moral or legal standard. But God loves David. God continues to love David with
“unfailing love” and “great compassion.” God sees our sin in light of God’s
love for us.

Which leads to the final point. The point of acknowledging
sin is not that we would beat ourselves up and feel bad about ourselves
forever. The point of acknowledging sin is that once we acknowledge it, we can
be forgiven, healed, cleansed, restored. God can “blot out” our trangressions
and “cleanse” us. God can “create a pure heart,” even for David, an adulterer,
a murderer. And then, once we know that liberating forgiveness and cleansing,
God sends us out to offer the same grace and forgiveness and healing and
redemption to others.

So I’m trying not to be so afraid of sin. But instead to see
it in myself for what it is: an offense against God, yes. But also a wound in
my soul that inhibits me from experiencing fullness of life and fullness of
love for other people.

Show me my sin, Lord.

Forgive and heal me, according to your great love.

And send me forth to love others.

Amen.