Sinners are more closer to God than others

I have heard it told that sinners are closer to God
than others. How is this possible you might ask?
The explanation goes that God holds each of us by
a string. When we sin, we cut that string. God
catches the falling end of the string and ties it up
again, bringing us a little closer. Again and again
the string gets cut and with each knot you are
drawn closer to God. The good news about this
analogy is that we are all sinners and therefore all
close God.

Sin can be a touchy subject. Some people like to
share the different ways they have sinned. Some
seek forgiveness and others do not. That’s the
world we live in. Still others are ashamed of their
sin and prefer to keep their confession between
them and God. An expression has arisen about
sin: hate the sin and love the sinner. This adage
arises from the knowledge that we are all
sinners and worthy of love. Sin is referenced as
those things that we do which harm others and
which offend God.

The trouble with this expression is that a tone of
judgement overshadows the reference to loving
the individual. By uttering this statement, I
appear to be judging someone else. Asserting
that I am better than you or my sin is less
significant. We should all be mindful of
inappropriate behaviour in others however it pays
to be mindful of the fact that we are probably
also less than perfect.

We all sin, it’s just that our sin has different
colours. Representing the different methods that
we make mistakes. What I might consider a sin
you may laugh off and vice versa. Perhaps what
is really at fault is the way we think about sin in
the first place. In his book The Cross in Our
Context Canadian Theologian Douglas John Hall
writes, “Christians have allowed this profoundly
biblical conception [sin], which refers to broken
relationship, to be reduced to sins – moral
misdemeanors and guilty ‘thoughts, words and
deeds’…”
Hall’s explanation on sin is not designed to
remove emphasis from moral and ethical
misdemeanors. Rather it is intended to emphasis
that we have misplaced our focus of
relationship. Specifically, our relationship with
God and secondly with one another. It is the
brokenness of our relationships which leads to
behaviour which is harmful and hurtful.

If we are going to love the sinner we need to
see past the sin. We need to acknowledge that
loving the sinner includes loving ourselves. Less
judgement and greater focus on relationships is
the order of the day. We should not be content
to render a verdict about someone based on their
behaviour when we have not taken the time to
develop a relationship with them.

God is interested in mending fences and
repairing strings, focusing on a relationship with
each of us. God sees the poor behaviour; how
can he miss it when Christ took it all upon
himself on the cross. However, God did all this in
order to develop a relationship with us. Because
God loves us.