Sin[s]

Another aspect of our confession of sins is the little letter “s.” It all seems to start with the ancient doctrine of original sin with which, according to the Genesis account of Adam’s fall, we are all born. [Having delivered over a thousand moms, I have trouble conceiving of these precious newborns as possessing any sin at all, original or not!] If there is such a thing, surely it’s the human trait of self-centeredness, which infants and children exhibit in spades for years. Ideally, the growth of a child into an adult is the vehicle by which concern for others is learned. When this other-centeredness becomes the overarching motive for the majority of our thoughts, prayers, and behaviors, we can be said to be more like Jesus, more sinless. But our basic sinfulness is still a shortcoming to be dealt with. It’s the motive for our sinful ideas and actions, “those things we have done which we ought not to have done” and vice versa. So when we “confess our sins,” are we asking forgiveness for our individual sins, or for not having worked through and shed our state of original sinfulness? Do we really believe that we are basically sinful creatures, or merely nice people who occasionally fall from the ideal of selflessness?
Whether we’re born sinful or acquire sinfulness, we certainly have our share of it, or else we would have no sins to confess. For many decades I hadn’t the foggiest notion that I had any sinfulness—only an occasional little sin here and there. How powerful is denial! Now I rather think that, even if my sins are fewer and fewer, it’s my innate sinfulness which still drives me to commit even these. I keep wondering if I’ll ever be free of it...