How do we view sin?

"The Bible focuses on the vertical breach of God's law as the source of weal or woe in horizontal relationships. The curse of original sin and guilt is God's judgment based on his unalterable holiness and righteousness. The word "curse" belongs to the world of ancient Near Eastern diplomacy, with its threats for violating a treaty. God's curse upon humanity (and creation because of humankind) was the sanction that God warned about when he commissioned Adam as his covenant servant.

It is striking that even though he had seduced Bathsheba and then had her husband sent to his death in battle, David's confession begins with the cry, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:4-5). Can we identify today with that sharply vertical sense of sin--even horrible atrocities committed against our neighbor--as first and foremost an offense against God?

The impression that we often get today is that sin offends God only indirectly--because it hurts other people or ourselves, not because it is first and foremost an act of treason against our good and faithful Creator. Ironically, fundamentalism and the emergent movement sound alike at this point. The former may single out sex, drugs, and rock and roll while the latter targets militarism, greed, and environmental recklessness. However, both reduce sin primarily to sins (bad behaviors) apart from seeing the latter as the fruit of a moral condition that has swallowed our entire race and provoked the wrath of God: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one" (Rom. 3:10-12, citing Ps. 14:1-3; 53:1-3).

Once we lose the vertical dimension of sin--that makes it truly sinful--there is no longer any place for understanding the cross as that marvelous paradox of love and wrath, mercy and justice. No longer a vicarious and propitiatory sacrifice (as if there was anything like God's wrath to worry about), Christ's work simply becomes a paradigmatic act of healing and restoring relationships between human beings and the environment."

-Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission