Morality or Mortality?

Picture framing is an art. The color and design emphasize certain aspects of a painting and lead the viewer to see the artwork in a particular way.

In recent years as I've reconsidered the picture of God's story and His relationship with His creation, I'm learning to re-frame that picture through the writings of authors such as Richard Beck. In his wonderful book, The Slavery of Death, he presents why he believes that humanity's predicament has more to do with mortality than with morality. In other words, our fear of death is the better framework for the picture of humanity's basic problem than sin is.

Beck says: "Death, not sin, is the primary predicament of the human condition. Death is the cause of sin. More properly, the fear of death produces most of the sin in our lives."

As I have read Beck's work and looked into some of the theology of the early church fathers, I've come to appreciate this framing of humanity's problem over the framing that many of us in modern western Christianity have inherited. Many throughout church history have understood that humanity's need is more for a Deliverer than for a Judge. In other words, rather than born sinful, we are born mortal and therefore fearful of death.

This is not a denial of the reality of sin, but an understanding that sin is the symptom of something deeper at work holding us captive (Heb. 2:14,15)

In an affluent society, the fear of death often takes on the form of neurotic anxieties, such as fears related to self esteem or not having significance and acceptance from others. And in our desire to be immortal, we attach ourselves to causes or organizations or religious groups that will last beyond our lifetime; or we place our hopes in our children's success as a way to ensure our success; we compete for positions and for recognition...etc.

Three reasons I like this framework:  first, it highlights God's gracious compassion towards humans.  God is loving Creator and Father who in great compassion for His creation comes in His Son to rescue humanity from the bondage of the fear of death by defeating it through His own death, forgiving, healing and reconciling us back to Himself to live in fellowship with Him; in that living fellowship we are empowered to walk free of anxieties that drive us to sinful practices.

Second, it doesn't pit Jesus against God. In other words, it doesn't present Jesus as taking our side against God's anger towards humans; but rather it shows that God and Jesus have always been of one mind in unconditional, unchanging love for weak humans and that they are in agreement about our need for deliverance from that which holds us captive to the fear of death.

Third, it sees humans through a more compassionate lens and moves us away from our tendency to see people primarily as sinners who should be judged and condemned. Rather, we see humans as born fearful and driven to sin because of the desperate need to escape death by whatever means.

(Much of the way we frame God and His story is rooted in our beliefs about the atonement. If you're interested in viewing an interesting presentation of contrasting views of the atonement, you can go to this link:  The Gospel in Chairs.)