Making Ourselves Gods
Fundamentally, sin is the refusal to glorify and praise God as God. When we sin, we are making ourselves gods. We are claiming independence, rebellion. It’s the worship of the creature rather than the Creator. What it means to be a creature is to give glory to God, and what it means to sin is to glorify ourselves.
Why is that significant? Because it’s a denial of the reality of God and the reality of the way the world is. God is God. My son said to me one time when he was maybe eight or ten years old, “Why is it right for God to get all the glory and not me?”
That’s the fundamental question of the universe, and the answer is very simple. I said, “Daniel, the reason is that God is God, and you’re human.” It’s that simple. What it means to worship God is to give him the praise and honor and glory. Sin is when we are curved in upon ourselves, and we give the glory and honor and praise to ourselves.
Thomas R. Schreiner is the author of The Justice and Goodness of God: A Biblical Case for the Final Judgment.
Thomas R. Schreiner (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is the James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation and associate dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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