Set free from sin

"If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:16).

What an interesting way to put it. You might have thought Paul would say, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and the notion of sin is hogwash."

But no, whether Christianity is true or not --- and even if Nietzsche is right that "God is dead" --- we are still in our sins. I know, I know, philosophically you can give me a good argument that where there is no God, there is no such thing as sin: Sin is a meaningful concept only where there is a Personal lawgiver. True enough.

But my earliest memories are of shameful thoughts and deeds that have no better description than the word "sin." Sin as a concept has a quality that should please the 14th century English logician William of Ockham, and succeeding practitioners of the scientific method. It contains all the facts of my experience with nothing spilling over and unaccounted for. It is economic, parsimonious, simple, elegant.

I for one am grateful to have heard the news of the gospel --- that a solution was provided for the miserable predicament I found myself in since consciousness of existence was coterminous with consciousness of guilt.

And now the inverse is gloriously true:

"Christ has been raised, my faith is not futile, and I am not still in my sins." Glory!