When that wholeness is absent, or lost, when we do not feel complete, we know the power and experience of sin. You see, sin is more than simply committing certain indiscretions, acts of omission or commission. Sin is a force or a power within creation and therefore within us. Sin exists in the world, and we see the results of sin wherever we see disintegration - whenever we see lives or people, communities falling apart. Wherever we see broken people, wherever we see disruption and lives destroyed, relationships wounded, and the human spirit abused or killed the cause is sin.
Sin is a disease, a sickness.
Very often we prefer to look at the symptoms, confessing this particular sin or that particular sin, but neglecting the virus that continues to rage within us. If sin is systemic, then the healing required must also be systemic, it must be radical. The healing must be deep, deeper than the force of sin . Let me show you how this works. There was a man named Zaccheus, a chief tax collector, who worked for a corrupt government, and was corrupt himself.