The Problem of Sin

The fact that White wrote SC for un-churched and even un-Christian readers provides the viewpoint from which the chapters dealing with sin and sinfulness can be understood.133 Her approach in this book is evangelistic and pastoral, and therefore she does not describe the seriousness of sin in dismal colours and graphic detail. Yet she is serious in her intent when she discusses the problem of human sinfulness and evil. She has the spiritual life of her readers in mind, and therefore she does not write primarily as a systematic theologian. The main thrust is spiritual rather than intellectual also in those parts of her writings which deal with doctrinal issues.

However, it is apparent that theological ideas lie hidden in the background, as White with brief instructions guides the novice in Christian faith toward a meaningful spiritual existence. There are underlying understandings about God, about humanity, about sin and about salvation. She deals with sin as not a mere behavioural problem but as something to do with all levels of human existence. She appears to feel no need to argue in favour of any particular theological view, but rather to guide people who are under the burden of sin to an experience of forgiveness and saving grace. From that standpoint she attempts to introduce a way out and to encourage her readers, perhaps seriously encountering with personal sinfulness for the first time, to maintain hope because of the solution provided by God through Christ.

White makes it plain that it is the Holy Spirit who convicts the sinner of sinfulness and the need for forgiveness.134 She does not overwhelm her readers with moralising remarks aimed at arousing feelings of guilt or despair; instead she kindles a desire to find a solution. As a matter of fact, later on in the book, she notes the dangers of dwelling too heavily and too long on personal

goodness, speaking of hope is justified. COL 163. “As the sinner, drawn by the power of Christ, approaches the uplifted cross, and prostrates himself before it, there is a new creation. A new heart is given him. He becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. Holiness finds that it has nothing more to require.” Ed 29. “The result of the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is manifest in every man's experience. There is in his nature a bent to evil, a force which, unaided, he cannot resist. To withstand this force, to attain that ideal which in his inmost soul he accepts as alone worthy, he can find help in but one power. That power is Christ.”

133 _{White 1983, 11–12. The idea for writing Steps to Christ came as a suggestion from evangelists,}

who believed that a book dealing with the basics of the Christian faith would help them in reaching the secular public.

134 _{SC 26. “Every desire for truth and purity, every conviction of our own sinfulness, is an}

sinfulness and human limitations, because such negative considerations only prevent attention from being fixed on Christ, who alone is the sinner’s hope. Since through Christ there is already a solution to the basic ontological and ethical problems of a person’s past, one may concentrate one’s attention on the ultimate solution for the present and future existence, of which the incarnate, resurrected and soon-returning Christ is the guarantee.135

However, SC does not avoid the topic of human sin. Christian spirituality divorced from responding to its gravity and immensity would be mere wishful thinking. White states: “It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken.” SC 18. This statement alone does not confirm beyond doubt her conviction that all humans are under “original sin”, but she also alludes to this elsewhere in such a way that her position cannot be understood otherwise.136

Her radical view of human sinfulness consequently demands that the saving grace of God must also be understood in equally radical terms. Salvation from sin is the result of purely divine activity which springs from the goodness and love of God.137 No human action can aid the saving activity of God.138 This leaves no room to suggest that she understands salvation in terms of cooperation between humans and God, i.e. that her doctrinal views in regard to the preconditions for salvation are based on a synergy of the divine and human counterparts.

It has been suggested that there is in John Wesley’s thinking, as well as in Methodism in general, a tendency toward understanding the teaching of salvation at least partly in terms of a synergy between the human being and God. I will demonstrate below that the concept of cooperation is quite prominent in White’s vocabulary, too. It is important, therefore, to confirm that she does not speak about salvation in terms of synergy. She does not regard the cooperation between the human being and God as a precondition for salvation, but she sees it

135 _{SC 71–72. “When the mind dwells upon self, it is turned away from Christ, the source of}

strength and life… We should not make self the center and indulge anxiety and fear as to whether we shall be saved. All this turns the soul away from the Source of our strength. Commit the keeping of your soul to God, and trust in Him.”

136 _{SC 43. “By nature we are alienated from God.” See also SDA BC Vol. 6, 1074; RH April 16,}

1901; Olson 1970/2003, 27.

137 _{SC 35. “As you see the enormity of sin, as you see yourself as you really are, do not give up to}

despair. It was sinners that Christ came to save. We have not to reconcile God to us, but–O wondrous love!–God in Christ is "reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Corinthians 5:19.” See also SC 60.

138 _{SC 63. “Our only ground of hope is in the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and in that}

as a result of the divine saving acts and the sinner’s consequent saving union with Christ.139