The de-godding of God
The phrase may be ungrammatical, but it is telling. It is Don Carson’s way of describing what we do when we sin. Every sin we commit is not merely an offence against other people or against our own consciences, it is the ‘de-godding’ of God. We are effectively saying that we will not submit to God at that point; we do not want him to function in our lives as God. And so we ‘de-god’ God. And guess who becomes God in his place?
Think what happens when we deceive others, whether by telling a straight lie or by withholding the truth. Why do we do that? We are trying to manage the situation, to secure a more favourable outcome than if we had told the whole truth. We are unhappy with God for getting us into a situation where we ‘need’ to deceive in order to get ourselves out of trouble. We are suggesting that, if only we were God, we would have managed things differently. In fact, since God hasn’t organised things better, we are going to take charge and sort them out, rather than doing things his way. Of course, once we have got things under control, we may hand them back to him again.
Do you see what is happening? Every sin, even telling a simple half-truth, is actually a sin against God. David saw this clearly, more clearly than we often do, when he confessed, “Against you, you only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4, NIV). Yes, we may well damage others when we sin. But let’s not forget that we also ‘de-god’ God.