Trauma, Sin and Breaking Cycles
- Stephanie M.
- Jul 29
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 1
My response to a beautifully written half truth
An interesting article made its way into my feed recently, penned by a well-known writer here on Medium. He’s a clever author, eloquent wordsmith and a vocal deconstructionist. I have no beef with him personally, but I do want to set the record straight on a few points for anyone else who might have read it and fallen victim to a beautifully written half truth. The piece in particular dealt with the “real” nature of sin, as he explained it. Here is my response, difficult as it was to write.
What if Sin IS What You Think it is?
If you ask 1,000 people what sin is, you’ll probably get 1,000 different answers. Why? Because the enemy has been working since the Fall of Man to convince humankind that we aren’t sinners, or at least that we aren’t that bad.
You see, if he can convince us that we are pretty good or that our sin isn’t our fault, we can be more easily deceived into believing we don’t need a savior. Or worse, that we can save ourselves.
He makes evil look holy and lures us in with crafty lies packaged as articles meant to elicit an emotional response.
Friend, don’t buy it.
One of the major lies in the article is that sin isn’t our fault, but rather a result of our less-than-ideal childhood, our trauma, our generational curses, our… fill in the blank.
Are past hurts painful? Of course! I’ve got them myself. But here’s the thing: Trauma doesn’t cause our sin. Our sin nature causes our sin and we use our trauma to justify it.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t work through our trauma or put off healing. I’m saying we can’t use our trauma to justify our sin.
Sin is disobedience to God, whether big or small. Our flesh craves it, and our spirit fights against it. It’s a spiritual battle we’ll fight until the day Jesus calls us home.
What about the generational stuff?
Another point in the article is that a lot of our sin is the result of generational wounds that aren’t healed. Is there some truth in that? Perhaps. But the statement in and of itself is not truth.
We see repeated sin patterns throughout Scripture & in our own family trees today. While they may look different (abuse here, pride there, alcoholism over there), the root cause is always the same: Disobedience to God.
The article cited examples of Jesus healing and inviting sinners to him, to sit with them as they worked through their pasts. While I don’t disagree, there’s so much more to it than that.
God absolutely does want us to break generational cycles of sin. We see it all throughout the Old Testament with the Israelites. The Lord brought the 12 tribes out of exile so many times, only for them to return to old patterns of sin and wind up back in exile, waiting for God to raise up yet another cycle-breaker to set them free.
Fast forward to the ultimate cycle-breaker, Jesus Christ. He came to set us all free from the bondage of sin. He came to redeem us from slavery. He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Jesus didn’t come merely to sit beside us while we wallow in our past. He came to free us from the past, and to help us put aside the behaviors we justify with it.
But what about the really painful “psychological bruises?”
First, don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m truly, deeply sorry that there are so many in this world who suffer at the hands of the ones who should love them most. My heart grieves for people when I hear stories of egregious familial abuse.
However (and please hear the sorrow in my voice as I write this), regardless of how atrocious, evil or gut-wrenching it may have been… we do not have a license to sin because of the ways we have been hurt.
Lot tried to offer up his daughters to be abused by the drunk men in town. Joseph was kidnapped and sold into slavery by his brothers. Job lost everything he owned, and almost everyone he loved. The woman at the well had been through five husbands and avoided everyone in town (it may not be explicitly written, but you can’t tell me there wasn’t pain there). Jesus was run out of town, beaten, mocked, mortally betrayed by his close friend, nailed to a cross and killed.
Jesus knows this world is hard. He’s felt it. Yet he still calls us to be sanctified.
Healing takes time. Jesus understands that and is grieved for you too. He will walk with you every step of the way along your healing journey. He will acknowledge the deeply painful wounds you have suffered.
And then he will call you to “go and sin no more.”
Why? Why would a loving, gracious God call us to stop sinning when we’re hurting so bad?
Because our sin breaks fellowship with him.
It also causes bitterness and hardens our hearts when we hold on to sin. By working to sin no more, we’re taking a step towards the joy and happiness we find in Christ!
Don’t buy it
The enemy is crafty. He pretends to be good, and tries to sell us half-truths as whole-truths.
He invites us to cozy up in our sin because “we just can’t help how we are.”
Don’t believe it. Don’t buy the lies he’s selling.
Jesus is calling you to repentance, not because he’s mad at you, or wants you to earn your spot in heaven, but because he loves you. He wants a relationship with you. He wants to heal you.
Won’t you turn to him?
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