A Conversation With Mark Jones

1. Why do church leaders need to hear the message of this book right now?

The doctrine of sin is never popular, but it is always necessary. Some medicines taste nice, but others do not. But just as medicine can be good for the body, so a proper understanding of sin can be good for the soul. Sin today has been so redefined in the church that we need to recapture the biblical and historic view of sin that has been confessed by the church, especially since the time of the Reformation. There are many ideologies in the world today that call sin good and good sin. Only God has the authority to tell us what is good and what is evil, which is why a book on sin is needed.


2. What do Christians misunderstand about sin?

Christians often misunderstand that a robust teaching on sin should help us, not harm us. Christians need to remember that a proper understanding of grace requires a thorough grasp of sin. A distorted, weak view of sin will lead to a disfigured, anemic, and unproductive theology. In addition, Christians can sometimes make the error of the Pharisees and speak of sin as merely actions but not get to the source of the problem: original sin, which means we are not only born in sin but also that we are responsible for our thoughts as well as our actions. We do not want to admit that sinful thoughts are sinful, but any thought that is not being brought into subjection to God and Christ is a thought that does not please God.



3. Why did you choose to look at the doctrine of sin from a Puritan perspective?

I chose to write from a Puritan perspective for two reasons. First, they were steeped in the theology of the early Church, medieval church, and reformation. They did not write as individuals isolated from the rest of church history. Their learnedness and sophistication mean their theology was precise. In the matter of sin we need to be very precise about what we mean by sin and what we do not mean. Second, they were so committed to the church as Pastors that their treatments on sin were eminently practical and filled with many memorable and pithy phrases. For example, Thomas Watson said, “The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we shall taste in Christ.” These are the types of true statements that one remembers. The Puritans excelled in this area: good theology, but also memorable theology.

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