Giving Up the Belief in Sin by Rev. Christine Emmerling, D.D., 3/1/2026

We are continuing with the series for Lent based on “Giving up our Beliefs” to help propel us to the next level of consciousness. We can use this season to give up our human beliefs that no longer serve us, and that lead to suffering. Today’s talk is about “Giving Up our Belief in Sin.”

Metaphysically in the Bible, every personal name represents attributes of character, and names of places represent a state of consciousness. Every story is about our spiritual unfoldment in this journey we call life on earth. Think of the stories as going on within your own consciousness. Every character, item, place represents an aspect of our soul. Much like a dream; its all symbolic of our soul speaking to us.

The following are some meanings and translations of the word sin. This is an Old English word which means “separation, division.” It came from the Greek word which means “to miss the mark” a term used in archery. It can be used to express willful rebellion against God as well as making a mistake and falling short. Sin was a moral, religious offense, or misdeed.

The idea of Original Sin started after the 2nd Century. It was linked to Adam and Eve in not obeying God, and this sin was passed down through generations. As a result, children were taught they were sinners just for being born and were made to feel guilty, shame and unworthy, and must redeem oneself to avoid eternal damnation.

In “The Revealing Word” authored by Charles Fillmore of Unity: SIN is missing the mark; that is falling short of divine perfection. Sin is man’s failure to express the attributes of Being - life, love, intelligence, wisdom, and the other God qualities. Sin (error) is first in mind and is redeemed by a mental process, or by going into the silence as in meditation or prayer. Error is brought into the light of Spirit and then transformed into a constructive force. “Be you transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Roman 12:2.

Jesus the Christ shared the parable of The Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. Paraphrased, there are two brothers. The younger brother requests their father to give them their share of inheritance, and the father divided his wealth with them. The younger son left for a far away country, and there he squandered his inheritance on riotous living. All his so called friends abandoned him. To survive he’s sleeping and eating with the swine.

Then he came to his senses, and remembered how his father took better care of their hired servants. The son decided to ask for his father’s forgiveness, and will request to serve as a hired servant. He arose and went to his father.

From a distance his father saw him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found. And they began to make merry.

Now the elder son was angry when he heard the news of his brother’s return and being celebrated. His father went to him, and the elder son complained, how he had served all these years and never disobeyed him, yet didn’t receive a fatted calf to make merry with friends. But your wayward son receives gifts and is celebrate, And the father replied, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.

Metaphysically we can see this as all of humanity; we each leave what represents God’s house or heaven with our soul’s inheritance. We arrive to this life on earth; a far away country. Our birth inheritance are the attributes of God as love, life, joy, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and power.

In our ignorance we may squander what has been freely given to us, or we are unaware of the gifts we truly have to make good with in our life here. When times get tough we believe we are separated from our source. Then we feel guilty, and believe that we are unworthy of God’s love. By doing so we unconsciously create conditions of suffering. This is also called karma.

Then in humbleness we pray. A realization comes, and we remember our source, our connection with God. Guidance comes to us. Now the Law of Grace takes over. Once we have learned from our mistakes, our negative karma is gone, there is no punishment for those prior actions. Instead we are celebrated for the great lessons learned on our adventure we call life. The robe, ring and shoes represent this new elevated state of being and spiritual understanding. And, we are blessed.

The elder brother, represents when we are just going through the motions of life. Living but not truly living in the fullness of life and joy. When we play it safe, we miss out on what greater good there is for us. I call it being comfortable in our uncomfortableness. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. All we ever need to do is to take that next step in asking for guidance, and it is freely given. In Matt. 7:8 “For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.”

The two sons represent this division in consciousness of our mind. Both are believing in separation, and experiencing it in different ways. Yet both are feeling a sense of lack or incompleteness. In judging others or our self keeps us separated. God doesn’t look for fault to find, just knows the good. In God we are one in love, joy and plenty. Our good is always at hand. For in Truth all is one, all is good, and all is love. We are the beloved son.

The message is that there truly is no sinner in the mind of God. All are equally God’s beloved children. That we are the ones naming what is sinful and unworthy - not God. And this keeps us from our good, our overflowing blessings.

Mystically this is about going into meditation silently connecting with the Divine within to experience a greater joy than any physical life experience can give. We must make the choice to leave this worldly scene, to dive deep into the silence where we connect with our Christ Self and commune directly with the Beloved Presence of God. Here we are showered in blessings of the spirit, and given a new understanding; the ring, robe and shoes. When we leave our meditative state, we reenter daily life renewed.

Or like the older son, we may do all the right things, follow the commandments, but still feel something is missing, and never know the true joy of having a personal relationship with the Beloved Presence of God. It is a choice we make to go silently within and to return daily.

Dr. Richard Bartlett author of Matrix Energetics gave the definition of SIN as an acronym: Separate, Identify, Name. The first step into our misconception of Self, is separation, a sense of separation from God, and all life.

By making everything separate from our self we are not realizing our true identity as an expression of God; not just a little spark of light within us, but our whole being is light. There is nothing outside of God, therefore everything is of God. One consciousness expressing itself in many facets of expression - I Am That, I Am. All God!

We begin with our own sense of separation from God, our self, and then identifying with it. We are given a name. Then we look out in this world and we too identify. We see everything as something else from our self. We see its form. We see its activity. We see it as separate life and form. Our mind being as a projector projects thoughts as form. Then seeing the projected form we identify, categorize and name it. Yet in Truth, it is all pure light, invisible Spirit Substance manifested as visible and physical.

Our parents named us, and then we go through life learning the name of things living and created. If we discover something new, then we get to name it. But mostly we name something good or bad. This labeling sets up our belief system and is written into our DNA. It then drives how we respond to life - to our experiences. Is the cup half empty or half full? Do we see this as a loving world, or a world to fear?

Divine Science teaches there is no such thing as original sin, That we don’t inherit from our earthly parents, but rather we inherit directly from God; our source and creator. In God there is no such thing as sin. In the story of Creation, God created the heavens, earth and all life, and saw all that was created, and called it good, and very good.

Our true nature then is Good. What we have then is amnesia, we have forgotten our true nature - our Oneness, and are hypnotized into believing in what we see is separate from us. I remember when taking a Divine Science course with Dr. David Alkins, Dean of Brooks Divinity School, he said, “If you must have an original sin, then that would be spiritual laziness.” I would also say, it as our belief in separation.

Missing the mark then is when we forget our oneness with God; and thus we forget to love God, love our self, love all others, and love all life. We can only love others at the level we love our self. Believing we are sinners takes away our ability to truly love our self or anyone else which includes God. Instead we have fear, shame and guilt which gets projected into our manifest world, and experienced as pain and suffering. I believe that Christ Jesus didn’t go around seeing sick or sinful people, but people living in a hypnotized state not knowing who they truly are as children of God.

To truly love our self, begins with loving God, loving the God within us - we call the Christ consciousness. We begin by having a relationship with the Divine within us. We nurture our true divine Self. We do this by first taking our focus away from the outer world of appearance. Then we silently go within to unite with our Christ Self, which is God individualized as us, and just be in a quiet stillness. Be in that presence of Spirit of pure Being. It is relaxing into a receptive, listening state of mind of pure peace.

We then can’t help but be that which is recognized and realized within our consciousness. Our behavior now matches; what we see out in the world also matches; and all is love and all is good. Now we are truly loving God with all our heart, mind and soul, and our neighbor as our self.

I’ll close with the story of Two Wolves; this story is a Cherokee Legend of a grandfather teaching his grandson: The grandson says, “A fight is going on inside me.”

The grandfather says to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance. The other is good. He is joy, peace, love, humility and kindness. benevolence, empathy, generosity, compassion and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Let us affirm: I inherited God’s Goodness to nurture and express in my life. So it is!