How Is Brokenness Different From Sin?

This covers an important trend I have seen since my days in Campus Crusade. Have you heard the catchphrase of the need for “vulnerability” or the need to be “vulnerable”? it is in vogue among the broadly evangelical to speak and even boast of one’s brokenness and the healing that is found in Jesus’s loving and personal relationship forming arms, but it is so often stripped of the responsibility and guilt.

Brokenness offers no cure for guilt. In the biblical counseling world, we speak of two aspects of human problems: sin and suffering. Sin is all those things wicked, unlawful, and against the Lord which we ourselves commit and are responsible for. Suffering is all those things which result from living in a broken and sinful world and all those things which we face because of the sin of others.

Brokenness may sound more inviting and be less off-putting than speaking of “sin”, but there is no alternative that is more biblical than speaking of sin. By all means, give me authentic Christianity over against the false veneer of a gilded half-baked uncommitted Christianity, but don’t give me a watered down faith that is hardly worth fighting for or living out with all the piety and reverence due the faith once handed down for all time to the saints.

Here is a quality Sinclair Ferguson quote:

From time to time in the church’s history teaching has been given which insists that Christians should be ‘open’ with each other. Well and good, so far. But when this is interpreted as hiding nothing, revealing everything, including private thoughts and feelings, it lose biblical balance. It can do much harm, not least when such openness is viewed as a hallmark of the ‘really committed Christian. Colossae-like this has the aura of serious spirituality; but it goes beyond Scripture. And that can be just as damaging as falling short of it.
In fact we know that our Lord did not conform to this ‘super-spirituality.’ John specifically tells us that Jesus on his not entrust himself to them, because “he knew all people.” He did not reveal his inmost thoughts to all and sundry. Indeed he knew part did that was not a safe or wise way to live. Furthermore he knew that there were some things even his closest disciples would not be able to handle if he told them. So we need to beware of teaching that has the appearance of maturity and impresses us because it makes rigorous demands but is not in fact scriptural. Private thoughts and feelings should ordinarily be kept just that private. Sinclair Ferguson, Devoted to God, 124.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/tgc-podcast/brokenness-different-sin/