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I watched the 80’s throwback movie “Blinded by the Light” recently, and not being a Bruce Springsteen fan, it was mostly the non-Boss music that made me reminisce. Hearing the Pet Shop Boys took me back to my high school days and the music that was so much a part of my life at a time of life when music seems so important. One song that stood out to me was “It’s a Sin,” the second hit from the Pet Shop Boys after their debut single, “West End Girls.” As I listened to the chorus, it struck me that I remembered more of the melody than the lyrics. I think I spent more time dancing to the song than actually listening to its message. Now, so many years later, I read the lyrics of lead singer Neil Tennant and reflected on them with sadness and regret. His words give voice to many people’s experience of religion, so even if you’ve never heard of the band, you may relate to their message.

Tennant was in his early 30s when he wrote the song, and it’s a reflection on his experience with religion in high school. The song opens with these words:

When I look back upon my life it’s always with a sense of shame

I’ve always been the one to blame for everything I long to do

No matter when or where or who, has one thing in common too:

It’s a sin. Everything I’ve ever done, everything I ever do

Every place I’ve ever been, everywhere I’m going to: it’s a sin.

He goes on to talk about how he was taught to be pure, but it didn’t work. He describes repeated failures with sin, trying to turn over a new leaf only to find himself failing again and in a place of shame. The pain of this impossible struggle is held up likely as his reason for rejecting religion, at least as he experienced it.

Of course, I can’t know what Neil Tennant actually experienced or what his religious influences really consisted of. And sometimes critical parts of the message get lost in translation so that people don’t actually hear what’s being taught. But I’ve met many people who feel exactly what he expressed in this song. Let me share what I’d want Tennant, and the many others who have shared his experience, to know about the God of the Bible.

1. The Bible was never primarily intended to show us what we’ve done wrong

You could teach a course in astrophysics and spend the entire time listing facts about the cosmos that students don’t know in order to make them feel stupid. You could use the same textbook, however, to stir wonder at the beauty of the universe and the expanse of the stars. In the first, you’d feel defeated; in the second, you’d feel inspired. Similarly, there are churches that seem to do nothing other than define sin. While the Bible does talk about sin, the greater focus is on the nature of the God whose majesty stirs our awe and whose grace nurtures our love.

2. The Bible contains a message of good news, not just bad news

Tennant never alludes to the gospel. I don’t know if he ever heard it or understood it, but I meet many people who have had a lot of church but have never really grasped the good news message of the Bible. The good news is that God’s love for us is so great that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). On the cross, Jesus took the guilt and shame of our sin so that we might be freed from it. That’s why it says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1). Someone who turns from their sin and puts their faith in Jesus is forgiven, accepted, loved, and secure in their relationship with God. Of course, the opposite is also true. A rejection of God is a rejection of the salvation and mercy that we desperately need.

3. People who have received grace, grow in grace

Some people’s experience of religion mainly involves trying harder in order to please God. The Bible teaches what Tennant experienced. Just turning over a new leaf doesn’t work (Romans 3:23). Sin is like a disease that we can’t just shake off (Jeremiah 17:9). What we need is a cure not just an appeal for more effort. Jesus provides that cure. He provides not only forgiveness, but the power to change now (John 8:36), and the hope of complete deliverance later. Someone who has experienced that reads God’s commands not as statements of condemnation, but as wisdom from a gracious God who loves us and wants what’s best for us. With a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus, we not only receive help in following His commands, but they become attractive to us as well.

If I had listened to the Pet Shop Boys instead of just dancing to them, and if I knew then what I know now, I would have loved to have told them that there’s a God whose greatness inspires our wonder and whose love draws us to Him. I would have told them that there’s forgiveness in a Saviour who takes away our shame and frees us from it. And I would have told them that the Bible isn’t a self-help book – it’s the story of a rescue that we can experience through faith. I’d love for the Pet Shop Boys to know that, but it’s a message that we all need to hear.

In awe of Him,

Paul