Sin Causes Anxiety, Too

In his helpful book, Christians Get Depressed Too, David Murray writes, “There are three simplistic extremes that we should avoid when considering the cause of depression: first, that it is all physical; second, that it is all spiritual; third, that it is all mental.” Murray’s advice needs to be heeded, and I would even apply it more broadly to those suffering with anxiety and other mental illnesses as well.

Murray wrote his book in 2010 because he was deeply concerned over the tendency of Christians to load false guilt on those suffering with depression. He convincingly showed that a lot of depression is not caused by sin, and he wisely and compassionately sought to free sufferers from the added burden of shame.

However, in the fifteen years since Murray wrote his book, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. The dominant view today, even among many in the church, is that mental suffering is caused exclusively by trauma or by other forces completely outside the sufferer’s control. A graduate student in clinical mental health counseling recently described his professors as teaching a theory “that all mental anguish is caused by oppression, and if we can dismantle the systems of oppression then we can relieve the distress.”

Considering this rapid cultural shift, I believe that Christians today need to reclaim sin as a major cause of anxiety and depression even as we affirm Murray’s thesis that it is not the only cause of mental health struggles. It may not even be the most prevalent cause. Nonetheless, we have valid theological reasons to expect a person living in unrepentant sin to feel depressed and anxious. When we experience symptoms of mental illness, we need to consider sin as a possible explanation.

Every human being is guilty of sin. We do not love God with all our hearts, nor do we love our neighbor as ourselves. We would rather our will be done than submit to God’s will. We do not trust God. As a result, every aspect of our nature is corrupted. Physically, we get sick and eventually die. Spiritually, we are “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1) and even “slaves of sin” (Rom 6:20).

However, sin also impacts our mental state. Theologians describe the corruption of our minds as “the noetic effects of sin.” Because of sin, human beings are not able to properly and fully know and understand God, themselves, or the world. Sin distorts reality and blinds us to the truth, preventing us from experiencing the fullness of God’s blessing in Christ.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7). To see anything rightly in the world—to have wisdom—you must first see God rightly and position yourself appropriately in relationship to him. To sin, however, is to attempt to shrink God while enlarging yourself. Sin always distorts reality, causing the sinner to draw false conclusions about many things. In Proverbs, this approach to life is the approach of the fool. The fool does not live in the world according to reality, according to the way the world really is. Instead, he lives in a false reality where everything is distorted. As a result, nothing works rightly in the life of the fool.

Consider David’s prayer in Psalm 38. He expresses mental and physical anguish—“there is no soundness in my body” (v. 3a)—but he also recognizes that he brought it upon himself—“because of my sin” (v. 3b). In fact, at one point he prays, “So I confess my iniquity; I am anxious because of my sin” (v. 18). David experienced mental anguish many times in his life, and the Psalms show us that some of those instances were not his fault. For example, in Psalm 31, his anguish comes at least in part because he is ridiculed by his adversaries and neighbors (v. 11). But in Psalm 38, his symptoms are the result of his own sin exclusively. Christians today would do well to consider sin as a possible cause of mental illness even as we follow Murray’s advice to avoid pinning all mental illness on sin.

We need to preserve sin as a cause of anxiety and depression so that we do not miss Christ’s power to heal us. Only sinners can come to the one who makes atonement to save (Luke 5:32). Yes, Christ calls sufferers to find rest in him. But first he calls sinners to find forgiveness, repentance, and transformation. Whatever the cause of our mental anguish, Christ invites us to himself, but we need to correctly identify the reason for our approach. We need to remember that sin causes anxiety, too.

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