This week I thought I would try something new. This will be what I'm calling a “quick study.” The purpose of a quick study is to examine an idea or a potential error by leveraging the wider witness of Scripture in its original languages to arrive at a brief answer for practical use in the Church. This week I'd like to take a look at the idea of "brokenness" as a term used in Christian circles to speak about sin and its effects. Many have cautioned against using this term, some have even alleged that those who use the term "brokenness" are simply seeking to avoid using the biblical language of sin. In my research I found this article by the Gospel Coalition which aims at taking on this issue and certainly attempts to highlight the use of the term "brokenness" in error. The problem with resources like these is that, due to the lack of any serious Scriptural reference, the reader/audience is left to simply trust whatever these teachers are saying. Without Scripture's guidance, even good teachers can easily be led to say things merely by their own concerns rather than by the Bible's language. So let's undertake a quick study to see the biblical data, which will guide our own conception of the use of the term "brokenness."
What is brokenness?
First, let's define what we mean by brokenness. Brokenness may be defined as the failed state of any aspect of a created thing such that it is so far removed from its design as to be incapable of fulfilling its intended purpose. Brokenness is by definition opposed to a good working order. If your boat is full of holes, it will no longer fulfill its intended purpose of staying afloat; if the head of your hammer falls off, it will no longer be useful in striking nails. Brokenness can even entail our readiness and susceptibility to believe the lies Satan speaks to us about who we are. The Hebrew word שָׁבַר (sa-bar) is used often to denote brokenness in the Old Testament, including in the passages I quote here. It means to shatter, destroy, or make unusable. Many times this word is used to describe the complete destruction of a physical idol such that no one may bow down to it anymore; the idol is therefore no longer capable of fulfilling its purpose. As humans, if we deviate from our intended function or purpose as set out by God, namely by failing to be perfectly righteous servants (Mt 5:48; Mi 6:8), then our failure to do that job may be defined as brokenness.
Does the Bible speak about us this way?
Yes. Psalm 69:20 records the author’s sin causing a subsequent broken state, "Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair." Psalm 31:12 says "I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel." Psalm 34:18 says "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." This shows that it is not only we who consider ourselves broken, but that God in his act of drawing near to us to bind us up is thereby considering us to be broken. The old adage goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," but it is precisely God's action in drawing near to us, binding us up, and saving us, which so clearly reveals to us that we are indeed broken, in need of much fixing. The Great Physician attends only to those who require aid (Mk 2:17). This passage likewise underscores the language of sickness as synonymous with the broken/fallen state.
However, it is not merely that the Bible specifically labels us by the term broken, for the idea of brokenness is replete in Scripture even where the word is absent. Our physical bodies and those of everyone else are broken in that they fail, they get sick and die (Ecc 3:1-4; Rm 5:12, 6:23; 1 Cor. 15:42-44). Our will is broken after the Fall, so that we cannot in truth decide freely but always and only under the influence of the desire to sin (Rm 7; Gn 6:5; Mt 15:19; Ps 14:1). Our minds and comprehension are broken, such that we no longer see this world aright as God sees it, but have a slanted and bitter perspective (1 Cor 13:9,12; Nm 12:8; Jb 36:26). Our relationships are broken, such that animals fear us (Dn 6:22; Mk 16:18) and we kill and hate each other with little genuine cause (Gn 4:1-12). Every part of our lives retains the mark of brokenness, such that all these fail to fulfill God's intended function and purpose for them.
It is important to note that merely the acknowledgement that a thing is broken in no way speaks to the source or culprit causing the state of brokenness; this would be a separate, and perhaps naturally subsequent, observation. Therefore, to acknowledge brokenness is merely to recognize a failed state which makes something/one unable to perform their intended purpose. There is surely no problem in acknowledging that something is broken, because if you do not first do this you will not seek repair; diagnoses always precede prescriptions. Acknowledging that something is broken is therefore the first part of a diagnosis, the second part being to establish the cause of brokenness, which for humans is always sin; whether Adam’s, our own, or other’s sin. We'll return to this later, but for now we must be able to admit that brokenness language is certainly not foreign to Scripture, but employed often in God's word (see also Psalm 51:17; 147:3; Isa 30:26; 61:1-11; Jer 8:11). Because of this, Christians ought to embrace the diagnosis of brokenness, for it is only those that are broken who humbly admit need for healing.
Isn't it wrong to speak of ourselves as being broken, especially for Christians? No, because it is only those who are broken whom Jesus saves. Consider Luke 18:9-14, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. "[Jesus] told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt." We should tread lightly here, because as Christians we must never stand in the place of the Pharisee, who specifically defined himself over against "this tax collector." The Pharisee refused to admit his state of brokenness, which therefore would also entail a refusal to admit of his sin, while the tax collector "would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast." The behavior of the tax collector is the behavior of one who is intimately familiar with his broken state, and desires freedom from it. We must not be like those "who exalt themselves" as if they are above the state of brokenness, or exempt from its effects, even as regenerate believing Christians, "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
The GC article above quotes Scripture only once, Psalm 51:4, to quote David saying "against you and you alone have I sinned." However, they might have instead kept reading that beautiful Psalm to find two instances of David, the man after God's own heart, describing himself and the ideal worshiper as one who is broken before God. Psalm 51:17: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." This shows us that it is in fact desirable to conceive of oneself as broken because, far from being contemptible language for a religious person to use, it is this essential act of honest humility before God which God desires in his people. We abide in the vine, because we are merely small branches, dependent always upon Him (Jn 15:4). It is only where we forget our consistent brokenness that we begin to believe we are no longer so dependent upon God in our battle against sin, and so this error is profoundly dangerous for us.
Does brokenness = sin?
No, but the two are certainly intertwined, one necessarily accompanying the other. It is surely true that indwelling sin is the first cause of brokenness, but it is also true that our broken estate causes us to return to or delve more deeply into our sin. Likewise, the broken state of others and their own sin may each contribute to our own brokenness, whether by hateful words, physical harm, theft, etc. There is even brokenness which is not the result of personal sin, but the effect of the broken world around us (Jn 9:1-3; Lk 13:4). So sin causes brokenness, but brokenness also leads to further sin, and this cycle feeds upon itself. We see Paul speak this way in Romans 7, where he uses the term "death" and "this body of death" to denote his broken state as a result of sin. In 7:13, Paul speaks of sin and death and though death is the result of sin, they are not the same thing. Death is the cursed state which Paul laments, and which further draws him away from righteousness, "the thing I want to do," and into sin, "the very thing I hate." Therefore we draw a distinction between death, the broken state of human existence, and sin, the very cause of the broken state. However there are some, like the GC article above and even some of my seminary instructors, who allege that brokenness or sickness language is unwise because it necessarily collapses sin and its resultant state into one or simply makes brokenness into a softer replacement word for sin. I reply that brokenness and sickness language is simply biblical language to describe the fallen state; we cannot get around that, nor should we seek that. Therefore this language ought not to be removed from the Christian vocabulary, but simply distinguished. The attempt to remove brokenness and sickness language is therefore ironically a failure to recognize when folks are rightly distinguishing between sin and the fallen state.
Are there unbiblical ways to employ "brokenness" language?
Of course, just as there are unbiblical ways to use all biblical language. But this doesn't mean that we forget about Scripture's diagnosis of our fundamentally broken state when it employs these very terms. Moving away from Scriptures depiction of our state as broken and sick is unwise, and typically leads to too much confidence in oneself at the cost of full, unbridled faith in Christ. Far from distancing ourselves from such language, we must embrace our designation as broken vessels, humbling ourselves always underneath the grace of God which brings healing today and will certainly restore us to our proper state in glory. Those who are humbled, broken, and afflicted by sin are those to whom the Lord draws near to exalt, to bind up, and to restore.