We live in a broken world. Inevitably, this means that every heart is wounded; every set of parents is inadequate; no society is truly just. We not only contribute sins to the stockpile of the world, but also inherit the toxic conditions of the moral evil committed by others. All of this needs to be recognized. All of this needs to be factored in as people seek healing by the grace of God. However, there is one line that a Christian can never cross. I can never say of my sin, ‘It was not my fault.’
God is clear on this point: each individual is accountable for his sin. This means, for example, that even while we might see a connection between the pain of trauma and sinful behavior, we cannot blame the behavior on the trauma. To do this would be to take a fatalistic view of sin. It would cancel personal responsibility in such a way as to say that circumstances, not the self, are the guilty party.
In practice, this means that our history cannot make us feel indifferent toward our sin. We cannot feel as if we get a free pass from struggling against sinful desire because there was abuse in our background or because our parents were callous and detached. Instead, we need to do something far different. We need to recognize that where there is deep pain, there is need for deep healing. We must look to Christ to make us whole even as we look to Him to make us holy.