"In attacking notions of ‘man as victim,’ biblical counseling has reaffirmed the biblical notion of human responsibility. In most graphic terms, on the day of judgment God will ask, “What did you do?” He will not ask, “What happened to you?” Nouthetic counseling has gone on to deal forthrightly with the omnipresent human tendency to rationalize, to portray oneself as a victim whose problems and sins are someone or something else’s fault. Victim theories ground our sins in our pain and our ‘needs.’ Let sins be derivative, and some other problem primary, people will not need Jesus Christ. In Christian guise Jesus becomes a need-meeter who makes victims feel better, not a Savior who purchases sinful men for God with His own blood.
We have been wary of any emphasis on man as victim, for every version around is tainted by sin’s aversion to acknowledging sin. All this said, we still need to appreciate and clarify the many ways people are sufferers and fully responsible if we are to be faithful to the perfect fit between the Bible and human life. We have made a strong affirmation of human responsibility: the role of ‘the flesh.’ We have not discussed as fully the impact of the world and the devil as they master and shape human life. We have mined and processed certain biblical riches; there are other riches which we have not scrutinized as closely. There is a biblical view of man as a sufferer. We can say it even more plainly: there is a biblical view of man as a victim. Biblical counseling has been misunderstood repeatedly to say that all problems are a result of personal sin...
The biblical notion of man as victim is, after all, the source of much of the compassion with which our Deliverer approaches His groaning people. Our God has compassion on sufferers - who are also sinners responsible for their responses to suffering and even may have brought suffering on themselves."
David Powlison, "Crucial Issues in Contemporary Biblical Counseling" (1988 A.D.)
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