The nature of sin

Sin is not the same as breaking rules. It is the tendency of all life to curve in unto itself: To cage itself in self-centeredness instead of living freely in the presence of its Creator. 

The well within

The Fall describes estrangement, not corruption. The Living Waters have never been sullied. Those who rely on the teachings embodied by Christ will see them flow from their innermost being.

The realities of life

Created life, by its very nature, is vulnerable and finite. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. But we often think of pain and death as punishment. In doing so, we punish ourselves for being in pain or dying. This is precisely the meaning of original sin: Once we grasp at the illusion of total knowledge, we become aware of our finitude and vulnerability. Peace with life and trust in its Creator become elusive.

The message of Jesus' life and ministry is that we are not being punished. Quite to the contrary: According to traditional Christian teaching, Jesus is God taking the agony of the world unto Himself, suffering as we do to prove that we are loved. And through pain and love and annihilation, all is made new. Christ's death and resurrection testify to this reality.

"God's wrath": a clarification

We can't speak of God's wrath: that would be attributing an all too human trait to God. We can, however, speak of a experience of life that includes the perception of wrathful forces unleashed upon us. Such experience is part of what it means to be human. 

If, then, we take the experience seriously as part of who we are, and if we take life seriously as a gift from God in its entirety, then it is understandable how we would arrive at the conclusion that what we perceive as a wrathful force originates, ultimately, in God. It does: but that does not mean that it is an attribute of God, nor even that our perception of it is accurate. 

If our perception is that God is angry with us, we need to rethink our relation to God indeed: not to appease God but to correct our view of Him. To cleanse the doors of our perception so that the light may come in.