Let's Talk About Sin

The concept of sin is one of the most troubling doctrines to non-Christians. It is offensive and it is misunderstood. I would go as far to say that it is offensive because it is misunderstood. The doctrine of sin is misunderstood not only by non-Christians, but by many Christians as well. It is misunderstood because it is often misrepresented.

Think about how the Christian doctrine of sin is presented in books, movies, television and in the media. Usually, sin is thrown in the face of unbelievers when the Christian can’t provide any substantive arguments for their position revealing them to be an unhinged, possibly insane antagonist. Stephen King, for instance, is notorious for writing Christians this way.

The problem of course is that there are Christians who behave this way and it’s not just Westboro Baptist Church members. Certainly they are some of the worst, but I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen guys standing on street corners with signs condemning everybody while screaming, “You filthy sinners are going to crack hell wide open!” at the top of their lungs. Where's the hope in that?

Some of these people may have their doctrine down, but their presentation is all wrong. When a person hears that they are a filthy sinner, they think, He’s saying I’m a bad person. I don’t think I’m a bad person, and then they ignore the preacher.

TWO DEFINITIONS FOR SIN

Willful acts - sins of commission and ommission

It is true that the Bible teaches that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), but the question is what does the Bible mean by that?

There are several words translated as “sin”. In the Old Testament, the word most commonly translated “sin” is the Hebrew word chata’ah (חֲטָאָה). This word means, “to miss the mark” or “to err”. Students of the classics or who have taken English literature may recognize the Greek equivalent, hamartia (ἁμαρτία). There are many other words that either are translated as sin, or they carry the idea of sin. These two words—Chata’ah and hamartia—most completely encapsulate the idea of the doctrine of sin. In fact, the Biblical doctrine or study of sin is called hamartiology.

The first kind of sin is the verb—what we do, sometimes referred to as acts of commission, or what we don’t do, referred to as sins of omission. The Hebrew word Chata’ah is the verb form. In Greek, it is harmatano (ἁμαρτάνω).

When the Bible says that “all have sinned” it is stating a simple fact that every single person to step on the face of the planet have willfully committed some kind of sin. They may not have killed anybody or committed physical adultery, but everyone has done something that violates God’s moral law.

Let’s just take a quick look at two of the Moral Laws from the Ten Commandments.

Thou shalt not kill.

Exodus 20:13

The word “kill” here carries the idea of murder – unjust killing. Hopefully nobody reading this is a murderer. Even so, can we really say we have perfectly kept this commandment? Jesus said that our thoughts carry just as much weight in God’s eyes as our actions.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Matthew 5:21-22

Have you ever been angry with someone without cause? For instance, someone holds a political view that you differ with and you go beyond disagreement into name calling, immaturity and even declarations of hatred. Sure, people get frustrated, but this is a whole other level. This is the ARGUMENT WITH MY CAPS LOCK ON SO YOU KNOW I AM YELLING kind of thing on social media. In face to face arguments it results in fisticuffs. It happens all the time. I won’t say that everybody has been guilty of it, but all groups are guilty of it – Christians, Atheists, Democrats, and Republicans. According to Jesus, this kind of behavior is akin to murder.

In the same passage, Jesus deals with another sin that goes beyond the physical and into the mental.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Exodus 20:14

Adultery is sexual conduct outside the marriage relationship. In modern legal terms, adultery deals only with marital infidelity. However, the idea communicated throughout The Law is that any kind of sexual activity outside of the bond of marriage between one man and one woman is a violation of God’s Moral Law and plan. Again, hopefully, none of us have committed adultery since marriage. In light of the revelation of God’s entire Moral Law in the Old Testament, I will be the first to admit that while I have never cheated on my wife, regretfully, she was not my first.

What if you did wait until marriage or what if you have been faithful since marriage, are you off the hook? Am I?

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Matthew 5:27-28

Again, Jesus is equating our thoughts with our actions. Just because you haven’t physically committed adultery doesn’t mean you haven’t broken God’s Law.

I hear people, men especially say “Just because I’m on a diet doesn’t mean I can’t look at the menu.” Really? What would your spouse think if they caught you checking the menu? Jesus’ message is that if you are on a diet, you shouldn’t even be in the restaurant.

Can anyone honestly say that they haven’t lusted? I can’t. There are some older people who say they don’t struggle with lust or even find themselves attracted to people other than their spouses. That might be true, but psychologists, even Christian psychologists say that everybody struggles with lust. The rare people who do not struggle with lust are called asexual and have no natural sexual desire at all.

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Isaiah 59:2

The fact is that God demands perfection, but none of us is perfect. When the Bible talks about every person being a sinner, the message is that we are all imperfect. None of us can possibly achieve perfection and that separates us from having a relationship and fellowship with God.

The nice thing is that God understands this. He doesn’t just say, “Be perfect! What’s that? You can’t? Sucks to be you! Haha!” and then casts us headlong into hell. Instead, God recognizes that mankind cannot achieve the perfection or righteousness He requires, so He made a way for mankind to be proclaimed righteous. Before we get into God’s way of overcoming our imperfection, it’s important to understand the second kind of sin.

Sin nature

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Psalm 51:5

The second kind of sin is a nature we are born with. The first kind of sin, our actions, are simply symptoms of an inherited problem. We have a sin nature. Our sin nature is the real reason we are sinners, not our actions. Just like we know that we are sick because we have a fever, we can know that we are sinners because we sin.

We have a natural inborn propensity to do wrong. How many parents do you know that teach their children to lie or be selfish? I personally don’t know any. And yet, no matter how good the parents are, no matter how much they shelter their children, children still learn to lie and to be selfish on their own. It’s in their nature.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Physical death is a result of the curse of sin. This curse has been laid on all of creation. It is important to understand because even if a person was able to live their life from cradle to the grave without ever sinning, they would still die because of their sin nature.

This sin nature wasn’t part of God’s original plan. When God initially created everything, it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). When God created man, He created him to be the corporate representative of all of creation and gave him some very simple rules. Most of the rules were about things mankind was supposed to do – Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, tend the garden, be caretakers of creation. One rule was prohibitive:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 2:17

The rule was put in place because God wanted Adam and Eve to love Him. Love is expressed in trust and faith. In the case of loving God, trusting Him in faith means obedience even when we don’t understand all the details as to why.

Man broke this rule when. First, Eve broke the command, but she wasn’t the corporate head of creation, Adam was and he ate the fruit right after Eve did. Immediately, Adam and Eve felt shame. God cursed creation with pain in childbirth, sweat and toil in work, and death passed upon all mankind and all creation.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Romans 5:12

God loves His creation and was not willing that His creation should perish without being offered a remedy. Just as Adam’s original sin was an act of will, our acceptance of God’s remedy must also be an act of will.

That act of will is called repentance. Repentance is a good subject for another post, but turning from unbelief to belief while simultaneously turning from sin to follow after righteousness is an immensely important part of God's plan.

Our sin nature has so corrupted us, that even good deeds can come out as sin.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf.

Isaiah 64:6

Why is this? Why do we do good? Lost people do good because it makes them feel good. They do it for their own personal reasons. Even many of our selfless acts come down to selfishness whether we realize it or not. If you are trying to build good karma, you are trying to earn something for yourself. If you are trying to earn salvation, you are trying to earn something for yourself. The Bible says that salvation cannot be earned and that when we do good works, it must be for God's glory alone.

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

I Corinthians 10:31

To my non-Christian friends, I am not writing this to condemn you. Jesus didn't come to condemn people (John 3:17-18), but rather to save them. I can't save you, but I can tell you about salvation and I can warn you about sin and its effects.

To my Christian friends, think about how you present the idea of sin and salvation. Think of your presentation as a doctor with a good bedside manner. If you go to an oncologist and he or she tells you that you have cancer by yelling at you, "You dirty smoker! You've got lung cancer and you're going to DIE!" you would probably sue for mental anguish. At the same time, you can't make light of sin or water it down. If you went to a doctor who told you, "Well, you have some slight problems, but everything's going to turn out alright," when you have stage III cancer, you would definitely sue for malpractice.

No. What you really want is a doctor who is going to give it to you straight, but as gently as possible. A diagnosis of a severe health problem and the possible treatments is going to be scary. Likewise, the reality of our sin nature and it's effects including death and hell are scary, but the remedy is beautiful.

I encourage my Christian brothers and sisters to warn with humility, respect, and even tears, but there is no reason to be mean. A mean spirit is never effective in winning our family, friends, and acquaintances to Christ. Take it from me, I pushed a lot of people away in my zealous youth. On top of that, a mean spirit misrepresents sin and God's plan, and obscures the grace, peace, joy, and forgiveness found in salvation through Christ.