Theology 101 No.4

Sin.  We all (it is safe to assume) know what sin is.   Simply defined, sin is doing anything that God forbids.  You and I do not determine what is sin and what is not.  God defines His divine and holy expectations in the Law.  Each and every transgression of the Law, big or small, known or unknown, in thought, word or deed, is sin (I John 3:4).  Since it is God who defines sin and He takes it most seriously (hell is a serious penalty) we should not take it lightly nor make light of it.

We also recognize that sin is not only an act, but it is a condition.  It is a disease we are born with (Psalm 51:5).  But how did it come to be if the world that God created was perfect?  We need to remember that sin did not have its origin in God or man.  The first sin was committed by Satan (I John 3:8).  Evil originated with his transgression and with those angels who followed him.  Some time after being expelled from heaven the devil tempted Adam and Eve and they succumbed to that temptation of their own free will.

The immediate result of man=s fall into sin was the loss of the image of God into which he had been created.  Man was no longer innocent, holy, and righteous.  And along with this, man=s right relationship with God was destroyed.  Through sin death came to man.  (It is a common misconception that the warning against eating the forbidden fruit meant that man was to die immediately.  The Scriptures show that man would begin the process of dying and experience all the suffering that goes along with it.  We see that this took several centuries for Adam and Eve.  And as time passed and the further removed from the perfection of his creation, man=s life span grew progressively shorter.)

Man lost other things as a result of sin.  Man=s relationship with his fellow man changed (notice how quickly murder entered in!).  The dominion over nature that man once enjoyed was hindered.  Life became a struggle and even a fierce battle.  All of creation became corrupted (Romans 8:20-22).  Man became weaker and more frail in both mind and body and he lost his immortality.

Because of the totality of sin=s effect on God=s creation, misery and death is now a part of every human being=s life and existence (Romans 5:12).  Our inheritance from our first parents is this disease of sin.  In fact Scripture calls this inherited nature the AOld Adam.@  This inherited nature affects us so thoroughly that no one can escape its effects. 


In non-Biblical thought it is sometimes taught that human beings are born Aneutral@ or basically good and that it is our environment and our education that determines whether we are Agood@ or Abad.@  This does not square with the teachings of the Bible.  Natural man is  conceived in sin, he is born in sin, and he dies in sin (Psalm 51:5; John 3:6; Romans 3:11,12; Romans 7:18; I Corinthians 2:14).  This is called Atotal depravity.@  By our inherited nature we are born enemies of God.  No man is born with the natural desire to do what God wills or commands (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

This inherited nature (called original sin) causes man to commit all manner of evils (Matthew 7:17; 15:19).  These sins take a variety of forms.  There are sins of commission (sins we actively engage in) and sins of omission (sin of neglecting to do what we ought).  We sin in thought, word and deed.

Sin, simply put, is the one great tragedy in man=s life.  It makes living on earth in accordance with God=s original design impossible and it robs man of living with God in eternity.  Adam and Eve were created to live in fellowship with God forever but sin=s penalty of death has changed that (Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23a; James 1:15).  Left to ourselves and in our now natural condition mankind is doomed to suffer not only physical death, but eternal death as well.  Since sinful man cannot be in the presence of a holy and righteous God we are assigned an eternity in hell along side the devil and his minions.

With this said it becomes evident that sin and its consequences are our greatest problem.  And the solution does not lie within ourselves.  The Acure@ for sin cannot be found in anything we do or try to accomplish.  Being so perfectly corrupted, it takes an equally perfect and uncorrupted solution to provide us with our single most and greatest need B freedom from sin.  This solution can only be provided by the same God we have all rebelled and sinned against. 

Thanks be to God that He has done just that in His Son, Jesus Christ.  As St. Paul wrote: AFor the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord@ (Romans 6:23)  It is in God=s plan of salvation that we have the hope  of being rescued from sin, death, and the devil.  It is only in this plan that what we have lost through sin can be regained and our right relationship with God restored.