INTRODUCTION:
Psychologist Karl Menninger asked this most significant question:
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SIN?
This is a haunting question. It lingers with us, and must be addressed from the perspective of Holy Scripture, and with undaunting courage.
* - TODAY, we want safe sex, so people in our society, including a number of top political leaders advocate the extensive distribution of condoms to reduce the dreaded results of unsafe sex. Why don’t we just say “sex outside of legal marriage is sin!” or why don’t we promote abstinence until marriage?
* - TODAY, we want safe abortions, so people in our society, including a number of leading political leaders plead for pro-choice laws to rid our nation of back-alley, dirty abortion centers, in order to protect the health of promiscuous young women. Is no one willing to stand and say “abortion except for serious medical reasons is murder?”
* - TODAY, we want safe suicides, so people in our society, supported by some vocal political leaders call for the medical profession to stand by so that the horrific act will not be a self-inflicted, messy failure. Where is the trumpet to sound out the truth that in a rational, thinking mind, “suicide is murder?”
Theologian A.H. Strong states: “Sin is lack of conformity to the moral law of God, either in act, disposition, or state.”
John Wesley said: “Sin is the voluntary transgression of a known law of God.”
But theological definitions, though based upon, and in conformity with God’s Word, and though satisfying to our searching minds, must always be subordinate to the clear definition of sin found in the Holy Scriptures.
THEREFORE it is essential to discover the Biblical DEFINITION of sin, how sin DISPLAYS itself, and how sin is DEALT WITH by Divine power.
[1] SIN DEFINED. [1 John 3:4b]
ἡ ἁμαρτία ἐστὶν ἡ ἀνομία.
The Authorized Version of the Bible, The King James Version, translates this verse: “Sin is the transgression of the law.”
The New King James Version of the Bible translates the verse: “Sin is lawlessness.” This translation is more accurate. Why? Because one can transgress the law without being lawless! HOW?
[A] Through Ignorance: For example, you may be driving through a State where the driving laws are different from that of your home state. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, to be sure, and a violation may be costly. However, the violation of the law does not in-dicate a spirit of lawlessness.
[B] Through Thoughtlessness: For example, you may be driving in England. In an emergency, or crisis, or just not thinking, you may momentarily forget what you know about the driving laws in England. There is no spirit of lawlessness involved.
[C] Through accident: For example, two mission-aries in Africa went hunting for a lion that had mauled and killed a national helper. The lion jumped the man who was in the lead. The other man hurriedly aimed his gun and fired, but hit his friend. A second shot killed the lion, but his missionary friend later died. He killed his friend, but was he guilty of murder? No, for there was no spirit of lawlessness.
SO, what is lawlessness? In other words, how may sin be defined Biblically? It is a spirit within a person, a force that is impelling, that rises up under certain provocation and places one’s self as the final arbiter of life’s decisions. In effect then, lawlessness is a spirit within that declares: “No one is going to tell me what to do; I am the master of my own destiny, and I will do just as I please.”
ENTER: Romans 8:7:
Διότι τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς ἔχθρα εἰς Θεόν, τῷ γὰρ νόμῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐχ ὑποτάσσεται, οὐδὲ γὰρ δύναται.
Here are new words, but with the same meaning! Here is “uncontrollable lawlessness.” God cannot control the sin nature. It is not subject to His law. He must do something else with it. It must be killed, destroyed, or removed from within the heart of a person.
But sin is a set of the soul, not some material object which when removed is forever extinct or annihilated. It is an evil force that has invaded our God-designed human nature, and made it totally incapable of doing that which pleases God. The Bible even states clearly:
πᾶν δὲ ὃ οὐκ ἐκ πίστεως ἁμαρτία ἐστίν.
[Romans 14:23]
Therefore when God deals radically with the spirit of lawlessness, the nature of sin, the sin principle by removing it from within, it is destroyed so far as it affects the heart of the person. However, it is very much alive outside that person. One only needs recall that sin as a force, a power, a principle, was OUTSIDE Adam and Eve until THEY opened the door and true to its very nature, it moved to the inside of their lives.
Example: What is LOVE between two people? It is not a material object. It is a powerful force, the set of one’s mind, emotions, and soul. Can love die? Yes! Divorce courts give ample evidence to that! But can love as a set of the mind and heart be revived? Yes!
So, just as LOVE as a force, a powerful set of the mind and heart can regain entrance into a person’s life, so SIN as a principle, a force, a powerful set of the mind and heart can regain entrance through the open door of the soul, as a person yields to the tempter.
Biblical example:
“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the LORD.’ Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering to the LORD. Abel also brought of the first born of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule
over it.” [Genesis 4:1-7]
The question, therefore, “What is sin?” can be answered in a two-fold sense:
[A] Sin is first a controlling inner spirit, known in the Bible as the “spirit of lawlessness,” which results a self-directing life style that disregards the laws of God. When those decisions conflict God's laws, the tragic and devastating result is:
[B] an “act of sin” which is nothing less than a willful transgression of a known law of God.
Having looked into the Scriptures to see Sin defined, it is equally important to note:
[2] SIN DISPLAYED. [1 John 3:4a; 8a; 10b]
Note this sequence of Biblical statements:
Πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν καὶ τὴν ἀνομίαν ποιεῖ, ... ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου ἐστίν, ...πᾶς ὁ μὴ ποιῶν δικαιοσύνην οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.
From reading this sequence of Biblical statements it is easy to note that the spirit of lawlessness that is within the heart and life, with all its controlling power and strength, is expressed outwardly in a great variety of actions. Therefore, SIN must be under-stood as that evil disposition that apparently lies within every naturally conceived person on earth.
So the question rises logically: “Where did this spirit of lawlessness come from? How did I get it?” The answer lies in Scripture itself:
Διὰ τοῦτο ὥσπερ δι᾿ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου ἡ ἁμαρτία εἰς τὸν κόσμον εἰσῆλθεν καὶ διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὁ θάνατος, καὶ οὕτως εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους ὁ θάνατος διῆλθεν, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον.
[Romans 5:12]
Paul teaches clearly that the sin principle is inherited from Adam as the federal head of the human race, and it is transmitted through our immediate ancestry, not from them, and it is neither lessened nor increased in any way in the process of its descent.
SIN must also be understood as the varied outward actions of life bearing the character of that inward, inherited evil disposition. Such actions emerging from the inner condition may be either sins of commission or sins of omission.
Note that John is careful to make this distinction.
Πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν καὶ τὴν ἀνομίαν ποιεῖ
[1 John 3:4a]
Here is one doing that which is for-bidden.
Πᾶς ὁ μὴ ποιῶν δικαιοσύνην οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.
[1 John 3:10b]
Here is one failing to do that which is right! For either or both, one is accountable!
These are acts of sin, both a sin of commission and a sin of omission. To deal with these before God FOUR elements are necessary, each a part of repentance:
[A] Conviction - an act of the Holy Spirit;
[B] Contrition - an inner sorrow for sin;
[C] Confession - a deliberate agreeing with God;
[D] Correction - a change produced by God's Spirit.
