Whatever Happened To Sin?

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SIN? (JOHN 8:1-11)

A study by a research organization several years ago questioned more than 1,000 American adult respondents whether they believe in such a thing as “sin” and then asked them whether 30 different behaviors were sinful. Out the list of 30 behaviors, adultery was most often described as a sinful behavior by the respondents (81 percent). Following adultery was racism (74 percent); using “hard” drugs (65 percent); not saying anything if a cashier gives you too much change (63 percent); abortion (56 percent); and homosexual activity or sex (52 percent) and pornographic literature (50%) that 50% or more respondents considered these practices sinful.

http://m.christianpost.com/news/study-behaviors-americans-consider-sinful--31504/

(“Study: Behaviors Americans Consider 'Sinful'” March 12, 2008)

How does the Bible define sin? Two passages present the two sides of sin – the sin of commission and the sin of omission. 1 John 5:17 tells us that “all wrongdoing is sin,” which is the sin of doing wrong. James 4:17, on the other hand, says “if anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them,” which is the sin of not doing the right thing. Romans 3:23 aptly sums it up as “for all have sinned (commission) and fall short (omission) of the glory of God.”

Why is God opposed to sin? What options do sinners have? How can we overcome pesky sin that so easily entangles us on the road to conversion and commitment?

Be Saddened by Sin

8 1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (John 8:1-5)

A man was driving a rig in a long line of tractor-trailers when a police officer pulled him over for speeding. Astounded that he alone was caught, the man asked in protest, “Out of all these trucks that were going just as fast as I was, why did you pull me over?”

“Have you ever gone fishing?” the officer asked.

“Yes,” the man replied.

“Well, have you ever caught all the fish in the pond?”

This passage reveals the different faces of sinners in the Bible- the caught, the catchers, and the uncaught, or the dejected, the delighted and the departed, the person, the prosecution and the partner.

To the first person, unlike the lure and allure of sin in the novels and movies, sin was not good or glamorous. Sin is enslaving more than enjoying, lording rather than liberating us. From the word sin we have sinister. Sin is poison, toxic and fire. It is intense, inflammatory and insidious. Robert Morneau compares sin to an ingrown toenail, poison and cancer, and that sinfulness is the basic orientation away from God, a turning from light to darkness, and sin is the individual act or abiding attitude that chooses death over life. (Reconciliation, pp 54-55).

The subject of adultery is rampant in the gospels (Matt 5:32, 15:19, Mark 7:22), the New Testament and the Bible, but this is the first actual person “caught in adultery” (v 3), a catch under unusual and unfair circumstances. First, she, and not he, was caught. Second, she was dragged before the people instead of the court. Third, they could have questioned her alone, not before Jesus. Deuteronomy 22:23-24 says, “If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take BOTH of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death” (Deut 22:23). If both were involved, who and where was the man? Why did he escape? Why the disparity or double standards? Their motivation was cruel, to stone her. The verb “caught” (katalambano) means grabbed, seized or possessed. Nobody was caught in the Bible before for adultery, never man or woman.

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There are saved sinners and unsaved sinners, self-indulgent sinners and self-righteous sinners, helpless and hardened sinners, shamed and shameless sinners, and repentant and resistant sinners, but there is no such thing as an unintentional and involuntary sinner. Sin is instinctive and insatiable (2 Peter 2:14), but never involuntary, accidental or inescapable. It’s been said, “The first look is accidental and the second look is intentional.” The first look is an accidental, the second look is the analysis, and the third is an abomination.

In cases of stoning the Mosaic Law required at least two witnesses who had not participated in the sin to be the first to throw the stones (Leviticus 24:14; Deuteronomy 13:9; Deuteronomy 17:7), but all were involved, none was innocent. Jesus came to the temple to teach and not try others. Deut 17:6-8