17/09/2019
Maranatha Manzini
What Is Sin?
Amazingly this is one of the most misunderstood teachings of scripture even though it is plainly taught in the scriptures. One reason why we misinterprete what Sin is because we already think we have an idea of what we think sin is thus resulting in an Eisegesical method of interpretation instead of an Exegesisical approach.
Looking into the etymology of what is sin might give us an idea of what sin is but not the overall picture of how the Bible defines Sin. For one to understand what Sin is we have to look at the entire bible teaching on this subject and not just the word Sin.
How is sin defined by many Bible dictionaries is as following(more or less the same): sin is missing the mark, to err, to wander from the law of God, violate God's law, to transgress. This can be found both from the Hebrew word Châṭâ and Hamartia in the Greek.
Studying the Etymology of sin does take us in the right direction yet we might miss the full picture.
Let us go back to the beginning. What is the Origin of Sin in relation to Man? Paul puts it this way in Romans 12:12-13:
"So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned –
for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law."
According to majority teaching of scripture, Sin did exist without the law and the breaking of the it, Romans 3:20 :Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin). According to Bible teaching, sin is a state of being rather than the deeds which we see as sins.
Sin is a state, a nature man has because of Adam(dual both Adam and Eve). Adam was not created with this nature but in his falling he died(this 'dying' is the creation of this nature) Some have defined the dying of Adam as the separation from the relationship he use to have with God as a son. The former seems to agree more with the text yet in his dead state he did lose the relationship and fellowship he once had with God.
This state of being is called by many terms in the Bible, the Cold heart or stony heart, the fallen man, the, the flesh, the old man(in reference to Christians), all these definition describe one thing, Sin.
We don't have this sinful nature because we have sinned, but because we inherited it from Adam. As the following verse shows, Psalms 51:5:
New International Version
"Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."
We are born sinners. Thus in the study of Hamartiology we find atleast three types of description of sin.
1. Inherited Sin, this is a nature(the fallen or dead nature of Adam) we receive from the moment we are conceived.
2. Imputed Sin, this came about when the law was given so that man can account for their wrongs.
3. Personal Sins, which is the works of the flesh, what sin produces, these would be things like lying, killing, stealing and so forth, these are the fruits of our sinful nature not sin in themselves but the products of sin.
Even without the law man are sinners,
Rom 2:12 "All who sin apart from the Law will also perish apart from the Law, and all who sin under the Law will be judged by the Law."
This then leads us to an understanding of why Jesus taught new birth, being born again, regeneration. Please note that regeneration and the adoption of sonship is not the same thing, these are two separate things that happen when a sinner believes by faith.
Christian have in them the new nature, this can be seen in the clause of the new covenant: Ezekiel 36: 25- 27
I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances."
This speaks of regeneration, although though we are born again, we have not been perfected, for we still have in our mortal bodies, and to some extent as the Bible teaches this sinful nature still exist in our members. Paul puts it like this:Romans 7:15-24 New International Version (NIV)
"15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
23 but I see another law at work in me, waging waragainst the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
Everything Paul said should be taken literal not figuratively, He was not perfect for we are still awaiting the redemption of our mortal bodies hope.
Although this is true he does not own the sin in him, he does not say he is a sinner but rather that the sinful nature does exist still in him although now he has a new nature thus the is a conflict in him of the right he wants to do though the sin in him desires the opposite.
James puts it like this : "14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires.
15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin(Personal sin, added text), and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.
16 Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters."
The only way to deal with the sin problem is Through Christ and when people become born again. Rom 5:19 "For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous."
There is much to say about this study though this gives atleast a light to the nature of sin.
