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Sin involves the refusal of humankind to accept its God-given position between the Creator and lower creation. It flows from decisions to reject God's way, and to steal, curse, and lie simply because that seems more attractive or reasonable. Here we approach the mystery of sin.
What is the definition of sin? Sin is described in the Bible as transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) and rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18). Sin had its beginning with Lucifer, probably the most beautiful and powerful of the angels.
Throughout the Old and New Testaments, sin means deviating from obedience to God’s character and will. In the Bible, sin is described as a transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) and rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18).
In the Bible, the word sin – whether it is in the Hebrew or the Greek – actually means to miss the mark. The reason this definition is so important is because it points to two things. First, there is a target we are aiming at, and second it speaks to our intention. Once we know there is a target, then we can choose to hit it or to miss it.
A sin is any thought or action that falls short of God’s will. God is perfect, and anything we do that falls short of His perfection is sin. The Bible actually uses a number of examples or “word pictures” to illustrate what this means.
Sin is the failure to keep God’s law and to uphold his righteousness, thus failing to glorify the Lord fully. While there are many different manifestations that sin can take, they are all rooted in the initial disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden.
And the root is this: Sin hates the truth of God, suppresses it, and exchanges it for what sin loves and worships. Sin loves to worship and serve the creature not the Creator. That’s the root of sinning.
What exactly is sin? Wayne Grudem says, “Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.” 1 Simply, sin is when we fail to look like God and depend on him. Tony Evans said this about sin: Sin makes us self-centered and self-dependent instead of God centered and God-dependent.
According to the ATS Bible Dictionary, sin is “any thought, word, desire, action, or omission of action, contrary to the law of God, or defective when compared with it.”
Sin, as one doctrine of the Christian system, is the common denominator of the other doctrines. Richard S. Taylor makes this point at the outset of his classic work, A Right Conception of Sin.1 His argument is that any doctrine that relates to sin, is effected by our understanding and definition of sin. Most errors in theology can usually find ...