Sin, what is it? We use that word in a lot of ways, but i do believe we’ve gotten an odd twist on what it is, how it came to be there, and why, oh why, is it a big deal? One author wrote that, “sin is the denial or ignorance or avoidance of that basic condition. Sin is the word we use to designate the perverseness of will by which we attempt being our own gods, or making for ourselves other gods. It isn’t essentially a moral term, designating items of wrong doing; it’s a spiritual term, designating our God-avoidance and our god-pretensions.”
Is sin a one-time event which we only see as “this time” or “that time”? We say, “Oh, i sinned.” or “When i did this or that i was in sin.” Is it a one-time event that happens over and over? i say, maybe, but i also say it is actually, according to God, more than that. What came first sin or death? It’s kind of a “what came first the chicken or the egg?” sort of question. It’s a word that can be used as a noun or a verb, and is not the same as iniquity or transgression. In the words greatest simplicity it means to miss the way or mark, which i find to be not nearly specific enough. And of course the ever popular “fall short”, but “fall short” is shortsighted and a little myopic because it’s not simply “falling short”, but more to fall short of spiritual wholeness, to twist the standard, and carries a sense of guilt. Many times, sin is more a condition that is allowed to persist, as in the theme of our lives. By the fact that it is allowed to persist means there is a choice being made, and the more we choose sin, the more we typically choose sin and the repercussions of our choices are not readily seen until we’re far from God. And, once again, we are faced with the fact that we are choosing, as opposed to something that happens to us which is outside of our sphere of control. Sin does not merely leap on or fall on us like a snake seizing it’s prey. We don’t wake up one morning and say, “Oh my gosh! Sin just fell on me in the middle of the night! Where did that come from?”
Sin was not sneaking around the garden waiting to get on them. They rebelled and broke relationship and it made them die. But then, God did tell Cain in Genesis 4:7, “sin is crouching at the door”, meaning it’s ready to seize you. Do you see it? There’s tension in the verse with the picture of a trap poised to spring.
One time, when he was young, John Wesley asked his mother to define sin. Her reply was, “whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”
The question is not so much what we did, that is a given by evidence of our actions, but i think it’s more important to discover of ourselves how and why we were attracted to behaviors which impair the tenderness of our conscience, removing our relish of righteous things. How did we get there? i believe, it’s highly more probable the stage was set to slowly hand power over to our flesh to lord it over our spirit, long before we realized we were enveloped in a destructive condition which persists. We need Jesus in our lives so as to prevent our destructive, persistent processes to evolve into a failure to persist. A failure to persist is like the ultimate defeat. The engine quits, our vehicle stops, we’re out of gas and so we decide, “What’s the point?” and we capitulate unto death.
Iniquity is a wrongness of character, and it’s root word means to bend, twist away from the light, to distort. Transgression paints the picture of rebellion which supports a breach of relationship, to cast off allegiance and fidelity. God is calling us to Hi-fidelity which means “to be loyal to the source”. Ooo! i like that.
As you can see then, the idea of sin is different, although the three, iniquity, transgression, and sin are inseparable traveling companions. One gives birth to the other in a vicious downward spiral.
There used to be a ride at the fair called a “Tilt-a-whirl”. Wikipedia describes it as, “a rotating platform, where parts of the platform are raised and lowered, with the resulting centrifugal and gravitational forces on the cars cause them to spin in different directions and at variable speeds. The weight of passengers in these cars (as well as the weight distribution) may intensify or dampen the spinning motion of the cars, adding to the unpredictable nature of the motion.”
i think of iniquity, transgression, and sin like that. They whip us back and forth, using our weight against us, slamming us back and forth until we are swirling in our head and heart, unable to be steady on our feet and our balance is all messed up.
Let us not be so narrow minded we don’t think further than the Webster’s dictionary. God has a much broader view explaining in more detail the importance of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
We don’t have to be slaves. It doesn’t have to be that way. Romans 6:16-18, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
By the blood of Jesus, we do not have to allow the condition of sin to persist. The Lord lays out a list in Philippians 4:8-9 of things to think about other than whatever facilitates the obscuring of the Lord in our lives.
For me, i’m learning to prefer God’s preferences over my own. i don’t always win, but by His blood and power in the Holy Spirit, i am winning every hour, every minute of every day, because Jesus has overcome the world. He has taken away my thrill of iniquity, caused my heart to prefer to not transgress, and handed me the power to never allow sin and death to persist. It is true, we are more than conquerors’, we are overcomers, and if we’re going to be overcomers, we must DO the things which overcome.
Think, what is it in you, where is the starting point, that allows you to slowly change to not really having a problem with losing a little relish for rightness of character? What is it in you that gradually enables wearing your belt of truth j-u-s-t loose enough that you aren’t bothered too much by weakened reasoning too often? If you’ll set your eyes on Jesus, He’ll resolve those questions while on the way to where He’s taking you. i believe the Lord solved many things in the heart of the prodigal son when he decided to leave the place of his demise and go home. He set his eyes on home, where he was going more than where he had been. i believe the Lord resolved many issues on his road home.
What do you think?