Sin, what is it? We use that word in many ways, but i do believe we’ve got an odd twist on what it is, how it came to be there, and why, oh why, is it a big deal?
Is sin a one-time event? 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 a one-time event that happens frequently. It’s a word that can be used as a noun or a verb and is not the same as iniquity or transgression. It means to miss the way, and of course, the ever-popular “fall short”, but “fall short” is shortsighted of us not to see God’s intent for the larger picture. It’s not merely “falling short”, but more to fall short of spiritual wholeness, to twist God’s standard, and carries a sense of guilt. As a verb, sin isn’t something we did, like eating that Oreo Cookie, but more a condition that is allowed to persist. It isn’t the one Oreo Cookie, here and there, which makes us fat, it’s the lifestyle of Oreo Cookies that makes us fat. By the fact that it is allowed to persist means there is a choice which is being made, 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.
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, and removes our relish of righteous things. How, oh how did we get there? There is the real question. 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 persisted. We need Jesus in our lives to empower us to overcome a life driven by destructive habits, which eventually becomes a persistent process which morphs into a failure to persist. Despair and loss of hope is called, a failure to persist, and you actually can die from it.
Iniquity, my summary, stated in short, is a wrongness of character and it did not happen overnight. 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 and represents an increasing willingness to jump over God’s standards. Hi-fidelity means “to be loyal to the source”. Ooo! i like that.
As you can see then, the idea of sin is different than just “a thing that suddenly appears in our life one day, 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. Rom6:16-18, “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, there must be some overcoming going on.
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? No one wakes up one day and somewhere in the night sin crept in the window and jumped on them. No. It begins long before the recognition that sin is in the house. It starts with a little iniquity, a little wrongness of character which breeds an attitude of being willing to jump over God’s standards, transgression, and the more we jump over His standards, the easier it gets to jump over His standards. Do you see it? Do you see the gradual ebbing away from the Lord? It’s a process. 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. In Hebrew, destiny has a root word of destination, and our destination is Jesus, He is the place and person of our destiny. Our purpose is not to discover our purpose but to know Jesus above all things. i believe the Lord solved many things in the heart of the prodigal son when he decided to leave the place of his demise. He set his eyes on home, he focused more on where he was going rather than where he had been. i believe the Lord resolved many issues on his road home.
What do you think?