Understanding Biblical Concept of Sin

 

What is Sin?

By Brother Michel Lankford

The first principle of authentic Christian discipleship is that we must choose to look at and define any key words, concepts principles and ideas the way that God Himself looks at them and defines them in His Word.

---

 

This Blog Will Discuss:

• Our definitions are the seeds of our legacies
• A visual representation of Righteousness versus Sin
• A review of key things to remember

---

Jesus Christ said: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness—how deep is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23 HCSB)¹
The first principle of genuine Christian discipleship is that we must look at words concepts and ideas the way that God and Jesus Christ defines them. If the eyes (meaning our perceptions) are good, then our whole body will be good and full of light. Definitions matter because words mean things. Words create ideas and ideas inspire behaviors, and behaviors create habits and habits create character and character creates legacies for future generations. Words and ideas are the seeds of legacies, and legacies will either create prosperity or devastation for societies. What we believe matters, even in ways not yet imagined by humankind.
Remember, part of discipleship is developing a God centered mindset means to define all key words and principles the way that God defines them in His Word. It's not a success unless God says it is. Something is sin, when God and Jesus Christ says it is sin. Something is Righteous only when God calls it righteous. Discipleship is about growing to agreement with God's opinion, not expecting God to adjust Himself or His standards to suit our own personal preferences. He is God, we are not.
God pronounces woeful judgment on any society or people who try to redefine, adjust or undermine His standards concerning right and wrong:

Isaiah 5:20-24 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight! Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away justice from the righteous man! Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, And the flame consumes the chaff, So their root will be as rottenness, And their blossom will ascend like dust; Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 5:20-24 NKJV)².

Even Jesus Christ the Son of God did not try to undermine or adjust God's standards or commands. He came to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17-20). That is why God honored Jesus, (Hebrews 1:9).

So the key point is that when we are facing important questions like what is a family? What is marriage? What is parenting? What is true love? Etc. etc. etc. We must always start the basis of our discussion with how does God and His word define any key terms. Since God is the Creator of all things, He designed life and relationships to work a certain way. It doesn't work well outside of God's design. So today, we are discussing the ideas of sin. The entire basis of our discussion will be how God defines these in the Scripture and how do we operate within His parameters. God be with you as you study His words, and implement them into your life.
 
This is Righteousness:
(Anything that HITS the mark of God's standards)

 

 3

How Does God Word Define Sin?

Using the original Greek New Testament language, the word for sin is “hamartia.” It is a Greek archery term meaning to miss the mark; meaning to miss the center or bull's-eye. Plainly speaking, anything that misses the mark of God's highest and best desires for our lives is sin. Note that Scripture makes no provision concerning how far we missed the mark. Any missing of Gods mark is sin, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
Since sin is to miss the bull's-eye mark of God's highest standards, then obviously, God does in fact have specific standards of right and wrong, true and false, light and darkness, or good and evil. After all, one cannot miss a bull's-eye mark if it does not exist. That is one of the biggest deceptions of the sinful world in our age. The sinful world desperately wants us to adopt a lie that there is no absolute right or wrong. The sinful world desperately wishes to deny that there is a God, that he has standards and that he will judge the living and the dead according to His standards. They desperately want to claim that there is no such thing as sin, so they falsely claim that there is no standard which can be missed. Scripture clearly calls such an attitude to be a deception:

1 John 1:5-9 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:5-9 NKJV - Emphasis Added)

If we try to deny that God has specific standards, if we say there is no such thing as sin, then we deceive ourselves. If we acknowledge that God has standards, but then we convince ourselves that we do not miss those standards, then we are also deceiving ourselves at that point. In fact, if we deny that God has standards, or if we deny that we have missed God's standards, then we are not only deceiving ourselves, but in such a case, the truth is not even in such a person.
Many people are not completely so far gone as to foolishly outright deny that God has standards, but they will try to claim something to the effect that, "We cannot really know what God's ultimate standards are can we? So shouldn't it be left to each individual's personal interpretation? Doesn't each person have the God-given right to determine what is right for himself or herself? At first glance, that sounds reasonable. It looks open and liberating, but such a belief system is actually disastrous on society. Think about it. If each person's idea is absolutely right and no one can challenge it as being wrong, then ultimately what right do we have to arrest the thief or murderer who has convinced himself that he has good enough reasons for doing what he's doing? Under such a misbegotten conclusion, no one's life, well-being, property or liberty can even hope to be preserved.
In point of fact, God has answered the question, "Can't each individual person decide for himself what is right and wrong? Speaking in paraphrase, God's answer is, "No, they cannot each decide for themselves what is right and wrong because their moral compass is corrupted by sin and they would destroy themselves. Besides, people would completely lose their way and there would be no method of restoration for them." (Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Isaiah 5:21; Proverbs 26:12; Proverbs 14:12; 16:25; Proverbs 3:7).
Since we know that God has standards - there is a bull's-eye, and sin is missing the bull's-eye of God's highest standards, then the next progressively logical question is what does God's bull's-eye standard of excellence look like? How do I know what God's bull's-eye mark is and whether I'm hitting or missing it?
This is sin:
(Anything that MISSES the mark of God's standards)

It's not complicated. The Bible is very clear. Anything done outside of the bounds of love, faith, obedience to God's word, or anything done outside of purposefully and intentionally glorifying God, is sin. By the way, that is not merely my opinion it comes straight from the Scriptures:

 

Sin Is Missing the Mark of Love:

God's highest standard is a godly Love. Its characteristics are described in (1 Corinthians 13:4-8; Ephesians 4:32). We are to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:34-40; Matthew 7:12). Both the Old and New Testaments proclaim that loving God with our entire being and loving our neighbor as ourselves is God's highest law. So anything not done in godly love misses God's standard, and is therefore sin.

 

Sin Is Missing the Mark of Faith:

Faith is trusting God and taking Him at His word (Hebrews 11:1,6). That is why reading, listening to and obeying the Scriptures is so critical; because faith comes by hearing God's Word (Romans 10:17). Faith is one measure that God uses to decide whether a person is Righteous or not. (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11). God's word directly says that whatever we do not do by faith is sin (Romans 14:23b). Therefore, failing to live by faith (which is firm conviction or persuasion in a manner agreeable to God's word) misses God's bull's-eye mark of excellence, and is therefore sin.

 

Sin Is Missing the Mark of Obedience to God:

If our love is genuine and your faith is growing, then obedience will surely follow (John 14:15,21). If I'm loving and trusting God as I should, then obedience is a natural outgrowth of my love and faith. It's a fact. Whenever I struggle with applying God's word in a particular area of my life (and we all will struggle), I try to find out where the breakdown is. Am I struggling with sincere love for God in this area? Am I having trouble here because I'm struggling with trusting God? Or am I struggling now because my own self-will and desire is too strong in this area of my life? Usually, once I resolve these questions, obeying God in whatever challenge I'm facing becomes much easier.
God cares more about our obedience than any sacrifice or ministry we can bring to Him (1 Samuel 15:22-23; Psalms 51:16-17). He cares more about our obedience than our church attendance, our tithing. Our obeying Him is more important than our serving or using our spiritual gifts. God desires people who obey Him from the heart, far more than He desires any other sacrifice. In fact, if you refuse or cannot obey what is written, then don't claim to have revelation knowledge of God. His own word would call you a liar (John 14:21).
Concerning this concept, I've heard many people approach God backwards. What I mean is they'll say something like, "If only God would reveal Himself to me more clearly, than I could obey Him better." That sounds good, except for the fact that it's completely wrong. Christ said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." (John 14:21 NASB)⁴
At first the idea that God only reveals Himself while we're obedient sounds unfair. After all we think to ourselves, how can we obey what we don't clearly understand? However, I believe that God established this concept for our protection. Think about it. The more we understand and know of God, the more accountable and responsible we are. If God were to reveal Himself to us before we determined in our heart that we wanted to obey Him, then we would be all the more condemned because we would be disobedient with full knowledge. By waiting until we determine in our hearts to be obedient before He reveals Himself, God ensures that our new revelation knowledge of Him will be a blessing, instead of a stumbling block.

 

Sin Is Missing the Mark of Purposely Glorifying God:

If we have the other three pillars of righteousness effectively working in our lives, the fourth one will come more naturally. That is that we are to live life purposefully with the goal of glorifying and honoring God. That means that we cannot live life passively. We must live life intentionally with the purpose of bringing honor to the one who made us (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17-23; James 2:12; John 5:19, 30;1 John 2:6).

The Conclusion: There is really no degree of sin. You either hit the mark of God's standards or you miss the mark. There really is no in between. Scripture tells us that when we sin violating one point of the law, we violate the whole law (James 2:10; 1 John 3:4). That is why when we truly look at God's fourfold standard of righteousness, no one can be counted as sinless. There is no human being that has ever lived except for Jesus Christ who ever successfully lived every moment of their lives entirely fulfilling all four of those standards perfectly for a lifetime. That's why it is written that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
Scripture is also very clear that the only solution to sin was the death that Christ died on the cross (Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Colossians 1:14). If our good works and our penances could effectively save us, Jesus would not have had to die. Christ died once for all to pay the penalty for our sins. (Romans 6:10; Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22; Colossians 1:1-17; 1 John 2:2, 4:10).

---

 

Key Things to Remember:

1. Remember, how we look at things is critical. What we believe drives our choices and actions. Part of discipleship is developing a God centered mindset. We must define all key words and principles the way that God defines them in His Word. It's not a success unless God says it is. Something is sin, when God and Jesus Christ says it is sin. Something is Righteous only when God calls it righteous. (Matthew 6:22-23).
2. Remember that God defines sin as, "Missing the bull's-eye mark" of His highest standards and desires. Remember that there are no degrees of sin. One either hits the mark or they missed the mark of God's highest standards. People want to believe that there is no standard because they want to pretend that they will not be judged by God, but this is ultimately self-deceptive because we will be judged by God according to His standards, whether we like it or not (1 John 1:5-8; Hebrews 4:12-13; Matthew 12:36; Romans 14:12).
3. Remember, God pronounces woeful judgments on a society whenever it tries to adjust or tamper with His standards. That is dangerous (Isaiah 5:20-24). Remember, something is Sin when God says it is.
4. Remember, the reason that God does not allow each individual person to decide for himself or herself what is right or wrong is because our moral compass is corrupted by sin and we would destroy ourselves. Once we took a wrong turn there would be no way to bring us back into right standing with a Holy God (Romans 6:23; Romans 3:23 Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Isaiah 5:21; Proverbs 26:12; Proverbs 14:12; 16:25; Proverbs 3:7).
5. Remember that Biblically, God has a fourfold standard for righteousness: everything that we desire, everything that we pursue, everything that we say and all that we do must be done in love, in faith, in obedience to God and with the full purpose of honoring and glorifying God. By God's definition of the term, anything that falls short of these standards is sin. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8; Matthew 22:34-40; Matthew 7:12; Hebrews 11:1,6; Romans 1:17; Romans 14:23b; 1 Samuel 15:22-23; Psalms 51:16-17; John 14:21; John 15:14; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17-23; 1 John 2:6).

---

 Endnotes:
1. All Scriptures designated (HCSB) are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible,Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003.
2.  Scriptures designated (NKJV) are taken from: The New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, used by permission. All rights reserved.
3. All clipart and visual representations for this article were downloaded from the Microsoft Office online clipart directory located: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/  under the search criteria:  "target"
4.  All Scriptures which are designated (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. All rights reserved.