For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
All sin is rebellion. It is a matter of who is on the throne. We can be considered to be in a state of sin any time God is not the center of our lives. Obviously, this is impossible. It has been impossible since the Fall. When we fell, we lost the ability to put God on the throne and keep Him there. This is known as original sin. We have the habit of deciding for ourselves – just as Adam and Eve decided for themselves – who is in charge and what rules we follow. We became autonomous. Autonomous means self-law, or self-governing. When considered in the context of our relationship with God, it means rebellion.
1 John 3:4
Everyone who sins practices lawlessness as well; indeed, sin is lawlessness.
Some people emphasize the debt we owe God as a result and call that original sin. The debt is real, and a necessary part of the problem, but it is a symptom of the problem rather than the cause. The problem is our autonomy. We have a real problem with this in the United States because of the mindset our history has produced – “You aren’t the boss of me!” We tend to view ourselves as free and see that as a good thing. It isn’t. Freedom in the sense of deciding for ourselves what leaders we follow and what rules we make for ourselves is the very essence of our problem with God. He is in charge. He decides what rules we follow. Our responsibility is to submit and obey. Until we put God back on the throne, we remain in rebellion.
Like in most cultures, rebellion against God is a capital crime. Part of the penalty for rebelling against God is death. When Adam and Eve rebelled, God removed their access to the Tree of Life. Whether literal or figurative, the truth remains: rebellion = death. In our case, the temporal death is only half of the punishment. The other is eternal separation from God. After our temporal death, our existence continues; only the conditions change. Please see Death, Heaven and Hell.
Biblical sin is twofold – rebellion against God’s will, and failure to be perfect. If you think about it, they are both very similar. Remember that it’s a one-person throne. Somebody is on it at all times, and if at any moment God is not on the throne, you get put to death. It’s a capital crime.
The practical result of the fall is that we are constitutionally unable to keep God on the throne at all times. The closer we get to God, the more clearly we realize how far from His will we truly are. That recognition doesn’t really help us follow His will – that struggle will only end after we return to Him. As long as there is still sin in us, we will keep on violating God’s will and His law.
Romans 7:15-20
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 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. 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.
This is not completely hopeless. God will help us learn to stop sinning, but the process is slow. We have to continue to sin and repent, trying continually to resist sin. Each time it will get a little easier; each time we will do a little better.
Nevertheless, we cannot help but fail to be perfect in obedience and action. These are both crimes against God that can also be thought of as debts we owe Him. God’s justice must be served, so we have to die. The only reason we don’t is the God executed His justice on Jesus rather than us. All we have to do is gratefully receive that sacrifice. There is more to it, of course, because when God sees us through the cross, He sees perfection. We are completely restored. Please see Chapter 13 – What is salvation.
The other half of sin
It’s not just the state of rebellion that is a problem. Our individual acts of rebellion are also punishable – our individual sins. Being an outlaw is a problem, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are also accountable for the individual laws we have broken – the individual crimes.
God wrote His law to show us what right living looks like. He would not have needed to do that to nearly the same extent if we had not fallen. Our individual consciences would have been in complete alignment with His will and we would not have erred. There still would have been laws, but they would have been more like general rules to show us how to live in His will.
Romans 7:7b
I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.
Sin is not the only component of our rebellion that requires salvation. We must also be perfect. Please see Salvation.
Sins or trespasses – both are failures (anything other than being perfect). There isn’t a lot of difference between sin and trespass. For most purposes, they can be considered synonyms.
A sin is a violation of God’s law. It is also a failure to be perfect; to miss the mark. It can include a willful act or something we do accidentally. Whenever we don’t comply with His law completely, we sin.
It can also be considered doing something against God’s will, even inadvertently. We can do our absolute best to avoid sin and still fail to live according to God’s will. The Pharisees did exactly this. They followed God’s law completely in all its complexity, and even added more complexity to try and make sure they didn’t violate its intent. It sounds laudable. But they grew proud in their self-righteousness and lorded it over their fellow men. They followed God’s law but violated His will. In doing this, the Pharisees definitely sinned against God.
It is also God’s will that we live in right relationship with each other. When I sin against those around me, I sin against God as well. When I ask others to forgive me, I also have to ask God to forgive me.
It isn’t just the act that must be considered sin. Someone can sin against me intentionally or unintentionally. I have to forgive both the act and the intent. If someone steps on my foot by accident, he has offended me, and I have to forgive him. If someone steps on my foot intentionally, I have to forgive both the act and the intent. I can sin against God by accident, completely unintentionally. I may even be completely unaware that I have done it. This is why we have to ask God to forgive us for any sins we may have unknowingly committed by action or omission as well as those He has shown us.
God’s will says that we are supposed to live in specific relationships to Him and to each other. Violating those relationships is a sin. When I don’t live in right relationship with those around me, I am being just as sinful as when I am committing the most evil of crimes. This is why sins involving the will are so much worse than plain sinful acts. I can at least recognize when I do something that is wrong and seek forgiveness. It is much harder to recognize when I have a sinful attitude, such as excessive pride, self-centeredness or thoughtlessness toward those around me, and even harder to repent and change.
So what do we know?
We live in a state of rebellion against God, earning His wrath and our destruction.
Anything that we do that is in the slightest way different than God wills is sin, earning His wrath and our destruction.
The end result of this is that we are doomed, individually and as a group. We are without excuse and without hope. This is why we needed someone to help us. Someone who is not caught in the same situation. Someone who was in right relationship with God who could intercede for us, and also someone with enough credit/asset to pay our penalty without being destroyed in the process. In short, this is why we needed God to save us from God.
This is why Jesus came to save us. Please see Salvation.
So how do we handle sin?
Sin poisons our relationships with each other. When we sin against each other, it introduces anger and resentment. It builds walls between us that destroy our ability to love each other.
It also builds walls within ourselves. If I have sinned against someone, I feel a reluctance to speak to or even see that person. My awareness of the crime I have committed against that person interferes with any communication I have with him. It also makes me hate that person a little bit. This is why it is incredibly important that I talk to the person and confess my sin against him and ask for his forgiveness. I have to do everything in my power to try and restore the relationship.
When someone sins against me, I tend to become resentful. I get angry whenever I think about that person and what he has done. If I don’t forgive that person – both for their action and their intent – and forgive them completely, that anger will grow into bitterness and resentment. It will become a poison in my soul that will continue to spill out and poison other things, other relationships and eventually poison me. That is why forgiveness is so critical.
I can’t wait for the person to ask for forgiveness, as we tend to do (very self-righteously) or, even worse, wait for him to ask for forgiveness in the right way. That is the way of the world. The model of forgiveness we were given is very different. Jesus didn’t wait until we asked for forgiveness. He just acted to buy it. Now He is waiting for us to ask. The forgiveness has already been provided, but if we don’t ask for it, we will continue to live in our own poison. We will also face God’s wrath at His judgment.
When we live with one another, we inevitably sin against each other. Often, we don’t even realize we are doing it. It is very important that we tell each other when we have been offended so we can clear the air. I can’t ask for forgiveness if I don’t know I have offended. I also can’t work on trying not to do it again.
When I sin against someone, I have to humbly ask that person’s forgiveness. I have to admit that what I did was wrong. But I also have to try not to do it again. That is repentance. Repentance is not about paying a penalty for doing something wrong. It is about changing my ways so I don’t do it again. Being human (imperfect and stubborn), this takes a long time. Penance is a tool to help me learn. If I have to take some action specifically related to the sin I have committed that is inconvenient or unpleasant that helps me to learn, I am effectively inflicting a punishment on myself with the intent of correcting my behavior. In the case of penance directed by a confessor, this lesson comes from outside which makes it harder to ignore. Penance that doesn’t relate to the sin is just punishment, not correction. Repeating endless memorized prayers won’t help. Intentionally doing a good deed every day for the person who hurt you will. It will break down the resentment inside. It will help fix the problem.
We need to acknowledge the existence of sin and disobedience in our lives. We need to recognize the effect it has on us and those around us. We need to communicate with each other and with God, asking forgiveness and freely granting it to those who have offended us.
So how do we stop sinning?
The first step is for the sinner to realize that what he is doing is sinful and want to try to stop. That can only happen if we hold fast to the truth of God’s law. There is forgiveness, but that has to follow recognition of the law and its demands. It is the only way that a person can get right with God.
After that, the sinner must consistently try not to sin. This inevitably involves failure. This is normal. God doesn’t punish failure, only failure to try. When I sin, I must stop, humbly ask God’s forgiveness and humbly ask Him to help me not to sin again. I know that I will, but I am still determined to try.
My mindset has to be: Sin will inevitably cause me to fall, but not this sin. I will fall eventually, but not this time. I also have to realize that I am not a bad person for falling – merely human. God doesn’t hate me because of my sin. He just hates the sin and grieves that I fell. He is more than happy to help me get back up and try again. I need to try to take the same approach. I should not hate myself for sinning. I should hate the sin and resolve not to further damage the beautiful me that God delights in. I should be incredibly relieved and deliriously happy that He has forgiven me (for the umpteenth time) and will continue to do so as long as I continue to try and obey Him. I should stand in awe and wonder at the love that sees me as perfect in the face of my sin. I should honor that love by doing my absolute best to live as He wants me to live.