Blogging BCM: Sin Part 1

Last night at BCM Tim began with part 1 of his series on sin. He defined sin and went into a greater detail of what sin is. I want to expound on these two myself today giving a definition of sin and the different parts of that definition. Next week, just as Tim will in his message, I'll go into greater detail of how we as Christians must respond to sin and what happens when we do sin. The following definition and explanations I will use in quotations were written by Erik Thoennes in an article on sin contributed to the ESV Study Bible. Thoennes defines sin as:

Anything (whether in thoughts, actions, or attitudes) that does not express or conform to the holy character of God as expressed in his moral law.

You might be saying, "OK I've heard definitions like these before. We shared a few last night and I basically kind of have the gist of what sin is." Let's take this definition a little deeper. In his article on sin in the ESV Study Bible Thoennes breaks this definition down into five elements that encompass what sin is. The first element Thoennes gives is:

Sin is moral evil (e.g., murder) as opposed to natural evil (e.g., cancer). Moral evil is personal rebellion against God, and it is what brought natural evil into the world.

Adam and Eve brought moral evil into the world when their pride caused them to sin against God for the first time in the garden. As a result, natural evil, such as death and disease, entered the world. The next element is:

Sin is always and ultimately related to God. While sin has devastating societal, relational, and physical ramifications, the central problem of sin is that it offends and incurs the wrath of God...Sin is a personal attack on the character and ordinances of God.

We must realize that when we sin it is ultimately God who we are sinning against. Thoennes uses the best Biblical example of this when he shares Psalm 51:4 where the psalmist David says, "Against you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." We must come to the realization, just as David did, that when we sin it is God whom we have sinned against. Thirdly Thoennes says:

Sin is breaking God's law, which can take several forms. There are sins of omission (not doing what we should do) as well as sins of commission (doing what we should not do).

When we realize that when we sin it is a moral evil and that when we sin we are ultimately sinning against God, we then need to see that by sinning against God we are either not doing something we should be doing or doing something we should not be doing. For me, it is so hard to keep this in balance and fight against the struggle to either not do something I should be or do something I shouldn't be. There are so many times we commit an act of omission or commission and sin against God. It is in this struggle that we find Thoennes' fourth element:

Sin is rooted deep in our very nature, and sinful actions reveal the condition of a depraved heart within.

We must realize that sin is in our human nature. Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and into human nature when they ate the fruit off of the tree. Ever since, we have struggled as humanity with the problem of sin that is in our being. We must however, not use this fact as an excuse against God. We must repent our human nature and work diligently on fighting and overcoming the temptation to sin. Finally, Theonnes writes:

Sin has brought about a guilty standing before God and a corrupted condition in all humans.

When we sin, we feel guilt and shame. Because when we sin, we are not expressing or conforming to the holy character of God, we stand guilty in front of a holy and pure God. It is because of this that Jesus Christ entered the world and was crucified on the cross to pay our ransom. In our place, condemned He stood.

We will expound more on the saving grace of Christ next week. For now I hope this definition and explanation has helped your understanding of sin. I challenge you this week to think about the definitions of sin we have given you and to search for yourself in the Word of God for different scenarios of sin that would help you better understand what sin is. Ultimately I challenge you to do two things this week:

1. Mediate and think about what sin is and how it separates us from God.
2. Think about areas in your life where sin has pulled you further away from God.

I also want to challenge you to read Psalm 51. I think it is a great cry out to God from David that helps us see what sin really is.

Again, as always, remember if there is any questions you might have regarding what we discuss or anything you need, do not hesitate to ask Tim or myself.