| Author | Message | ||
| Schasc Registered user Username: Schasc Post Number: 69 Registered: 10-2004 |
How does the Bible define sin? Is it transgression of the law? Is it separtation from God? Is it not doing Gods will? Is it all or none of the above? | ||
| Cforrester Registered user Username: Cforrester Post Number: 48 Registered: 7-2004 |
That's both a difficult and simple question at the same time. The simple answer is that it is any being or behavior that is contrary to the nature and character of God. However, wrapping our minds around the fullness of the question is more complex. I have around here somewhere R. Springett's Doctrine of Sin for the SDA commentary and it was something like 120 pages. 1 John 3:4 defines sin as "lawlessness" (not transgression of the law, as per KJV) and associates it with the practice of sin/lawlessness. Romans 7 has a discussion of sin and the law; the law both illuminates sin and arouses the sinful passions. Sin is both the actions and the condition. Could I suggest that sin involves lack of faith and less than perfect agape love; selfishness and doubt regarding God and His perfect salvation in Christ. This, I realize, barely starts the conversation. All I know is I'm such a sinner I can barely define it and am whoopin glad I have a Savior who understands all about it and how to save me  | ||
| U2bsda Registered user Username: U2bsda Post Number: 362 Registered: 11-2004 |
Romans 14 says "23But the man who has doubts (misgivings, an uneasy conscience) about eating, and then eats [perhaps because of you], stands condemned [before God], because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin [whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful]." In other words if you know it to be wrong and do it anyway it is sin. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5041 Registered: 12-2003  |
Schasc, I know that Adventists latch onto the one text, "Sin is the transgression of the law" as THE defintion of sin. This definition , however, they interpret to mean "transgression of the 10 Commandments". Discussion with them about it goes nowhere because they cannot acknhowledge that sin is not directly related to the Decalogue but rather to an affront to God and all He expects of usóthe eteranl moral requirements of God that transcend and outlast the decalogue. Romans 5:12-14 explains that sin entered the world by one man, and death came through sinó"and in this way death came to all men, because all sinnedófor before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come." Ephesians 2:1-4 explains that everyone is originally slave to the "spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient", and are "by nature objects of wrath". The New Bible Dictionary by InterVarsity Press has a long discussion of sin, looking at all the underlying Greek and Hebrew words translated "sin", and it discusses the various implications of the word. It summarizes the definition by saying, "The definition of sin, however, is not to be derived simply from the terms used in Scripture to denote it. The most characteristic feature of sin in all its aspects is that it is directed against God (cf. Ps. 51:4; Rom. 8:7). Any conception of sin which does not have in the forefront the contradiction which it offers to God is a deviation from the biblical representation. The common notion that sin is selfishness betrays a false assessment of its nature and gravity. Essentially, sin is directed against God, and this persepctive alone accounts for the diversity of its form and activities. It is a violation of that which God's glory demands and is, therefore, in its essence the contradiction of God." IOW, sin is not trampling the Decalogue. Sin condemned all mankind BEFORE they were able to sinóthey are "by nature objects of wrath" (Ephe 2:3-4). Sin is, as the dictionary said so well, "the contradiction of God". Colleen |
