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Sin is bad… right? But what is it… and why is it sin… and what’s so bad about it? What makes it “sin.” Is the determination of sin a unilateral moral decision on the part of God (God decides it on His own), or is sin inherently bad? The Old Testament says that adultery is sin, but Jesus said if you even think about adultery it’s sin. If even thinking about sin is sin, is there any hope for any of us?
In these next studies we’ll take a look at the changing boundaries of what the Bible defines as sin. We’ll see why those boundaries changed. We’ll also discover why sin is sin, why it’s bad for us, what God thinks both about it and about us when we’re in sin, and how God saves and is saving us from it.
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The word sin is the Greek word hamartia, composed of a, meaning no or not or none, and martia, which comes from the Greek word meros, meaning a part or portion. In its verb form, meiromai means to get or to receive a share, or portion. Thus, sin has as its meaning “no share or portion.” To sin is to act from out of where there is no portion, or to “miss the mark” so as not to receive any share or portion of the prize.
This definition leads us to the question, “No portion of what?” Spirit? God? Life? Faith? Goodness? The answer is, no portion of what only God can supply man, which is His spirit (image, nature, power, presence), and thus all the effects of His spirit working within us, including all those qualities listed above, to name a few… spirit, God, life, faith, goodness, etc.
In the garden, before the fall, all things were available to this new being, man-created-in-God’s-image. Only one single thing could cause this man to lose his portion of God, and that was the one thing God told Adam not to do; to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat thereof youshall surely die. (Genesis 2:16,17)
During this period of time, known as the Administration of the Original Paradise, there was only one sin, and that was to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what was so deserving of losing any portion of God in the eating of this tree?
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations (logizomai– logical reasonings), and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools… (Romans 1:21,22)
Romans 1:18ff is the record of the spiritual fall of man as initiated and carried out by Satan. Not the physical act(s), but what was happening spiritually as man descended into the abyss of self-destruction, losing any portion of the life and fruitfulness of God.
The final step away from obtaining our portion of God and His effect in our lives is to reject thankfulness. Being thankful makes a man a recipient of the things of God. Man needs God to continue to sustain his life, and thankfulness is the open door of that need being continually supplied. The first step into losing our portion of the things of God is to become vain in our own logic… to decide that the true means of obtaining our own portion of “God” lies in our own ability to reason and understand what is right (good) and what is not right (evil).
Instead of living in the need for God, which is how God designed man to live, vanity means trying to figure it out and solve it on our own. It’s like trying to lift our own self up by our own bootstraps. It’s the act of a man, drowning in the ocean and being thrown a life preserver, who ignores that life preserver because he’s decided that flying is a much better means of salvation. The result? He drowns.
Sin is not the floundering in the ocean. Sin is ignoring that which provides life, and trying to sustain our own life by our own efforts. This always results in destruction and death. And so the consequence of the first sin, which was rejecting God and taking upon oneself the responsibility of sustaining life, was death.
And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die; For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3:4-6)
Sin is a liar. That which pushes us to try and sustain our own selves by promising better results than what the truth of God can accomplish is always a big lie. We’re never better off trying to sustain our lives by our own abilities. Ever since the time of the initial inner consequence of rejecting the true God as the sustainer of life, there has been this pervasive awareness of lack and a shamed avoidance of the true Sustainer of life.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:7,8)
To sum up this study on sin; sin is that which has no portion of the things of God, and thus it is against life and all the good things which spring from God. It is evidenced in man by a lack of thankfulness to God and by destructively vain moral thinking and behavior and eventually death.
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Other studies related to sin are:
How God Deals with our Sin
Freedom from Sin’s Domination
Starve the Evil
