Monday, 11 May 2009
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What is SIN?
What is SIN?
Introduction
I am going to interrupt our studies to discuss an important topic. I am going to be quoting from "A Theology for the Church" by Danial L. Akin. All Bible quotes are from the Amplified Bible at BibleGateway.com.
Since the fall, no one has been able to elude the entanglements of their own sinfulness. No matter how enlightened we may be or how advanced our technological discoveries, we still find ourselves ravaged by hatred, lust, rage, and covetousness. We contend against the adversary of our ancestors: the sin that resides within each of us. We do not like to think of ourselves as helpless, yet the doctrine of sin reminds us that we are unable to extricate ourselves from the grip of our sinfulness.
These misunderstandings about the nature of sin may stem in part from the demise of meaningful and honest discourse on the subject. Although important and relevant, the topic of sin is not the most popular of issues. Modern attitudes about the subject consider it either unpleasant and inappropriate or irrelevant and passé. Recent years have witnessed a decline even in the use of the word. Several years ago, psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book entitled Whatever Became of Sin? In this work Menninger called attention to the fact that "sin" is an all-but-extinct term in the American vocabulary. He noted that simply removing the word sin from our collective vocabularies would not make it disappear. Menninger argued for an understanding of sin that included willful rebellion against the standards of God.
We should take this observation to heart. We deceive ourselves if we believe that we can either minimize or eliminate the reality of sin simply by ignoring it or changing its name. Redefinitions or misunderstandings about sin do not lessen our accountability. We should also admit that such evasive efforts are themselves manifestations of sin. We live in an age that strives to ease or eradicate moral and spiritual culpability; to confess our sinfulness will painfully confront us with our shortcomings and accentuate our guilt. Our unwillingness or failure to address sin truthfully will not, however, achieve our liberation from its insidious presence, power, and penalty. The rejection of the biblical doctrine of sin does not invalidate its reality or power. To disregard the reality of sin will eventuate in individual and societal destruction. (A Theology for the Church)
Definitions
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Any thought, word, desire, action, or omission of action, contrary to the law of God, or defective when compared with it.
Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology
Sin is a riddle, a mystery, a reality that eludes definition and comprehension. Perhaps we most often think of sin as wrongdoing or transgression of God's law. Sin includes a failure to do what is right. But sin also offends people; it is violence and lovelessness toward other people, and ultimately, rebellion against God. Further, the Bible teaches that sin involves a condition in which the heart is corrupted and inclined toward evil.
Is "any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God" (1 John 3:4; Romans 4:15), in the inward state and habit of the soul, as well as in the outward conduct of the life, whether by omission or commission (Romans 6:12-17; 7:5-24). It is "not a mere violation of the law of our constitution, nor of the system of things, but an offence against a personal lawgiver and moral governor who vindicates his law with penalties. The soul that sins is always conscious that his sin is (1) intrinsically vile and polluting, and (2) that it justly deserves punishment, and calls down the righteous wrath of God. Hence sin carries with it two inalienable characters, (1) ill-desert, guilt (reatus); and (2) pollution (macula).", A.A.Hodge's Outlines.
A Biblical Definition
For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin [whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful]. Romans 14:23
My definition
Sin is anything, known or unknown, that keeps anyone from being like Christ. See 1 Peter 1:15-16
Additional sources for definitions may be found at http://www.studylight.org/dic/
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