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| A look at Sin |
By:
Bob Longo |
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A look at Sin
Sin is an unpopular subject. However, God has put the word sin (sin, sins, sinner, sinners) in the bible some 642 times. From these numbers it is obvious God is concerned about sin.
I would like to attempt answering the following questions about sin.
1. What is sin?
2. Is there more then one type of sin?
3. Are there different consequences for different types of sins?
4. What is the punishment for sin?
5. Can sins be forgiven?
We must look in the Bible for the answers to these questions. Only in the Bible can we find the truth. In Romans3:4 “ let God be true, but every man a liar”
The first indication we find in the Bible of what a sin might be and what the penalty is for committing a sin is in the book of Genesis the second chapter. God tells Adam that he may eat of all the trees in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17). This is the first indication of God giving any type of command to man. Some time after God gave his first command to man, we find man disobeying that command.
Adam was in the garden with his wife. The serpent playing off the pride of the woman (a picture of the pride of all mankind) convinced her to eat of the tree, and the woman gave some to her husband. They knew they had sinned and attempted to hide themselves from the LORD (Gen 3:1-8).
Form the above example we can see several things that will help us understand sin.
1. God gave Adam a command.
2. When God gave the command He said, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
3. Adam disobeyed that command.
4. Adam did not immediately die physically; he lived to be 930 years old (Gen 5:5).
Are we to believe that God lied to Adam when he said, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”? God forbid, Adam and Eve died immediately, but not death as we usually think of it. The immediate death was their relationship with God, a spiritual death. (a subject for another time) The Bible speaks of three types of death.
1. Death as we know it; death of the flesh.
2. Spiritual death; caused by Adam and suffered by all mankind.
3. The second death, hell, eternal damnation, or eternal torment.
Can we be certain that what Adam did was sin? We can look in Romans chapter 5, verses 12-14. Here we read that sin came into the world by one man (Adam) and has continued to reign since that day.
In the above example, Adam disobeyed God’s command by action. However, God tells us, we can sin by what we think as well. In Matthew chapter 5 we read “That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Mat 5:27-28)
Although the verses mentioned above do not say thought per se, the meaning is clear. God, many times uses the word heart to depict what we might call the mind, and speaks of the thoughts of the heart. For example in Genesis 6:5 we read: “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Now we have an idea of what sin is. Nevertheless, what about types of sin, or degrees of sin? Early church fathers wrote extensively on the subject of sin, and taught that there are mortal, and vienial sins. However, these writings are not baked up by biblical truth, but rather church doctrine; which is at odds with the Bible in many cases.
The Bible teaches that all sin is the same to God. We see this in verses that speak of what seem to us to be a minor infraction of God’s law; yet hold the same punishment as what we might perceive a more grievous sin. We read a story of a man who broke the forth commandment by picking up a few sticks on the Sabbath day. For what we may see as a minor infraction of God’s law, the LORD commanded that Moses have the congregation stone the man to death (Num 15:32-36).
Another example of God treating all sin the same comes out of Deuteronomy. The Fifth commandment is: Honor thy father and thy mother (Exo 20:12 ). We have to admit that our children break this commandment quite frequently. Many parents have children that are thieves, drug addicts, and worse. What does God direct us to do with a stubborn and rebellious child? “And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear” (Deu 21:18 – 21). Again, God is telling us that what we might perceive as a minor infraction of the rules is a grievous act of rebellion against His law.
God also tells us in James 2:10-11:
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, do not commit adultery, said also, do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
The above verses tell us that if we break any of God’s laws, it is the same to God no matter which of His laws we break.
God does however differentiate between sins, but only as to what sins may be forgiven vs what sins are not forgiven. In Matthew 12:21 God tells us that all sins can be forgiven except for the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Sprit.
Therefore, by now, what sin is, and how God looks at sin (note I said how GOD looks at sin; not how man would like God to look at sin) has been fairly well explained for a short study.
However, what about the punishment for sin? This too should be apparent from the scriptures offered. The punishment for sin is death. We read in Roman “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Ultimately, if not saved by the faith of Jesus Christ (a subject for deeper study) we will go to hell. We find these words in Romans 5:19:
“For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous”.
When we are saved, we want to follow the commands of God. James 1:12 “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Those that love God follow his commands. John 14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.
May God Bless You. |
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