The doctrine of sin or hamartiology is a very fascinating subject; but it is also frightening when we consider the consequences of sin throughout the history of mankind. This is a very large subject, and our thirty-five minute segment is woefully inadequate to due it justice. So I will cover both biblical facts and some human speculations about the teaching on sin in the time allotted, and hopefully, we will gain further insight into the reality of sin and its ramifications on creation. The greater we understand the holiness of God the more we will see our own sinfulness and its affect on the world around us.
How would you define sin?
It doesn’t require a herculean effort to see that sin has taken its toll on man. Sin is harmful to our lives. The story of our world is the story of sin, a story of death and decay. And it is this very idea of sin that is rejected because man wants to exalt himself and eliminate God. This evil purpose has taken root ever since the Luciferian doctrine of I will be like the most High (Is 14:14).
- Dr. Wayne Grudem in his book, Systematic Theology An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, defines sin in this way. “Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature (490).
- Dr. John MacArthur defines sin as “Any personal lack of conformity to the moral character of God or the law of God.” (Bible Bulletin transcription).
1 Jn 3:4 states, Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
The construction of this verse makes sin and lawlessness synonymous.
All unrighteousness is sin (1 Jn 5:17a).
For whatever is not from faith is sin (Ro 14:23b).
- JM expands upon his definition of sin. “Any thought, any word, any act or any omission that is inconsistent with the holy character of God or in any way violates His law, is sin. It’s lawlessness” (Ibid).
Sin is an act of commission or omission. So if we are thinking evil, speaking evil, acting evil, or omitting doing good it is sin. Sin is going beyond the boundaries set by God.
Sin is a failure to love the LORD God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength (Deut 6:5; Mt 22:37), the first and great commandment.
Sin has affected everything.
In accordance with the Scriptures, it would be accurate to say that absolutely everything wrong in the world is because of sin. Sin has affected everything. For us to view the world correctly we must understand the meaning of sin. Sin’s affect on the Universe is best seen in Romans 8:20-22.
V. 20 – Subjected to futility (mataiotes) = unable to achieve that which God intended.
V. 21 – bondage of corruption = everything made during the six days of creation is in slavery to corruption, unable to get free from death and decay.
V. 22 – Groans (sustenazo) = the cry of a dreadful and impossible situation
V. 23 – Even we ourselves = Everybody and everything groans and labors (picture of pain in child bearing) under this decay and death. All humankind (Saved sinners and lost sinners), all animate sub-human creatures and inanimate objects are subject to decay and death.
Sin’s entrance into the human race was through Adam.
When Adam and Eve decided to disobey God, evil gained entrance into the human race:
Ro 5:12, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Ro 5:15b, For if by the one man's offense many died.
Ro 5:16b, For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation
Ro 5:17a, For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one.
Ro 5:18a, Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation.
Ro 5:19, For as by one man's disobedience many were made [an aorist indicative indicating a completed past action] sinners,
1 Co 15:22a, For as in Adam all die.
The terrible fact of sin is that it produced three types of deaths:
- Spiritual death (soul and body are separated from God while living)
- Physical death (soul separated from body)
- Eternal death (soul and body separated eternally from God in Hell)
Death is separation. The soul is not annihilated (die like a dog) or recycled (as in reincarnation). Upon physical death the soul separates from the body and is taken either to Heaven (if spiritually alive in Christ) or Hades (if spiritually dead in trespasses and sin). At the Great White Throne Judgment, those who are in Hades will be reunited with their bodies for final sentencing and cast into the eternal lake of fire and brimstone, separated from God forever and forever....
Ephesians chapter 2 reveals our spiritual condition before we received Christ:
(V. 1) And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
(v. 2) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
(V. 3) among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
How did we all sin?
There are essentially three views that attempt to answer this question.
- The Liberal view – the Garden of Eden is non-existent, a myth, a fable, or an allegory. Some one once defined a liberal as one who believes Genesis chapter 1-11 are allegorical and not literal.
- The Federal view – Adam sinned alone but the human race was affected. Adam was the representative head of the human race.
- The Augustinian view – Humanity sinned in Adam.
Note: the latter two views share the same outcome. Depravity is total and sin and guilt are imputed to mankind.
The third viewpoint is preferred, the Augustinian view. The fact that people die is very good evidence that God counted people guilty on the basis of Adam’s sin. We are sinners not because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. We were born with a corrupt nature.
Ps 51:5, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
Ps 58:3, The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
Is this fair to hold us accountable for a crime or offense if we were not there, and there was no complicity or involvement? No, but we were there in Adam making that choice with him. Whether we agree with that or not the fact remains that God imputed sin and guilt to Adam; we are descendants of Adam and guess what - in Adam all die (1 Cor 15:22a). This is the way God designed it.
- We all sinned in the loins of Adam (cf. Ezek 18:2-4, 19-20; Heb 7:9-10, passages cited in an explanational sense, not contextually). We were all there. This is how God designed it.
- Nobody complains about the imputation of the righteousness of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, only the imputation of sin and guilt of the first Adam.
- The Apostle Paul’s used the example of Adam’s disobedience to God which led to mankind’s condemnation to explain how it was possible that through one Man's obedience to God, Jesus Christ, resulted in justification through faith for mankind (cf. Romans 5:12-21).
- When we chose to disobey in the first Adam, we were imputed with unrighteousness; when we choose to place our faith in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, we are imputed with the righteousness of Christ. We are judicially declared by God to be righteous; we are justified by faith alone. Through Adam’s disobedience (in him) we were all made sinners; through faith in Jesus Christ (in Him) we are made righteous or in a right standing with God.
Did God create evil?
No, God did not create evil. It is contrary to His very nature. Evil gained entrance into the human race because of Adam's disobedience. Satan is going to try and convince man differently, and He does so by attacking God’s sovereignty. Look in Genesis 3:1,
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
- The devil omitted the word LORD. Did you see that?
- LORD emphasizes God's sovereignty; Elohim (God) is a more generic word for God.
- Note usage of LORD God in 2:4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 18, 19, 21, 22; 3:1, 8, 9, 13, 14, 21, 23.
- It was God’s sovereignty that booted Lucifer out of heaven along with one third of the angels. Satan hates the sovereignty of God that is why he dropped LORD.
- Satan will always draw a connection between evil in the world and God’s sovereignty to undermine God’s effort in redeeming man.
- It wasn’t God who lied to man; it was Lucifer.
Note some verses below on the true nature of God. We all have to make a choice whether to believe the Scriptures or Satan concerning God’s character.
De 32:4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
Ge 18:25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
Job 34:10 "Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: Far be it from God to do wickedness, And from the Almighty to commit iniquity.
Ps 5:4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You.
Is 6:3 "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!"
Ha 1:13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.
1 Co 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace
Ja 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
1 Jn 1:5 His is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
1 Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
Though God is not the author of sin, He did ordain that sin would come into the world through the voluntary choices of moral creatures, angelic and human. Again, we have to decide if we are going to believe the Scriptures or Satan on who is to blame.
Ep 1:11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,
Da 4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, "What have You done?"
What is evil?
The word evil (Heb, raah) makes its first appearance in the Bible in Job 1:1 where we read that Job was a man who feared God and shunned (or turned away from) evil (in a moral or ethical sense). In Genesis 2:9 we see its first occurrence in reference to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (depicted here in an absolute, negative sense). It is the same word translated wickedness in Genesis 6:5,
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
- When Adam and Eve decided to disobey God, evil gained entrance into the human race.
- Evil is the absence of everything that God is. God is holy, righteous, and good. Evil is the opposite. Evil is the absence of holy, the absence of righteous, the absence of good.
- Evil entered the angelic realm with the fall of Lucifer; evil entered the human race with the fall of Adam and Eve.
- Both angel and man made a voluntary choice to obey or disobey God. Both chose disobedience.
- If evil is a choice then it can have no other meaning than a lack of moral perfection. It is not a created thing. Evil comes into existence when God's creatures fall short of the standard of moral perfection by choosing evil over good.
- You will never find in Scripture where God is culpable for sin. God is not the source of sin for He is holy.
Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. Ja 1:13
- Evil comes about when the wrong choices are made, choices that fail to honor God.
Why would God allow sin?
The Bible is silent. There have been educated guesses, but really, no one knows for sure. JM suggests three reasons,
- “to display His grace
- to display His wrath
- to put a final and eternal end to sin”
We will never know on this side of eternity exactly why God allowed and continues to allow pain and suffering. Satan will always create a correlation between God’s sovereignty and pain and suffering in the world, leading people to believe God is to blame. This has been a very deceptive, powerful and persuasive tool of the enemy to turn people away from God. It has even challenged the faith of even the most devoted of saints.
Pain and suffering, decay and death are the direct result of sin, and it is these consequences of sin that are vastly misunderstood in relation to God. The malignancy of sin is such abhorrence to the holiness of God that only through the death of His Son Jesus Christ was man’s hope for redemption made possible.
So terrible is sin that that the sinning soul that rejects God's remedy for sin demands an eternity in a burning lake of fire and brimstone. God warned us that in the day that we eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we would surely die (Ge 2:17). We ate anyway. Our choice to disobey God initiated a chain reaction that still reverberates today throughout the universe. God in His wisdom and foreknowledge knew that when man was created a negative choice was going to be made that would result in the death of His own Son in order to redeem man from the conclusion of sin’s severest consequences, eternal death.
Ironically, in Adam we all got ourselves into this mess but want to blame God because He is the sovereign Lord! God’s wonderful plan for our redemption is His way of fixing our mess that we made even though He clearly warned us about the consequences of disobedience back in the garden.
Feelings about things come and go; but the Word of God endures forever. We have to transcend how we feel about pain and suffering in the world and make a choice to believe the Scriptures that God is holy, good, righteous, love, just, and merciful and seeks only our highest good or believe Satan that God is none of those things and solely to blame for all our pain and misery.
Lucifer’s desires are fueled by hatred toward God and all men, seeking only man’s destruction in Hell. God’s plan is inspired by love for all men and seeks man’s rescue from Hell.
When pain and suffering are at our door or another door, we need to always retreat to the cross to maintain perspective that there is a spiritual warfare going on for the souls of men. Christ’s death on the cross proved God’s love for mankind. Where is the evidence of Satan’s love for man in all of this? God provided a cross; Lucifer offered only criticism.
Folks, when it gets right down to it, again, we are going to have to make a choice to believe what the Scriptures say about God that all things work together for our good even when things aren’t so good (Ro 8:28). The only other alternative is buying in to Satan's question, Did God actually say... (Ge 3:1 ESV), pointing the finger at God, blaming Him for all the pain and suffering in the world today.
The believer's walk has always been designed by God with trust in mind. It is all about trust and always will be; the only thing that changes are the circumstances. We must trust God no matter what the circumstances, no matter what. Our trust should be so nestled in the character of God that when we are confronted with our darkest hour we can utter those words of a great man of God who loved God with all of his heart and trusted Him regardless of the circumstances,
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Job 13:15a
If you and I are not settled on the goodness of God, and firmly believe that because God is the sovereign Lord who works all things together for good, we will fall prey to the enemy when pain and suffering enter our lives. Trust will erode to a turning away from Jesus who gave His life for us on the cross, consumed by our anger and bitterness. We don't want to go there.
The Three Approaches of Satan (1 Jn 2:15-16)
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
Approximately ten thousand years ago Satan tempted Eve in the same manner that He tempted Christ two thousand years ago. It is the same pattern Satan follows today.
- The Temptation of Eve, Ge 3:6
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
- Lust of the flesh: saw that the tree was good for food
- Lust of the eyes: that it was pleasant to the eyes
- The pride of life: a tree desirable to make one wise
- The Temptation of Christ, Lu 4:1-14 (read)
· Lust of the flesh: If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread (v. 3).
· Lust of the eyes: Taking Him up to a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time… All this authority will I give You, and their glory… (vv. 5-6).
· The pride of life: Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple [about a 400’ precipitous drop], and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here...”(v. 9).
Paul said we are not ignorant of his [Satan] devices [or schemes] 2Co 2:11).
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Do you recall three weeks ago when I quoted that the U.S. Bureau estimates world death in 2009 to exceed 55 million? Globally, there are over 150,000 deaths daily. If 80% of the people dying in 2009 are entering into Hades, consider these statistics:
- 44,000,000 souls are consigned to Hades for 2009.
- 120,000 souls are consigned to Hades daily.
- 5,000 souls are consigned to Hades hourly.
- 83 souls are consigned to Hades per minute.
- 1 soul is consigned to Hades every second.
This is the terrible fact of sin - For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Mt 7:13
"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Is 1:18
In the court of heaven the LORD offers forgiveness for the repentant and judgment for the rebels. God’s invitation is for man to come to his senses and be acquitted from the condemnation of sin by grace through faith in the redemption which Jesus Christ accomplished with the shedding of His blood on the cross at Calvary. There is forgiveness at the cross for all.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Jn 3:16-18
And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. Re 20:15
For as by one man's disobedience [Adam] many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience [Jesus Christ] many will be made righteous. Ro 5:19
With all the bad news of sin, this is the good news, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, died for sinners.
After our class concluded yesterday, Mary Lynn, with tears in her eyes, reminded me of a popular saying about sin,
Sin will keep you from this Book, or this Book will keep you from sin.
The self-imposition of ignorance runneth rampant amongst the brethren like a river overflowing its banks; many there be caught up in the rush, washed out to sea in some sin.
