#8 A Biblical Analysis of the Nature of Sin
“If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7) we are all standing in front of a door. We must know how to keep that door closed, and we must know why we must not open the door. There is a children’s story that aptly describes this situation. The three little pigs each build themselves a house to defend against a wolf. The first pig builds a house out of straw and the wolf blows it down, the second builds its house out of sticks and the wolf blows it down. The third builds its house out of bricks. The brick house can’t be blown down by the wolf. In this life the devil is the wolf. He is crouching at the door of our minds and hearts, we must build ourselves up and be defended from the attacks of our enemy. The first two pigs were lazy and did not understand their enemy. The third understood his enemy and built up his house accordingly. For this very reason we should know our enemy.
The aim of the Christian life is righteousness. Sin is the opposite of that righteousness. One word used in the New Testament for Righteousness is Dikaiosuné meaning “righteousness, justice.” The usage of this word According to Strong’s Exhaustive concordance means a “righteousness of which God is the source or author, but practically: a divine righteousness.” If someone is righteous that person must be called righteous by another person. For someone to be truly righteous God must be the one to call them righteous. Righteousness is the idea that you are in a right relationship with God. God is the only truly righteous being because he is triune. That is the Holy Spirit and the Son call the Father righteous. They each call each other righteous.
If someone is unrighteous, someone must say that they are unrighteous. The only person qualified to say if someone is truly righteous or truly unrighteous is God. Since God is the only truly righteous being. Unrighteousness basically means to not possess righteousness. An unrighteous person is one who harms a relationship. A righteous person is one who does not harm their relationship. Unrighteousness put in positive terms is sin. This is seen in every sin of the Bible. Every time there is a sin in the Bible someone is the sinner, and another, likely God, is the one being sinned against. This is the harm of the relationship between these two beings.
In order to understand sin, we must define what sin is. Most languages have their own word or words for sin. This can make it hard to define what sin is, unless we have a common source for our understanding. Sin is best understood through the Bible since it is that common source. The Bible was written over the course of thousands of years and in many languages. As such over time the meaning of the words changed, culture changed, and more words were used or stopped being used to define sin. The main thing about the 15 or more words used for sin in the Bible that are similar is the fact that someone must make the claim. Someone must say if something is or is not sin. Unless God is the one saying that something is sin, there is usually some question as to whether or not it is sin. This is because God is the only one qualified to claim that something is a sin. There are many different words for sin in the Bible. According to Logos Bible Software there are 15 distinct words in the Bible which are often translated as sin. Although there are 22 different words which may be understood to mean sin (Theopedia). Sin is mentioned at least 744 times in the Bible. Although depending on how broad your understanding of sin, it may be as many as 15,000 times. This makes sin a central issue in the Bible. With there being so many different words for sin in the Bible there should either be more than one concept of sin or one that is very broad.
Some of the words for sin in the Bible such as the ones in the New Testament are meant to be a reference or translation of sin from the Old Testament. Furthermore, the Bible was written over the course of perhaps 1600 years. With such a long period of time the language changes, and the meaning of words change. For the study of sin this means that past views may be completely altered by time. This does not necessarily mean that we can’t know what the original meanings were. It is important to consider that by sin being a part of the Abrahamic faiths for so long we may actually have a better understanding of sin. The individual words for sin may have changed over time, but the stories have remained the same. This means when studying such a broad subject that spans this much time it may be more beneficial to consider the stories of sin rather than the words for sin.
There are many different types of sin, and ways of thinking about it. Throughout the Bible and Christian history, sin is mentioned in many different ways. Such as generational sins, sins of action, thought, beliefs, and the 7 deadly sins. Most sins fit into one of three categories. Either as my sin, a sin originating in me. Their sin that is sin that someone else has. There is also sin that is around us, this is sins of a society. These categories are helpful in that they clarify our relationship to a sin. Sin is a concept of the Abrahamic faiths. Sin is something that affects how you understand all good things. Your understanding of sin may lead you to a life of lifelong shame, or to a life of hope and joy. How you understand sin may cause you to sin with joy, or to repent in pain. God has an imperative to be righteous that is to be God. As God he must be in godly relationships with all of humanity regardless of what that means. This is seen in, “the Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.” (Psalm 145:17)
Martin Luther understood sin in a different way than the Catholic Church of his day. The Catholic Church can be said to have believed that sin is something that removes you from the presence of God until you confess in a confessional and are forgiven by a priest. This way of thinking is what led Luther to constantly confess even the smallest sins in case he may have missed just one sin causing him to never be reconciled to God. Luther through the reformation changed the way that many people understand sin. Luther’s new view might be understood as a friendship. That is that by becoming a Christian we are now friends with God. Friends don’t punish each other for every little mistake. They have grace towards each other. This is one of the five solas, sola gratia that is grace alone. The meaning is that only by God’s grace we are saved not by our works or through forgiveness. There are many different ways to understand this relationship with God. Luther said “Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved.” (Plass) Christ carries our burdens because of grace. There is a broad consensus that we all have a relationship with God. The implication is that if we are in some sort of relationship with God then all things affect that relationship for the better or worse.
Most of the current views of sin appear to be based on views of what it means to be righteous. Most denominations today in America focus on what it means to be a Christian, to be loved by God, and how to be righteous. While this is not necessarily bad, it means the theology around sin is underdeveloped. Consider in the New testament we see light as the idea of goodness while darkness is the idea of sin. This view makes it easy to focus on what is seen that is the light. Focusing on darkness is difficult if not a waste of time. By concentrating on the darkness here we may come to see the light better though. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) What happens when you don’t walk in the light? You stub your toes you trip; you fall. This confirms the idea that understanding what is not good proves the benefit of what is good; light.
When it comes to understanding sin, Genesis is probably one of the best places to start. Genesis contains the fall of man, and humanities first sin. As such Genesis offers a good understanding of how sin was originally understood. The book of Genesis is an account of many things from the creation of Man, the fall of Man, the flood, the tower of Babel, and the eventual covenant between Man and God. As such Genesis can be understood as a story about humanity’s origins and the start of our relationship with God. As our origin story it includes all of the important stories of how we got to be who we are today. With the New Testament in mind one may consider the fall of Man in Genesis to be the first part of a narrative which ends with Jesus Rising from the dead in order to reunite Mankind with God. By being reunited with God humanity becomes sinless. Or in other words Righteous like God as originally intended.
The first thing to address in Genesis is the change of Adam and Eve from one state of being to another. From righteous to unrighteousness. First, Genesis says “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31) this establishes that things were good. Part of the goodness was that man was created to be like God. Next we see that the circumstances could change. “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18) this is not saying that not good is evil, but rather that the degree of goodness is lower than it should be. Then God made woman. God made humanity to be good, and Adam’s observance of the fact that he had no mate changed the level of perfection within Adam’s relationship with God.
“The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9) One of the main objections to the righteousness of God in verses like this is the perceived sin of God in allowing there to be the opposite of righteousness and goodness. If God created humanity for a relationship with himself why would he allow humans to be able to break that relationship? God knew humanity would sin, what is the difference between this and God causing us to sin? Consider a parent is cooking and holding their child if the parent holds their child close to the flame of the oven, and the child’s hand is burned who is to blame? The child is not judged for what it does not know. The parent in seeing their child’s pain asks for forgiveness and cleans the wound which they feel is their own fault for exposing the child to a fire. God put us close to the fire and punished us for getting burned. Adam and Eve should have known better since God told them not to eat the fruit. God said, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17) The best explanation I can find for why Adam and Eve were put near the two trees in the garden is that it allows them to be both different from God and also interesting.
But why would God put the tree in the garden in the first place? God desired to have a true relationship with people who were different from himself. Since God is perfect then any being God creates that is not identical to himself is imperfect. God would likely be wrong to create a being that is imperfect in that it only does wrong. Humans are not God but were innocent before the fall. Which here means they were not imperfect but rather incomplete. Humanity by having access to the characteristics of God were perfect. Adam and Eve were created in the likeness of God see “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26) God said. God is perfect since he is the definer of what is good and evil. Adam and Eve would have been perfect in this same sense when they ate from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:9) After eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve became definers of what is good and what is evil. If they had eaten from “the tree of life.” (Genesis 2:9) they would have also have become immortal and thus perfect like God.
The serpent said, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4) At this point the only thing that Adam and Eve knew was good. By eating the fruit, they would learn what evil was. The word here for evil רַע carries the idea that something is contrary to God’s nature. By Adam and Eve not accepting the judgment of God in regard to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they made themselves judges of what is good and evil, that is they learned the knowledge of good and evil by eating the fruit. the judgement to eat the fruit was the sin in that it harmed their relationship with God. Shifting the power balance. But if God had told Adam and Eve to eat this fruit it would not be a sin. Except in the possibility that we may feel harmed by this knowledge. The question is when we go to heaven is this knowledge removed from us? If the knowledge is removed then we know the knowledge is sinful for us. Or on the other hand since Jesus who is God and man knows this knowledge then it may be that the stain of not having permission is removed while the knowledge remains. Or rather that our knowledge of evil requires us to commit sins against God.
When Adam and Eve realized that they would be judged for their actions. This made them anxious not to be judged. Thus they “sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:7) this is so that they would not be judged. According to Kierkegaard, sin puts forward the idea that anxiety is the fear of sinning. When Adam and Eve “sewed fig leaves together” (Genesis 3:7) they were anxious not to be judged for their sin. Kierkegaard said, “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” (Kierkegaard) This means that when Adam and Eve realized their freedom to do anything they became anxious of their judgment by God.
Later in Genesis 3 we see the culmination of Adam and Eve’s sin. God must judge them in order that they may all be in a right relationship with one another. If God did not react by judging, he also would be sinning against himself. The punishment of the serpent, Eve, and Adam here received show the righteousness of God in correcting the relationship between humanity and himself.
Lets look at two different stories in Genesis and see what they have in common. In the first story Joseph is resisting Potiphar’s wife. Joseph says, “No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Gen 39:9) This says sin is against God. Now lets look at another part of this story. Reuben and his brothers were talking about their imprisonment in Egypt. Reuben said, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood.”” (NIV Gen. 42:22) Reuben saw their imprisonment in Egypt as a punishment for their sin against Joseph, and their current situation as their judgement. What do these two stories have in common? Well they have the same word for sin. Which is chata meaning “to miss, go wrong.” (Strong’s 2398) Besides this in both of these cases the sin is committed against someone. That is the point here, sin has to do with relationships. In both cases someone is being sinned against be it God or Joseph, and also in both cases someone is pronouncing judgement.
Sin and righteousness are often contrasted in the Bible. Consider the example of Cain and Abel. They were brothers, and the sons of Adam and Eve. They both made offerings to God. But God liked Abel’s offering and not Cain’s. This made Cain angry, the issue at hand is that he did not accept the judgment of God. Cain judged his offering and found it good, but God did not. In Genesis 4:7 God says to Cain “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Cain was making himself unrighteous before God; that is a sinner. In the next verse we find out that Cain killed Abel. This again is an act of Cain judging what is not his to judge. Again, we find God judging Cain for his bad judgement. God said “do what is right” that is righteous in God’s eyes. Instead Cain did what was righteous in his own eyes, and was judged by God.
Consider another example of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. While all the earth was sinful. God decided to get rid of all the evil people in the world through the flood. This is a natural extension of the garden. Adam and Eve were removed from the garden because of sin. Humanity would be removed from earth because of their sin. Why was it that Noah was not also considered sinful? Well Genesis 6:9 says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.” (Genesis 6:9) You can see how righteousness is contrasted by sin again. And that innocence and righteousness go hand in hand. The first thing to address in regard to sin is to define what sinlessness is and what sinfulness is. I am of the opinion that sinfulness is unrighteousness, as sinlessness is righteousness. In the Old Testament the main word for Righteousness is צַדִיק or Tzadik meaning “just, righteous.” (Strong’s 6662) Some of the common translations for this word include blameless, and innocent. We can infer that to be innocent one must not have sin. The opposite also must be true to have unrighteous or not be innocent one must be sinful. In considering if someone is righteous or unrighteous the presumed information is that someone is making this judgement. This can be seen in Genesis 7:1 “The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.” The rest of the “generation” was unrighteous. My point here is to note that righteousness is being or doing right in God’s eyes. Whereas unrighteousness is sinning. If righteousness here has to do with your relationship with God, then unrighteousness must also have to do with that same relationship. This means that unrighteousness which is sin is about your relationship with God.
The same observations may be made with the New Testament. Δικαιοσύνη or dikaiosýni meaning “righteousness, justice.” (Strong’s 1343) The usage of this word “righteousness of which God is the source or author, but practically: a divine righteousness.” (Strong’s 1343) It is noteworthy that in the Septuagint this same word is often used for the word צַדִיק. Matthew 5:20 says “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” This verse concerning righteousness shows that God the judge, judges the level of righteousness within us and those who are righteous go to heaven and those who are not righteous do not go to heaven. Therefore, it can be clearly seen that righteousness in the Old and New Testament is to be right in the sight of God.
The intertwined concepts of righteousness and sin are clearly characterized by Judgement language. In almost every previous example of sin and righteousness there has been some sense of legality or judgement language. I have already shown many examples in Genesis, but the same remains true throughout the whole Bible. Consider, “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He. (Deuteronomy 32:4) is an example in Deuteronomy. Or in Romans, “and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” (Romans 6:18) Or “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32)
The Bible expresses the idea of sin in many different ways by many different people. When looking at Job we see that the view of sin is that if life is good you are not a sinner. While if you have troubles then you must be a sinner. The book of Job is an inditement of this way of thinking. Job showcases that sin falls on the good and on the bad. The view of sin that was present in Job’s day is reflected today in the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel view is that if you do good God will reward you financially. While it is not often stated this view holds that if you don’t do good God will harm you financially or at least not help you.
In the New Testament we are presented with another way of understanding sin. The Pharisees thought that by following the law exactly one could be sinless or rather perfect in God’s eyes. This view is appealed by Paul in Romans. Paul talks about how the law caused him to be conscience of his sin which caused him to sin more. By trying to follow the law we become consciously aware of our sins and thus become even greater sinners.
Every book of the Bible presents one or more ways of understanding sin and your relationship with God. At first glance almost every view seems to be different or to refute a previous view. Even the way we understand sin today seems to be different depending on your denomination. The view of sin that I am describing is inclusive to most if not all biblical understandings of sin. As well as most if not all denominational understandings of sin. Because even in heretical understandings of sin there is a sense that you are sinning against God.
Let’s again address the story of Joseph. “No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (NIV Gen 39:9) Joseph doesn’t care if sleeping with Potiphar’s wife is a sin against himself, his father, or his master. He wishes not to sin against God. Sin here would be against God, and his relationship with God is the only good one left in his life. relationships can be destroyed by death, actions, in-actions, and many other things. Joseph’s relationships were mostly broken. His father and mother thought he was dead, and his brother’s sold him into slavery. The only relationships left were the one’s with his master and with God. Joseph had more power than his master, and he was a slave meaning that that relationship was bad. That left only his relationship with God. If Joseph had sinned, he would be harming his only surviving relationship.
Judah said, “I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life.” (NIV Gen. 43:9) bearing the blame, Judah is saying that he would be sinning if he does not return with his brother. He is here saying over and over to prove his point that he will take care of his brother. He does this by putting his life up as a stake. Judah is saying to his father if I don’t bring my brother back punish me, kill me, as if I killed him. If Judah is righteous, he will do as he said and bring his brother back, if he doesn’t then he is a sinner against his father.
Further on in this story Judah said to Joseph, “Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’” (NIV Gen. 44:32) the next verse reads ““Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.”” (NIV Gen. 44:32) Judah did not know this but, this is justice being done. If would be justice if Joseph took Judah up on his offer. Why? Because 1 Judah would remain sinless before his father. 2 because this action covers the sin that Judah let be committed against Joseph. Joseph did the righteous thing and lets his brother know the truth and forgives him.
When it comes to understanding what sin is, temptation is an important subject to understand the nuances of sin. Since there may be some gray area between an action or an inaction and whether or not it is a sin. Sin is contrasted by righteousness. But what is temptation, lust, inclinations, and desires? Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” This is an example of a temptation that is fulfilled by the act of lusting. What is strange to me is that Jesus was tempted. Matthew 4:1 says “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” So Jesus was tempted, and he indulged the devil by letting the devil lead him. How is this not sin? Its not sin because Jesus judged rightly against what the devil said. Since Jesus is God, he has the authority to disagree with the devil and to make righteous judgments about the things he encountered. Furthermore it seems to me that inclinations, desires, lust, and temptation may be sins depending on the circumstances.
Consider for example God may find one of your thoughts or actions to be a sin, while on the other hand you also may find that something you do is a sin. God of course can declare that something is or is not sin for whatever reason. But can humans sin while being innocent in God’s eyes? I think we can. Paul argues a lot in his letters that we ought to not focus on what we are doing wrong but on what we ought to be doing better. Martin Luther also said “be a sinner, and let your sins be strong” (Luther) Consider this example, imagine that you believe petting a cat is a sin. In this case every time that you petted a cat you would be harming your relationship with God. There are two possible outcomes, one is that the anxiety causes you to never go near a cat and pray every time you think about cats. Then you die, and God just brushes the whole issue off. The other possibility is that your love of cats causes you to become embittered against God, and even more so to stop being a Christian. If this is the case then you might find yourself unknown by Christ when you die. So we humans can create sins for ourselves. We ought to stop caring about our sins then because our acknowledgment of them seems to only increase their number. 1 Corinthians chapter 8 is an affirmation of the last paragraph. In this chapter Paul describes how something may be a stumbling block to one person or just food to another.
Finally, there is the issue of addiction. What is addiction is it sin or something else? “Is an addict a person who has a bad habit of making sinful choices? Or is an addict the victim of biological and social forces she may resist but is ultimately powerless to overcome?” (Cornelius Plantinga) It is my opinion that addiction is sin. Based on the idea that sin has to do with your relationship with God. Consider two instances of addiction. In one the addict wants to quit but finds it very difficult and tries to stop, and in the other the addict does not wish to stop and enjoys their addiction. There is definitely a difference between these two addicts, but they are both doing something wrong. They are both harming their relationship with God and other’s even if they do not wish to do so.
A proper of understanding of sin should allow a Christian to understand why they need God. Romans 3 says “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”(Romans 3:21-24) Once we realize that we are sinners, we can come to accept the grace of God. A proper understanding of sin leads us to Christ. It leads us to glorifying God for all that he has given us.
The concept of sin is all about relationships. Understanding sin is important so that you may not make as many mistakes. The aim of the Christian life is righteousness. God is the only righteous being and the only one qualified to say if someone is righteous or unrighteous. Sin in the Bible is defined by the stories in the Bible. The essential meaning of these stories has not changed even though the cultures and words have changed. There are many different ways of thinking about sin and our relationship to it. Martin Luther altered the way that most Christians have understood sin and righteousness. The way that sin is understood by most churches today is based on righteousness.
The book of Genesis offers a wide range of stories surrounding the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve changed from righteous to unrighteous. God’s creation of the trees made it possible for Adam and Eve to sin. The two main trees in the garden of Eden have played a pivotal role in our relationship with God. The serpent tempted Adam and Eve. After they sinned they did not want to be judged so they hid. God had to judge Adam and Eve because of his righteousness. Sin must be committed by someone. Sin and righteousness are often contrasted in the Bible. This is true of the Old testament as well as the New testament. Sin and righteousness are defined by judgement language. The cultural understanding of sin changes throughout the Bible, but the idea that sin is relational is reflected in all the stories. In the new testament the Pharisees had their own understanding of sin, which was refuted by Paul.
Each of the books of the Bible reflect the people and cultures of the time and thus have different ways of thinking about sin. In the story of Joseph, we learn that sin matters most in regard to God. Although sin may be between two people. Judah goes on to offer himself in the place of his brother, bringing in more legal language. There are a lot of nuances to sin such as temptation, inclinations, and desires which may or may not be sins. Humans can think themselves into sinning even if God is okay with their actions. The concept of addiction offers the question of whether or not sin requires freewill. Sin should point us towards God. The concept of sin overall is quite interesting. Exploring the concept of sin points, us towards God. Furthermore, studying the concept of sin shows us how important it is for us to have a relationship with God. I know for my own experience studying sin, that it has caused me to want to know God more.
Works Cited
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. Not the way it's supposed to be a breviaty of sin. n.d.
Kierkegaard, Søren. The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Oriented Deliberation in View of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary . n.d.
Logos Bible Software. n.d. Research tool.
Luther, Martin. Let Your Sins Be Strong: A Letter From Luther to Melanchthon Letter no. 99. 1521.
NIV Bible. n.d.
Plass, Ewald M. What Luther Says. 2006.
Strong, James. Strong's Exaustive Concordance. Hendrickson Publishers, 2009.
Theopedia. n.d. 10 4 2020.
