Sin Defined (the biblical vocabulary)

Transcription

1 pg. 1 Sin Defined (the biblical vocabulary) This is the beginning of a three-part sermon series. Our topic is sin. On the one hand, this is something we all know a lot about. On the other hand, contemporary notions about sin are often quite different from the biblical idea. So, our mission is to explore the biblical concept of sin. Today, in message number one, we ll seek to define sin by examining the biblical vocabulary related to it revealing its essential nature. It may sound strange, but the word sin isn t biblical per say. The writers of scripture didn t write about sin. They wrote about certain attitudes and behaviors for which we have come to use the English word sin. Because that s the case, a biblical definition of sin must include aspects of those various words used to describe the attitudes and behaviors associated with sin.

2 Now words are funny things. At one level they mean what they mean, but at another level, they mean different things to different people. Technically we might say that words have a denotative and a connotative meaning. The denotative meaning is the dictionary definition. As such, sin is generally defined as a transgression against religious law an offense against God (Webster). But that s just the English dictionary definition. The connotative meaning of a word has to do with the way it makes us feel (sort of a secondary meaning). Some words are endowed by our culture or traditions with emotional power. Sin is one of those words. It conveys a sense of personal responsibility for something and the associated guilt of having not behaved appropriately. It has an accusatory feel to it. The word is so necessarily associated with God that nonreligious people often refuse to either use the word or even acknowledge its usefulness as a description of human behavior. 2 P a g e

3 In the late 70s, Karl Meininger wrote a book called, Whatever Became of Sin. He was a Christian and a Psychiatrist. He noted that his profession had unceremoniously dismissed sin from their professional vocabulary. Neither Freud nor Skinner had any use for the term. Freud had his mental states and Skinner his operant conditions. In either case the undesirable thought and behaviors of mankind were not spiritual. In the place of the word sin they used words like inappropriate, aberrant, dysfunctional or undesirable behavior. Since sin had clearly religious connotations, it had to be replaced. In the spirit of the God is Dead (Nietzsche s Gott is tot ) mentality, sin was dropped from our daily vocabulary. So it is today. It has become politically incorrect to speak or sins and sinners. These words are too judgmental and legalistic. When is the last time you heard talk of sin in a popular television show or movie? Now, while it is true that the word has fallen into cultural disrepute, questions concerning morality 3 P a g e

4 have never gone away. How can they? Some may wish to dismiss anything associated with religion, but the fact remains that the world is plagued by destructive behaviors that people in general would describe as wrong not just inappropriate within a given cultural context. Many years ago, my wife was enrolled in a course at a community college. The professor of the course took the position that right and wrong did not exist. Behaviors might be socially unacceptable because they are not in the best interest of a given community, but those behaviors are not inherently good or bad. To my way of thinking, this position is an intellectual pose a position taken for the sake of argument that no one really believes. Occasionally I come across a young person who wants to argue that Hitler s extermination of 6.2 million Jews wasn t wrong in that social context. But I am confident they would think otherwise if they had lived in Germany in the early 40s and were Jewish. 4 P a g e

5 5 P a g e At any rate, my wife asked me what I would say to her professor. I thought it would be good to simply ask one question: If someone breaks into your home and rapes her daughter will you consider it unfortunate or wrong? Call it hatred, cruelty, brutality, torture. You can even call it evil. But don t call it sin. Once you crack that door, a holy and judgmental God is lurking in the shadows. Now I ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is that sin is a biblical concept directly related to the nature of a holy and just God. The good news is that sin is also a biblical concept directly related to a compassionate and gracious God. But, I m getting ahead of myself. Let s go back to the beginning to the question of what the biblical concept of sin actually is (to the biblical vocabulary of sin). What is sin? Well the Biblical writes use lots of words to describe the attitudes and actions of sin.

6 Let s consider three common Greek words (found in the New Testament) often translated sin in our English Bibles. Hamartia is one of the most common sin words in the New Testament. Paul uses this word when he declares for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). This word has a basic meaning of missing the mark. I have a simple illustration of the basic concept. [Use toy bow and arrow] This word was used in reference to an archer with a bow and arrow who shots but misses the target. Sin, then, is about not achieving God s desired result in terms of one s actions and attitude. But it is more than that. In the passage noted above, Paul is writing of sin in the context of our need for righteousness to conform to God s standards of rightness. What is the target that is missed? We fall short of the glory of God. And so, the biblical 6 P a g e

7 7 P a g e concept of sin is inherently theological. It has to do with the relationship of my behavior (and thinking) relative to the nature of God. This is, by the way, one of the points of misunderstanding between Christian thinking and contemporary culture. Pop culture often sees sin as me missing the mark and falling short of the glory of ME. Biblically speaking, however, sin is failure to conform to the moral character of God himself. As I say, it is inherently theological. To put it another way, we might say that it is wrong to think and act in ways that God doesn t. The Bible declares that God is good. Our goodness is not relative to one another. It is measured against God s nature. Remember, reflecting the glory of God is the target missed. Our next Greek word is parabasis. It has the basic meaning of trespass to cross over the line into a forbidden place. This is the word that Jesus uses in the Lord s Pray (actually the model prayer), when Jesus says:

8 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (Mat 6:14 NIV) As a Christian, I must extend to the same grace and kindness to others that I am receiving and counting on from God for myself. The passage above is presented in the context of discipleship. This is the way people living as disciples under the rule of God behave. Imagine a line on the ground and a sign that says: This far you may go, but no further! Sin is going beyond the boundaries that God has established for human behavior. Now that s a problem if, and only if, God is either ignorant or evil. The Bible declared that he is neither. He is the creator who understands our nature and needs and he is good in and of himself. That means that whatever he asks of us in terms of moral conduct is ultimately for our best essentially because his essential motivation is love: 8 P a g e

9 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son (John 3:16). When my kids were growing up, I had speeches that I used at various stages of their development. Fairly early in life I gave them each my You are going to have to trust me speech. It went something like this: I know I will ask you to do thinks that you don t want to do sometimes and there will be times when I won t let you do things that other kids are doing. On those occasions where we can t see eyeto-eye, we re going to do things my way because I m the dad. You may not always agree with my decisions and I m sure to get it wrong sometimes, but I promise you that all my decisions will be motivated by love for you and a desire to raise you in a way that respects God and you. One day, you ll be on your own and you ll get to decide things for yourself, but for now you get to be the child and I get to be the dad. 9 P a g e

10 By-the-way, it should be obvious to us that we are incompetent to play the role of God. We need someone who knows our true nature and sees the bigger picture and grasps the realities of life, death and eternity to tell us what we need to know about ourselves. The simple truth is that we don t know what we don t know. So, we think what we do know is all we need to know in order to understand ourselves and the universe. Then we realize that what we know is incomplete and we begin to wonder what we would think about ourselves and our choices if we knew what we don t know. If we knew what we don t know instead of knowing what we thought we knew, wouldn t that knowledge change our understanding? Well then, wouldn t we want to listen to someone who does know what we don t knows and says to us: Hey, know this!? God s lines in the sand may be inconvenient or unpopular, but he is the only person free from the finitude, bias and misinformation that plagues human beings. You can t center yourself in yourself 10 P a g e

11 11 P a g e without elevating yourself to the status of God, and frankly, you re not qualified for the position. The verse we began this section with, Matthew 6:14 (For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.) introduces another important aspect of sin. Sin is relational. God takes it personally. His response to sin is never just business. Sin is conduct contrary to God s nature. He is, by nature, opposed to it and repulsed by it. REPULSED!? That s an awfully strong word. Yep, sin is offensive to God. The Bible teaches us that sin evolves a righteous anger from God (wrath). It may seems strange, but the best way I can describe it for me is to think of what sin feels like and smells like to God. I m just spit-balling here, but hear me out. I took on a project the other day to clean the trash out of the pond in from of the University. I took Josh s kayak and borrowed a liter grabber (hand motion) from the maintenance department and

12 went to work. After several hours spread out over a few days, I pulls six plastic garbage bags worth of trash out of that small pond. The easiest way to collect it was by using the grabber to grab stuff floating on the water and pile it on the front of the kayak and on top of my legs. I quickly learned the need to be careful. You wouldn t believe some of the things I found in that pond: hypodermic needles, hygiene products, discarded used diapers and more. As I sat there with my feet and legs cover by human waste it occur to me that perhaps I had a bit of a sense of the offensiveness of sin to a good and holy God deserving of praise and obedience. Sin is relational. The passage above refers to sin against another person. While we may choose to step over the line of God s moral standards in our treatment of another, it is important to realize that all sin is ultimately directed at God. It is his standard and his nature that is being violated. 12 P a g e

13 Let s look at one final word translated sin in the News Testament. Asebeia may be translated ungodliness and it refers to a lack of respect for that which is holy. It is irreverence. Paul writes that The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, (Rom 1:18 NIV). These folks, Paul says, do not honor God as God and replace the creator with worship of creation. This gets to the heart of sin: Genesis 3: Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 13 P a g e

14 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" 4 "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. This brings us our third essential aspect of sin. It is spiritual. Now before you dismiss that statement as mysterious and churchy please consider this: the Bible teaches us that we are spiritual persons. Saying that sin is spiritual means that it has to do with our relationships with God and other people. It 14 P a g e

15 is attitudes and behaviors that express and impact of immaterial, enduring selves. Sin interferes, so to speak, with of relationship with God on a deep personal level. It misaligns our thinking and feelings. It has a corrupting influence. It is not just conduct outside us. It is in us. More about that next week. There are other NT Greek words related to sin and there are OT Hebrew words as well, but I think what we have explored gives us a good general overview of the biblical concept. May I say that there is no greater waste of time then deciding between options that don t exist? Sin may be unpopular and even offensive, but it is a reality fixed by the existence of God and it is one of the reason why some folks want God to go away. [The plane ride] 15 P a g e