11.1 What Is Sin?
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Sin is entirely contextual. Actions that are sin in one context or dispensation are not sin in the next. If Isaiah had eaten clam chowder, it would have been sin. We eat clam chowder without thought; it is not sin. Sin for angels is something quite different from sin for humans.
Thus, in defining sin, we cannot begin with a large blanket definition, though we can arrive at one in the end. We will consider sin for angels, first, for Adam second, by the law, third, and finally, for the believer in Christ.
Angels Obey Naturally
God created angels as servants who hear instructions and obey those instructions. Hearing and obeying is the very nature of angels, something they just do naturally. Hearing and obeying never violates the integrity of who and what angels are. Angels who hear a voice telling them what to do and obey that voice are doing so entirely as their hearts instruct them; they are following their hearts. Sin, for angels, did not begin with refusing to obey instruction, however – the serpent was obeying God by being in the tree of knowledge.
From Thought to Action
Sin, for angels, began with envy, with the serpent desiring God to call his angelic glory and brilliance, “God’s image,” knowing that God never would. Thus the action of sin for the serpent began with luring Adam and Eve into rejecting themselves as God’s image.
We see, here, a first defining facet of sin. Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin (James 1:14-15a). Although sin began as envy in the serpent, it did not become the action of sin until he opened his mouth to speak: “Did God indeed say?”
A Choice of Covenant
Sin for Adam was very different from sin as defined by the law. The law of Moses was given as the knowledge of sin; it was not given for righteousness. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20).
God’s instruction to Adam can be paraphrased in this way. Adam, I have placed before you two covenants. With one covenant, you will know right and wrong, sin and not-sin, for yourself, as word on the outside of you, word over which you administer control. Don’t eat of that covenant, Adam, for you were not made for such a way of living. It will kill you.
Hating God’s Likeness
Following the progression of the thought of sin becoming the action of sin, we know that Adam rejected himself as the image of God. Adam hated what he looked like in the face of the glory of heaven and rejected a God who looked puny and weak. That rejection of being like God was sealed, then, the moment Adam’s teeth pierced the skin of the fruit of knowing right and wrong.
BUT!!! Let’s back up a bit. Yes, legally, outwardly, sin entered the universe by Adam’s teeth piercing into that fruit. By the definition of sin in the New Covenant, however, Adam’s real sin was something entirely different.
Adam’s Real Sin
God did not set one covenant before Adam with the instructions to Adam not to enter into such a covenant. God set two covenants before Adam, the second covenant being the very relationship with the Father for which Adam had been created, eating of the tree of life. God commanded Adam not to eat of the angelic covenant, but He did not command Adam to eat of a symmorphic relationship with the Father through every Word that is Jesus.
If Adam had followed his heart, he would have eaten of life. Adam’s real sin had two parts that always work together, falling short and drawing back. Adam turned away from Life; Adam turned away from Christ.
Sin by the Law
What about sin by the law? Whoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4 – partly KJV). If you look at the context of John’s statement, you see quite clearly that he was NOT referring to a believer in Jesus who abides by faith IN Christ as such ones cannot sin.
If the law was NOT God’s intention for man, if God had commanded Adam not to enter into a covenant of law with God because it would kill him, then why did God give the law through Moses? Paul’s answer to that question is beyond doubt. God gave the law to prove to us that NO life will ever come by hear and obey.
Making the Cross Complete
Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound (Romans 5:20). – I would not have known sin except through the law – so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful (Romans 7:7&13). – We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the cosmos may become guilty before God (Romans 3:19).
We have to go a bit deeper, however, to find God’s real purpose for giving the law. God gave the law so that our death upon the cross of Christ could be fully legal and complete.
An Inhuman Choice
For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled (Matthew 5:18).
Jesus did not mean that God would take man into an angelic covenant of hearing and obeying. He meant that the law would put all creation to death. He meant that, by the law, the entire old creation could cease upon the cross of Christ.
God did not give the law through Moses so that we humans might “keep the law.” He gave the law so that we might discover that Adam made an inhuman choice and that we ought to make the human choice.
Obeying the Law Is Sin
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (eating of the tree of life) has made me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). – All things are lawful for me (but not all things are helpful) (1 Corinthians 10:23). – You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4).
And thus we see that the real sin for the believer in Jesus is the same as Adam’s. The real sin is not “obeying the law,” even though every attempt to “hear and obey” is an action of sin. The real sin is to turn away from Christ.
Falling Short and Doubting
And that brings us to the definition of sin for the believer in Jesus. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). – Happy is he who does not condemn himself… But he who doubts is condemned… because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:23).
Sin is falling short and drawing back, that is, doubting the tree of life. Sinfulness, for the believer, is to call one’s self by sin and not by Christ. It is to believe that death is salvation, not union with Christ, not you in Me and I in you.
Being True to Yourself
We can, now, draw a conclusion as to what “sin” really is. Sin is not being true to yourself, as God created you. Angels were created as servants to obey. When an angel attempted to call himself God’s appearance, he was no longer being true to himself.
That you might be filled with all the fullness of God – rivers of living water flowing out of your hearts. Man was created to contain and to reveal God Almighty. Man was created for symmorphy, that God might be seen and known by His creation through man. Humans living by “hear and obey” are not being true to themselves and thus CANNOT ever be true to God.
Sin Is Theft
Now, I have stated that, although Adam’s legal sin was biting into the knowledge of right and wrong, his own power over the word God speaks, his real sin was to fail to follow his heart up the tree of life and to eat of symmorphy with Christ. That remains true, but that is not the whole picture.
When we look at the law, beginning with the ten commandments, through the eyes of Christ and not by obligation, we discover another definition of sin. Sin is theft. Sin is stealing from another what God has appointed to them as part of their own revelation of Christ. The first nine commandments are all theft; the tenth is wanting to steal.
Man Is the Master
The serpent’s sin was to steal from Adam the title of being what God looks like. And the serpent’s sin continues today through the false image of “God” held by almost all humans on the one hand, and the screaming fury against anyone who would walk in union with Christ as a human, as what God looks like, on the other hand.
But the serpent was small fry compared to Adam; the serpent and all his angels are just servants. You have put all things in subjection under (Adam’s) feet (Hebrews 2:8). Man is not only the master of all creation, Adam was the source of all rivers of formation flowing into that creation.
Adam Stole Everything
Adam stole everything from everyone, including everything from God and everything from us. Adam stole God’s creation that he might imprint his own death upon it, upon a shattered heaven and a shattered earth.
Through one man (Adam) sin entered the cosmos, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5:12). I don’t think I’ve ever really seen the horror of Paul’s words until now. Adam screwed everyone. And we do not lessen the awfulness of those words – that the cross of Christ might be complete.
Let Us Cease from Sin
Man was created to be filled with another Person, God Himself, so that God could reveal Himself to His creation through man, God’s visible form to both heaven and earth.
I sin against God and against myself when I do not believe that I am filled with all the fullness of God or when I do not believe that rivers of Spirit, God in action, are flowing out of me. I sin against Christ and myself when I speak against my full union with Christ, when I call myself by sin and not by Jesus as the only Self I am.
Let us follow our hearts. Let us cease from sin. Let us be true to ourselves. Let us walk in the knowledge of our full symmorphy with Father filling us full through every Word that is Jesus.