Church Words

  There are a lot of words that are common to Christiandom but rarely used anywhere outside of the context of theology.  Words like righteous, saviour, salvation, sovereign, redemption and almighty.  I’d like to add another to the list: sin.  As with the other words, because we do not use it on an everyday level, we have a hard time fully grasping the meaning of the word and it’s only after some thought and study that we can give it a remotely proper definition.  I ask you, what is sin?  In Sunday School an answer such as "doing bad things" or "disobeying" would probably cut it.  The Hebrew word usually used in the Old Testament for sin literally means "to miss the mark."  All true, but not complete.  Wayne Grudem in Systematic Theology writes, "Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature."  (emphasis mine)  The Sunday School definition of sin gave me the perspective that sin is things we do; that we are sinners because we do sinful things.  With such a definition it has been very hard for me to view myself as a sinner.  My thoughts on sin began to change a few years ago when I read from John Piper’s Pierced by the Word in a chapter entitled "How to Drink Orange Juice to the Glory of God":

  When I am asked, "Is the doctrine of total Depravity biblical?" my answer is, "Yes."  One thing I mean by this is that all of our actions (apart from saving grace) are morally ruined.  In other words, everything an unbeliever does is sinful and thus unacceptable to God.

  One of my reasons for believing this comes from 1 Corinthians 10:31.  "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  Is it sin to disobey this biblical commandment?  Yes.

  So I draw this somber conclusion: It is sin to eat or drink or do anything not  for the glory of God.  In other words, sin is not just a list of harmful things (killing, stealing, etc.).  Sin is leaving God out of account in the ordinary affairs of your life.  Sin is anything you do that you don’t do for the glory of God.

  But what do unbelievers do for the glory of God?  Nothing.  Therefore everything they do is sinful.  That is what I mean by saying that, apart from saving grace, all we do is morally ruined.

  What this means, then, is that our state as sinners does not begin with the external.  The actions of a sinner and a saint may be identical to the human eye.  Rather it is the internal.  Sin in essence is glorifying ourselves rather than GOD.  As unbelievers we cannot glorify GOD because our whole existence is wrapped up in glorifying ourselves.  (Sadly, we do this too often even as Christians.)  Therefore, we are not sinners because we do sinful things, but rather we do sinful things BECAUSE we are sinners.  The sinful actions we see are merely the working out of what is within.  "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart."  When we sin, we are insulting GOD by claiming His glory as our own.  All sin is against GOD.  Even if in the action of sin we wrong others, primarily we wrong GOD.  With a definition like this sin becomes a lot more hidious, a lot less easy to justify, and a lot easier to find in our lives.  God "seest more defilement in my duties than I ever saw in any of my sins."  (The Name of Jesus, Valley of Vision)  The wonder of it, though, is that it is when we realize our state as sinners that we can be healed.  If we think we’re okay, Jesus cannot be our Saviour.  ^"Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’"  Hallelujah!  What a wonderful Saviour!