SIN, I Anything not in harmony with, hence contrary to, God’s personality, standards, ways, and will; anything marring one’s relationship with God. It may be in word (Job 2:10; Ps 39:1), in deed (doing wrong acts [Le 20:20; 2Co 12:21] or failing to do what should be done [Nu 9:13; Jas 4:17]), or in mind or heart attitude (Pr 21:4; compare also Ro 3:9-18; 2Pe 2:12-15). Lack of faith in God is a major sin, showing, as it does, distrust of him or lack of confidence in his ability to perform. (Heb 3:12, 13, 18, 19) A consideration of the use of the original-language terms and examples associated with them illustrates this. Effects of Sin. Sin put man out of harmony with his Creator. It thereby damaged not only his relations with God but also his relations with the rest of God’s creation, including damage to man’s own self, to his mind, heart, and body. It brought consequences of enormous evil upon the human race. . Romans 5:12 states that “through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Compare 1Jo 1:8-10.) Some have explained this as meaning that all of Adam’s future offspring shared in Adam’s initial act of sin because, as their family head, he represented them and thereby made them, in effect, participants with him in his sin. The apostle, however, speaks of death as ‘spreading’ to all men, which implies a progressive rather than a simultaneous effect on Adam’s descendants. The wages sin pays is death” (Ro 6:23), and by being born in Adam’s line all men have come under “the law of sin and of death.” (Ro 8:2; 1Co 15:21, 22) Sin, with death, has “ruled as king” over mankind, enslaving them, this slavery being one into which they were sold by Adam. (Ro 5:17, 21; 6:6, 17; 7:14; Joh 8:34) These statements show that sin is viewed not only as the actual commission or omission of certain acts but also as a law or governing principle or force operating in them, namely, the inborn inclination toward wrongdoing that they inherit from Adam. Their Adamic inheritance has therefore produced ‘weakness of the flesh,’ imperfection. (Ro 6:19) Sin’s “law” continually works in their fleshly members, in effect trying to control their course, to make them its subjects, out of harmony with God.—Ro 7:15, 17, 18, 20-23; Eph 2:1-3. “King” sin may give its ‘orders’ in different ways to different persons and at different times. Thus, God, noting the anger of Adam’s first son Cain against his brother Abel, warned Cain that he should turn to doing good, for, he said: “There is sin crouching at the entrance, and for you is its craving; and will you, for your part, get the mastery over it?” Cain, however, let the sin of envy and hatred master him, leading him to murder.—Ge 4:3-8; compare 1Sa 15:23.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 02:33:32 +0000
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