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The Bible And Sin
1) Sin is a death which affects the individual in his relationships to God and to the whole community.
The Bible is not concerned with sin simply from a humanistic or philosophical point of view. It is concerned with sin because it is concerned with man in his relationship to God. Sin is never something which simply affects the individual man. It changes his whole relationship with God. In doing this, it changes his relationship with his fellow man and with the whole world. To sin is to die, and this death takes place first of all in the heart, but is a death that comes from willing to take oneself away from the living presence of God. The death of one's heart cannot be kept a secret. It is not simply a private death. It affects the individual and the whole community. Further, depending on the place that a person has in the community of men, his sin, his choice of death, will affect this community more or less. Therefore the sin of the elected official, the minister, the company administrator, the teacher, is a deadlier sin because of the position they hold with regard to the community. The sin of the first man is the most deadly because of his place in the community of mankind.
2) Sin is a violation of the bond of friendship between God and man.
The Bible is particularly concerned about sin as man's response to the God Who has invited him to live in a covenant relationship. This means that God has called man, particularly the Jewish people, but through them has called all men, to share His life. But to share His life means to share His holiness, for holiness is more than an attribute of God in the Old Testament. It is the fullness of the life of God. This invitation to live in close intimacy with God is described by many images both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
One of them is the description of the intimacy of life in the love of husband and wife, or again that of mother and child, or that of the lover and his sweetheart. All of the comparisons are aimed at revealing the friendship which God wills man to share with Him. We shall never know the full extent of this in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament it is revealed when Christ says, "No longer do I call you servants . . . But I have called you friends" (John 15:15).
We can never understand, therefore, the Biblical notion of sin unless we see it from the point of view of the rejection of love. In fact the more God's love is revealed the more clear does it become that sin is not just some impersonal violation of law but a personal rejection of God. Today this is probably the greatest aspect of our dishonesty, the fact that we try to reduce sin to something impersonal.
3) Words of Scripture used to describe sin.
The words that Scripture uses to describe sin bring out the personal nature of sin's rejection of God. It is called rebellion, ingratitude, treachery, the violation of a sacred covenant with a kinsman, the rejection of their father. It was injustice against God Who had given them all things, had rescued them from their slavery in Egypt. Sin was not simply something which nice people did not do. It was the evil from which other evils came. It was the inner death from which the outer death came, together with all of the physical evils which afflict man. In choosing sin man chooses death, even though death might not manifest itself externally immediately. And yet as Paul says, "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Death is simply the follow-through of the stroke which cuts one away from the living God.
Though the People of God often fell away from this loving bond of union with God, they did not hesitate to call, through the inspiration of the Prophets, sin by its real name. It was twisted, crooked, a distortion, falsehood. We are afraid to use such words today because as a matter of fact we are caught up in the falsehood, and such words always bring out the fact that sin is a personal offense against a loving God, not simply against a commandment or a law, or against society.
4) Sin as rejection of God and choosing something in place of God. We see how the Prophet Jeremias expresses the whole conscience of Israel when he describes sin as the rejection of the living God and the choice of what is dead, broken, and offering nothing but frustration. "You heavens, stand aghast at this, stand stupefied, stand utterly appalled-it is Yahweh who speaks. Since my people have committed a double crime; they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, only to dig cisterns for themselves, leaky cisterns that hold no water" (Jer. 2:12-13).
The Prophet's own amazement at sin, and particularly the sin of Israel, (but it is true of every rejection of God), knows no bounds. The heavens, the stars, moon, sun, which have no feeling, no sense, cannot love in return, are told to stand aghast. What has happened is so frightful that even the unfeeling, and unloving heavens are appalled. What happened was not something impersonal, accidental. God's people, a people whom He has made His own, His kinsmen, through the covenant, not strangers, but His own people, rejected the One Who is the Source of all life and have chosen for themselves what cannot give life, broken cisterns. The idea of living water is frequently applied to God in the Old Testament in order to bring out the fact that He is the source of our life and the source of all happiness. Away from Him there is only death. It would be foolish for a person living in a desert to abandon the oasis which gives him water and to build a cistern, a leaky cistern at that, which can hold no water. One tries to fill it up, and pours himself and all his effort into it, but the water soon drains away. When he comes to it to refresh himself, there is no refreshment, only emptiness.
We see here the notion of sin that runs throughout the Old Testament-abandonment and rejection of God by His own people, whom He has chosen to share in His life; and the choice of what is non-God, as if this choice could give true life, when man has rejected the source of all life, God Himself. We see that there is an element of idolatry in every sin. It is an attempt to convert into a source of life something which is not God and even opposed to the living God. The issue can only be frustration, a frustration that ends in death.
5) Sin as the rejection of Christ.
The New Testament brings out in the fullest possible way the personal nature of sin while, at the same time, revealing the full dimension of the love of God for the sinner. Our Lord is filled with sorrow when the opposition of His people towards Him began to reach a climax: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often have I longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused!" (Luke 13:34).
Here we see the main aspects of sin brought to a sharp focus. First of all, as seen in the light of God's love for them. He has only one intention and that is to save mankind. For this reason He sends the Prophets and others to His people to guide them, to correct them, to remind them of their vocation. If He did not love them, He would not send men to them to bring them His word and reveal His will for them. Their reaction is not simply one of indifference. They turn on those who are bearers of the life-giving word and they kill them. Their reaction against the Prophets and against those who are sent to them is a living out of their reaction against God Himself. Since they cannot slay God, they slay the ones who bring God's word and God's will to them. We see, therefore, the chief characteristic of sin -personal refusal, which shows itself in rejection.
The case was even more tragic when God sent to them not one of His servants but His Son. His Son had only one will-and that was to gather the children together, to gather the People of God together, in a family of love and obedience, as a hen would gather her young ones beneath her wing-a comparison which brings out the closeness of the unity and also the protection from evil that comes from being sheltered by the love of God.
This brings out the true meaning of sin. It is refusal, not simply lack of knowledge. It is not because one is a victim of circumstances. It is rejecting the fountain of living water. The consequences will be heart breaking. In fact the consequences are such that they bring tears to His eyes and He begins to weep. He does not weep over their physical sufferings but because they have refused the source of their peace and happiness: "As he drew near and came in sight of the city he shed tears over it and said, 'If you in your turn had only understood on this day the message of peace. But, alas, it is hidden from your eyes. Yes, a time is coming when your enemies will raise fortifications all round you, when they will encircle you and hem you in on every side; they will dash you and the children inside your walls to the ground; they will leave not one stone standing on another within you-and all because you did not recognize your opportunity when God offered it'" (Luke 19:41-44).
The words of Christ can be understood to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem that would take place later in 70 A.D., when the Romans would utterly destroy the city. But the physical ruin is not the important part of the prophecy. The important part is the pattern that characterizes God's action and man's response. God gives man the opportunity, constantly renews the opportunity, but man refuses to recognize it. It is not simply a matter of not seeing, but of not willing to see. There is a failure to recognize that comes from not willing to look, because one does not want to see what one does not want to accept or love. In the meantime Christ sheds tears.
We would never know that our refusal could in some mysterious way distress the God Who is above and beyond the pettiness of His creatures, unless it were revealed that it touches His heart. We would not know how much it touches His heart until we see how His Son weeps because men will not accept what is for their peace and their happiness. He is not weeping for what they will do to Him but for what they will do to themselves, as a consequence of their rejection of Him. His tears come not from a feeling of being hurt since people do not appreciate Him. His tears are shed because of the tears which they themselves will be shedding, because they refused the opportunity given to them in sending them His Son.
6) Sin as the rejection of the Father.
This same note of sin being a personal refusal to come to Christ, and refusing to come to the Father, through Christ, is brought out in the writings of St. John. One cannot sin against Christ without at the same time rejecting the Father. To accept Christ is to accept the Father, and to refuse Him is to refuse the Father. "Anyone who hates me hates my Father. If I had not performed such works among them as no one else has ever done, they would be blameless; but as it is, they have seen all this, and still they hate both me and my Father. But all this was only to fulfill the words written in their Law: They hated me for no reason" (John 15:23-25).
One cannot knowingly reject Christ without at the same time rejecting the Father; and every rejection of the Father is also a rejection of Christ. When He said, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30), He means that their personalities are so related to one another, that one's attitude to the Father is based on his attitude toward the Son. To love the Father is to love the Son, and to love the Son is to love the Father.
In the passage which was quoted another aspect of sin is brought out. It is the complete gratuity of our action. We simply have no reason for hating God, Who is the source of all that we have-even the source of the very power that we have to love Him or reject Him. Sin is the one human act which simply has no cause, when we consider the One Who is offended. It has a cause in my human will but there is no cause for my sin in God or in His attitude towards man.
7) To sin means to grieve the Holy Spirit.
The fourth chapter of Paul's Letter to the Ephesians contains a description of the meaning of our Christian life. He describes the new existence which is given us through the gift of the Spirit. "Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution, so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God's way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth" (Eph. 4: 23-24). He goes on to tell them that by their sins they not only grieve one another but also the Holy Spirit: "Let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listener otherwise you will only be grieving the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with his seal for you to be set free when the day comes" (Eph. 4:29-30). Sin therefore, is a cause of grief to the Holy Spirit dwelling in us; sin frustrates His work in and through us.
8) To sin means to take on the likeness of the Devil.
At the same time another aspect of sin is brought out. Through accepting Christ or refusing Him one shows whether he is related to the devil or to Christ. "You study the Scriptures, believing that in them you have eternal life, now these same Scriptures testify to me, and yet you refuse to come to me for life . . . I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me" (John 5:39-43).
This refusal in turn shows that they have become enslaved, that they have lost their freedom, and in this way they belong to the society of the devil who seeks to make men like himself, a liar and a murderer. "I tell you most solemnly, everyone who commits sin is a slave . . . If God were your father, you would love me, since I have come here from God; yes, I have come from him . . . The devil is your father, and you prefer to do what your father wants. He was a murderer from the start; he was never grounded in the truth; there is no truth in him at all; when he lies he is drawing on his own store, because he is a liar, and the father of lies . . . A child of God listens to the words of God; if you refuse to listen, it is because you are not God's children" (John 8:34 f.).
The same idea is brought out in the first letter of John. Sin is a violation of the law. But beyond that it is breaking our relationship with the Son of God, the Holy One, and to manifest ourselves as a child of the devil rather than as a child of God. "Anyone who sins at all breaks the law, because to sin is to break the law. Now you know that he appeared in order to abolish sin, and that in him there is no sin; anyone who lives in God does not sin, and anyone who sins has never seen him or known him. My children, do not let anyone lead you astray; to live a holy life is to be holy just as he is holy; to lead a sinful life is to belong to the devil, since the devil was a sinner from the beginning. It was to undo all that the devil has done that the Son of God appeared" (1 John 3:4-8).
9) The meaning of sin shown in the crucifixion, death of Christ.
The full meaning of sin is seen in the crucifixion and death of Christ. At the same time this is the full revelation of the mercy of God. Sin cannot of course do away with God, no more than a shadow can do away with the sun. But there is a will to do away with God in sin which is shown in rejecting Him and preferring something else, the broken cistern in place of the living God. The full implications of sin are seen in the death of Christ, a death which manifests fully the death of God that takes place in the human heart through serious sin. We cannot touch the life of God in Himself. We can kill His life in us and also kill His life in the community of men by the scandal we cause.
GOD'S ATTITUDE TOWARD SIN
Sin is simply the opposite of what God is. If He did not hate sin, He would not be God; for sin is simply a turning against God and choosing what is non-God in place of God. But at the same time we would never know God's love unless we experienced His love as His mercy, as His desire to reinstate us. We would never know the true extent of God's fidelity unless we saw His love revealed as a wounded, rejected love, but not a disheartened love. Therefore the revelation of the power of man to reject God is at the same time in a mysterious way the revelation of God's resoluteness to rescue man. This is the whole history of salvation. Someone less than God would have wearied with the constant efforts to make mankind happy by the gift of His own life, while constantly being thwarted in His efforts. God is God because He was not wearied by man's own weary and monotonous pattern of sin. He even perhaps takes the risk in His omnipotent mercy of being looked upon as too merciful or even indulgent. But this is a risk which He is loving enough to take. He tells us through the Prophet Isaiah, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool" (Isa. 1:18).
It is not only a matter of forgiving the sin. A new life, an even deeper gift of friendship shall be given. "See, the days are coming it is Yahweh who speaks-when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel . . . but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant of mine, so I had to show them who was master. . . Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people . . . No, they will all know me, the least no less than the greatest-it is Yahweh who speaks-since I will forgive their iniquity and never call the sin to mind" (Jer. 31:31 ff.).
ATTITUDE OF JESUS TOWARDS SINNERS
It is in His attitude towards sinners that we see the fact that Jesus is Himself the mercy of God in the flesh. He is the fullness of grace, the fullness of God's love. It seems that He came on earth only to associate with sinners, for the just blamed Him precisely for this: "While he was at dinner in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?' When he heard this he replied, 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words, "What I want is mercy, not sacrifice." And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners'" (Matt. 9:10-13).
Sinners knew that they had found a friend. They sought His company to hear what He had to say because they were attracted by His goodness. "The tax collectors and the sinners, meanwhile, were all seeking his company, to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained, 'This man' they said 'welcomes sinners and eats with them' " (Luke 15:1-2). Then He told them the parable of the lost sheep, and how the shepherd went out to find the sheep, and when he found it, carried it on his shoulders back to the flock.
One of the most beautiful stories which shows the mercy of God is that of the prodigal son. It occurs immediately after the parable of the good shepherd. This is more than a sentimental story about a father who welcomed his son home after the son had wasted his inheritance. It is the revelation of the true meaning of sin. To sin means to leave the father, and take his gifts, and go away to a far country. For all practical purposes it means that the father is dead, as far as the youth is concerned. But then the deterioration sets in and he finds himself feeding swine. He decided (and this is the critical point of the drama of grace and freedom) to return to his father. His father sees him from a distance and runs out to meet him, embraces him, and prepares a dinner for him. When the older brother was angry with such extravagant mercy shown by the father to the wastrel, the father in his mercy goes to him and pleads with him to understand what has happened, not from the eyes of a brother who sees this as unfair, but from the eyes of a father who has had a son return to him. "Your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found" (Luke 15:32). That is the revelation of the meaning of sin and God's mercy. To be dead means to be in the state of sin, the state of estrangement; to come to life means to be forgiven, to be sorrowful, to repent; to be lost means to be in sin; and to be found means to be repentant.
Courtesy of
Catholic Information Network (CIN)