Missing the Mark

Missing the Mark

On this episode, we are going to talk about what separates people from God… sin. We are going to look at what sin is, the origin of sin, who sins, effects of sin, and redemption from sin. So sit back, buckle up, let's go for a ride. 

Definition of Sin

There have been many suggestions to the essence of sin: unbelief, pride, selfishness, rebellion, moral corruption, a struggle of flesh and spirit, idolatry, and combinations of the preceding. When we dig down deep, these really don’t properly define what sin is. Sin is part of the nature of our condition as people. Saint Augustine suggested that we were born as sinful beings. He taught through the analogy that sin is a disease, a power, and a guilt. As a disease, its passed down from one generation to the next, as a power it has a grip that is unbreakable by ourselves, and as guilt from a judicial standpoint. From the perspective of most of the early greek writers, sin came from the abuse of the human free will, which we will talk about in a few minutes. 

Some people have the misconception that sin is simply selfishness. However, some people sin through extremely selfless ways as they act on behalf of religion, secular and humanistic educational goals, or political affiliation. While these can lead to very serious sins, like hatred of God, idolatry, and unbelief, these are not necessarily based on selfishness.

Ok, so let's get to it. I think the best definition of what sin is can be found in 1 John 3:4 “4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” God is the one who created everything, which means he also created the law that sets the limits to what people can do. God’s law is the “standard for human behavior.” In both Hebrew and Greek, the root word for sin means “to miss the mark.” At its heart, sin, is missing the mark of God’s heart and law. 

In the Old Testament, there are 613 Laws. That is a lot to have to follow. These laws are broken down into Moral Laws, Ceremonial Laws, and Civil Laws. These 613 laws came out of the 10 Laws that God handed to Moses in Exodus 20, known today as the 10 Commandments. The other 602 laws were given by God to Moses and other leaders to persuade the nation of Israel to keep God’s moral law. God’s moral law is found in Exodus 20:1-17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6-21.

1. Have no other god’s other than God. 

2. Have no idols

3. Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain

4. Remember the sabbath and keep it holy

5. Honor your parents

6. Don’t murder

7. Don’t commit adultery

8. Don’t steal

9. Don’t lie

10. Don’t covet (desire) things that don’t belong to you. 

We’ve already covered that Sin is lawlessness. These 10 moral laws of God are the guideline to stay in good standing with the morals God has set for those who believe in him. God gave the law to Moses as a standard of living, and when we violate this law or fail to live up to it, we sin. That sin is what breaks the relationship between God and people. We see through God’s Word that he went through great lengths to restore that relationship. But before we talk about that, let's look at the origin of Sin. 

Origin of Sin

A big question that gets asked a lot is, “where did sin come from?”

Genesis chapter 1 teaches us that God created all things “Good.” In Genesis 2:17 God makes a clear distinction between sin and death through the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And in chapter 3 of Genesis, we see that sin enters the world through the misuse of God-given  freedom through the disobedience of people.

I want to point out that there is something else at play here… temptation. I believe that Adam and Eve seemed to be perfectly fine with the fact that God said not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There wasn’t an issue for them. They were happy with their relationship with God and with their life. All things were good for them. It wasn’t until the serpent, aka Satan, entered the story in Genesis 3:1. He used God’s own creation to attack God by raising questions about God’s motives and the truth of his word. At this point in time, Adam and Eve really didn’t know not to trust the serpent, so when he tempted them, they chose to act on what he told them, instead of listening to God. Because of that, sin came into the world and now acts as a curse on humanity. 

When it comes to Satan, the Bible teaches us a lot about him. He has several different names throughout scripture such as Lucifer, Beelselbub, Satan, the evil one, and the enemy just to name a few. Isaiah 14:12-14 tells us that Satan was thrown out of heaven, because he tried to make himself greater than God. Now, as an outcast, he acts as a direct adversary to God.

We see through Satan tempting Adam and Eve, that the 5th commandment to honor your father and mother is broken. God is the Father and creator of Adam and Even, therefore when they ate of the Tree, they were not honoring Him. This is also the first commandment with a promise attached to it. And now because of their deliberate act of disobedience, now death entered into the earth as well. When we read the Bible from this point on, we see that sin is now part of human nature, and the result is being separated from fellowship with God. 

Who all sins

The Apostle Paul has a lot to say about who sins. Especially in his letter to the Romans. Romans 3:23 he said, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Basically what Paul taught was that every person who has ever lived, has sinned. That applies to us today. (stick with me guys, we actually have more to look forward to… its not over… there is hope.)

Romans 3:10-16 Paul quoted from Psalms 14:2-3 and went further by saying, ““None is righteous, no, not one; 11no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps (snakes) is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

This sounds a lot like the world we live in today. Very few people are actually seeking after God. In fact the world is going in the opposite direction. 

Righteousness is being right in the eyes of God. Doing what is right before God. When sin happens, it separates people from God, therefore they become unrighteous. 

Jesus taught that sin is a condition of the heart. 

He looked at sin based off the inner motives of a person. So the action of sin is essentially the visible representation of the motives of the heart. Jesus went deeper than just looking at the 10 commandments. For example Matthew 5:21-22 Jesus said that anger is the same a murder; Matthew 5:27-28 lust is the same as adultery, and John 3:18-19 & 16:8-16 revealed that unbelief is the resistance of God’s truth.

1 John 1:8 says, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Paul said in Romans 1-28-32, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Every single last one of us has sinned, failing to live up to God’s perfect standard of life. If we look back on our own lives, comparing our actions to the 10 Commandments and what Jesus taught about our inner motives, it's easy to see where we have severed our relationship with God at some point or another. Once again, God has gone through great lengths to restore a right relationship with us. Again, we will talk about that in a few minutes. 

Consequences of Sin

When we look at the consequences of sin, there are a lot of them. We have to consider guilt and shame, being slaves to sin, being deceived, and many other things. But for today, we are going to look at what I think are the five big consequences. 

The first consequence of sin is death. In Genesis 3:17-19 God told about the curses that fell on people because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. One of those curses is death found in 3:19b “till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” In the words of Paul from Romans 6:23a, “the wages of sin is death.” Now because of sin in the world, death is part of life. Meaning, all life will come to an end. 

A second consequence of sin is the loss of a perfect relationship with God. Gen 3:23 God banished Adam and Eve out of the garden. Before they made their choice, God literally walked with them in the cool of the evening, and they had a literal present relationship with God. Now, they now lost that favour of God and communion with him; and their whole nature became corrupt. God cannot tolerate anything that violates his righteous character. Therefore, sin creates a barrier between God and people.

The third consequence of sin is pain and trouble in life. This is seen in Gen 3:16-19. God’s curse on them meant that they would now experience hardships and struggles in life. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, everything was given to them. The things they needed such as food and water were provided for them. But now that they were kicked out of the garden, they had to work for food, water and shelter. Jesus taught in John 16:33, “In this world you will have tribulation (affliction, distress).” 

Consequence number four is illness. Augustine viewed our sinful nature as a position of being seriously ill, unable to diagnose our own illness adequately, and not able to cure it. Part of what Jesus said in Mark 2:17 was, “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” This was in direct reference to what people thought of Jesus as he was eating with people who were known sinners. Like an alcoholic, when we are tempted we are lured and enticed by our own desire. That natural desire is to sin. And in order to overcome that temptation or desire, we need help. Just like an alcoholic needs to go to rehab to get help, we need to go to the great physician to get help. 

The final Consequence of sin we are going to look at is Judgement. Because of our sinful nature, we are all separated from God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” Remember what sin is? The failure to live up to God’s good standard. Which is impossible for us to do on our own. One of the nicknames for God is the Great Judge. And rightly so. He is the Lawgiver, and has set the limits to the freedom of his creation. Overstepping those limits are essentially breaking God’s law. One day, we will all have to stand before God, as he sentences us based on the things we did in life and if we followed his standard of living.

When we look back at sin, how it relates to God’s law, and the consequences it has in life we are supposed to see how we need to rely on God. The ideal life that God has in store for his creation is that we would have fellowship with him. But because of sin, that ideal relationship has been severed. Now we can dive into how God has restored that right relationship. 

Redemption from Sin

So far this episode has been extremely heavy, and not very encouraging. The good news is that with everything that we do to separate ourselves from God, he still wants to have a relationship with us. He still wants to walk with us, lead us, have fellowship with us. Because of this God has made a way. 

Paul teaches in Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Leviticus chapter 4, spells out what must be done when people sin. There must be sin offerings that include the slaughter of animals. The animal that was sacrificed, had to be without any blemishes, meaning it was whole and healthy. Different kinds of animals were used for different kinds of sin. These sacrifices were a type of payment to reconcile people back to God. 

In Luke 7:40-50, Jesus taught a lesson to simon about sin using the illustration of a moneylender and debt. The moneylender gave one person 500 denari, and another 50. When he went to collect the money back, they could not pay, so the moneylender forgave them both of their debt. Then Jesus turned the story from money debt to talking about the lady who washed his feet with her tears, about her sin, and then forgave her of her sin because of her faith and love for him.

Our sin has created a debt that we could not ever pay back. It would be impossible, there isn’t enough money or enough spotless animals to cover that sin debt that we owe.  

This is where Jesus helps. Matthew 20:28, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus came to save us from the evil of sin and to pay the price necessary to make us in right standing with God. Because Jesus was spotless, sinless and God his blood was strong enough to cover all sins.

There are a set of verses known as the Roman road to salvation that helps us understand this hope that is found in Jesus. 

Romans 3.23 - For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Romans 6.23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Romans 5.8 - But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Romans 10.9-10 - If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

Romans 3.24-26 - Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. 

Here are some other encouraging verses for those who have faith and believe in Jesus.

Psalm 103:12 - He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

1 Cor 10:13 -  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 

1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 Peter 2:24 - He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Well, there we have it. The answer as to what sin is, where it came from, its effects, and how we have been redeemed from it.