What is sin?
You may have heard of the seven deadly sins. Well, they are not anime or TV series, or video games. Originally, they come from Christian teaching.
The seven deadly sins are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.
What is common among these seven traits is self-centeredness. If everyone is selfish, chaos will eventually result in society. That is why the Bible also teaches that sin is lawlessness.
So, what is sin? Sin is ultimately a rebellion against God our Creator.
Despite His holiness, goodness, and perfection, we, the human race, distrust God and have chosen our own way rather than God’s way. The point is made crystal clear in the story of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament.
Adam and Eve were created in a perfect world. They received everything overabundantly. They were in charge of the perfect world. “Then the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.'” (Genesis 2:16-17). Instead of trusting God, they took the fruit and ate it.
We may cry out to God in times of need and distress, but for the most part, we go about our life without any consideration for Him. When we see evil in the world or experience hardship in our life, we blame God.
We are afraid of submitting to our Creator who created us in His own image. We would rather fashion a God in our own image.
We don’t want God to reign over us. We want God to serve us and make us happy.
Our human nature that rejects God for who He is and resists Him to be our Lord and King is what the Bible calls sin. As a result, the human fellowship with God was severed and broken. The creature has turned its back on the Creator, and God has become our enemy. We are separated from God who is life, light, and love.
The result is all around us: death, darkness, discord, and destruction. We are fundamentally broken and unhealthy, no longer whole and complete.
Penalty of Sin
Because He is our Creator, God alone has the authority to reign over us and to direct us.
Because God is righteous and just, there is also a penalty for sin, our rebellion against the Authority.
“For when you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 1:17).
“The penalty of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
In this world, death is inevitable. In fact, it is a “natural” part of our life. Death ends it all.
When our souls, the immaterial part of us, are separated from our bodies, our physical bodies die. Similarly, our spirits are separated from God and are dead in sin.
So, we are dead spiritually and physical death rules our world.
The Bible also teaches us that there will be a judgment of all humanity one day. As the 20-century British scholar, C.S. Lewis put it, “there are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.'”
Those who choose self-will over God’s will shall be eternally separated from Him. This is the ultimate death. The Bible calls it the second death. Those who choose to submit to His will shall spend eternity in His presence. This is eternal life – that we know God and are in fellowship with Him as we are originally created to be.
