What Really Is Sin?

What Really Is Sin?

Sin includes all the lies that the human race has been telling about God the Creator down through the centuries.

Sin is universal and represents the margin of difference between all that God is (in whose image we are made) and what we are on our own.

Sin is anything that falls short of God's glory (Romans 3:23), so that God will evaluate sin as any behavior that falls short of what He does, what He says, and what He is.

Sin therefore is exposed simply by relating our behavior to God's behavior. God is perfect, and by that perfection you and I can recognize sin, because sin is anything which falls short of His perfection.

God Himself is therefore the only standard by which sin is recognizable.

Sin also is defined in the Bible as faithless independence: "Whatever is not from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23). It is an attitude of "lawlessness" (1 John 3:4).

In light of this understanding of sin, what then does repentance involve?

Repentance means stepping out of independence back into dependence, and the measure of your repentance will be the measure of your dependence. Every area of your life in which you have not learned to be truly dependent on God is an area of your life in which you have not as yet repented.

Christ died for us so that He, risen and alive, might now come and dwell within us, so that we might no longer be egocentric, self-oriented, living only for our own interests. "He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again" (2 Corinthians 5:15). 

Never be sorry for your self. Just be sorry for your sin!

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)

1. Is there any area of your life in which you have not learned to be truly dependent on God? If so, what repentance is necessary and appropriate at this time?

2. In your own behavior at this time, how are you falling short of all that God does, all that He says, and all that He is?

~W. Ian Thomas~