“sIn”

  “If a man possesses a repentant spirit his sins will disappear, but if he has an unrepentant spirit his sins will continue and condemn him for their sake forever.” – Buddha

“The first sin in the Universe was Lucifer’s self-conceit.” – Thomas Carlyle

“Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful” – Benjamin Franklin

Sin exists.  Sin separates man from God.  What is sin anyway?  Mr. Franklin’s little statement quoted above can take us a long way toward understanding the Ten Commandments: The “Thou Shalt” and “Thou Shalt Nots” thingy, and the purpose behind them; obey them and have a better life, ignore them and things just won’t go as well.

Sin is not a word we hear much outside of religious circles.  The main reason for that is due to the fact that our world, meaning primarily western culture, has replaced the word with many others in an effort to describe behavior which it does not consider to be currently socially acceptable.  Unfortunately, changing the name does not change the reality of the concept; a skunk by any other name is just as smelly.  Some behaviors are not right, regardless of society’s fungible norms or the words used to describe them.

In this day and age most of society implicitly and/or explicitly rejects the premise which has been clearly set forth in the Holy Bible that “all have sinned.”  Rather most folk seem to prefer to meander towards the tendency to want to believe that some people are naturally good and others have, probably through no fault of their own, unfortunately been influenced to be bad.  We use “science” today to say the fault probably lies in our genes.  However the human race is suffering as a result of the sin of Adam, or it is suffering for no reason at all.

In the 2,000 years of church history following the time of Jesus’ physical presence in this world many theologians and scholars have set forth their thoughts in an attempt to define sin.  Some have defined it quite broadly making it out that practically everything that a human being does which is not specifically an act of devotion toward God is sin.  The problem with that definition is that it degrades the problem of sin which is, God is holy and He will not permit those who are hostile to Him and offensive to His absolute purity to dwell in His presence.

I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. (John 8:24)

– Pastor Ward Clinton