What is Sin?
The subject of sin can be a challenging topic to explain especially to unbelievers who view the idea of original sin as an absurdity. We can not explain our need for salvation unless we first explain sin.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Rom 5:12-13
Sin is hamartía to be without a share in, to miss the mark, to err, be mistaken, to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong. I emphasize “miss the mark” because the English word “sin” is an archery term that means “to miss the mark”.
The mark is the bullseye.
How could a loving God allow man to sin? If God is omnipotent why didn’t he just fix the problem as soon as it happened? If He is all-knowing then He knew Adam and Eve would eat the forbidden fruit. Why would He set Adam and Eve up to fail? After all a loving father doesn’t tempt his children, he protects them. If indeed sin is the cause of all suffering then God is a sadist. Otherwise, He is not omnipotent. If He isn’t omnipotent then is he God? The Bible says sin is not imputed when there is no law. Wouldn’t a loving God simply dispense with the law?
How do you answer these?
Many simply defer to, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him… John 6:44 as a loophole for the apologetic mandate.
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 1 Pet 3:15
Still, we are commanded to explain our faith.
Consider the following analogy regarding the nature of sin. It takes 23,000 engineers to write three billion lines of computer code to run Google. In contrast, it takes 2 billion lines of code comprised of just four amino acids to run a cell weighing one billionth of a gram. There are at least 200 different types of cells in the human body. That is 400 billion lines of genetic code per person. It takes approximately thirty-seven trillion cells to make one human body. There are about 8 billion people on Earth today all with a unique genetic code (program). 37 trillion x 400 billion x 8 billion is 1.184 x 10 to the 35th power. The point here is that the numbers describing the complexity of life’s design are beyond comprehension. The hard drive (DNA) and program (Genetic Code) that form and drive life are far more complex than any computer hard drive or computer program ever created by man. And while man is still trying to mimic God’s computing system no one has pulled it off. Still, the overarching principles involved in computing remain the same for man-made computers and God’s creation. While the complexity points to intelligent design and the existence of God, it also points to the severity and nature of sin.
The analogy is that sin coming into the world can be likened to a computer virus that corrupts a computer operating system and spreads and infects every other computer operating system on the same network. Computer viruses are like biological viruses in that they are pieces of information that left unchecked destroy the host.
For the wages of sin is death…Rom 6:23
So how do you get rid of a virus?
There are two possible solutions. You can eradicate the host(s). Or create an anti-virus program that fixes the problem and protects from further infection.
God had the same choice at the time of the fall. He could have wiped out all of creation and gone back to the proverbial drawing board. Instead, thanks to His mercy, He chose an antivirus.
For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Consider that there can be no computer virus without a computer program. There is no biological virus without a host cell and DNA program. Similarly, there is no sin apart from the law. My analogy is not perfect but I hope most people will understand. Creation is the operating system. God’s law, is the program the enemy seeks to corrupt. Corrupt God’s law and corrupt His creation.
It’s not perfect but this is one way we might frame sin so that unbelievers understand.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. Rom 5:14
The proverbial virus that corrupted God’s program came through Adam. Hence we are dead in our trespasses and sins Eph 2:1 the moment we were born.
But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. Rom 5:15
Just as a computer antivirus program cleans and repairs a computer and then protects it from further infection, so does the free gift of grace reconcile and reset all creation to its original state of perfection. When a person truly surrenders to Jesus they are “sozoed”.
Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. Mat 9:22
Well is Sṓzō – to save, deliver, protect, heal, preserve, save, do well, to be or to make whole. Sozo occurs 103 times in the New Testament.
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul is explaining a principle that was foreshadowed in the story of Joseph.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. Gen 50:20
Our omnipotent, omniscient Father
chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
As we continue to study God’s word, all He did and does remains a mystery that we see in a glass darkly. Analogy is a dark glass that reveals just enough to inspire awe that drives us to worship our omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving God. Even what the enemy intends for harm is incorporated into God’s plan and assists Him in accomplishing His will.
…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
When we understand the nature of sin and the antivirus that eradicates and protects us from it, we can confidently say,
