Built on the Bible
“. . . for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.”
Psalm 107:11
Sin is a very controversial topic today. Thanks to the rise of expressive individualism, one of the only sins still viewed as evil is the supposed sin of denying another’s authentic self, that is, who they want to be. Obviously, morality hasn’t completely vanished from our society. Pedophilia and mass shootings are still viewed with disdain in society, and for that we should be glad. But by and large, society’s conception of sin is found lacking. Let’s take a look at what sin is against and who defines it.
Sin is Against Something
First, we need to realize that sin is never against man. Bear with me on this one. You may be wondering about murder. Isn’t that against someone? No, murder is not a sin against someone in the biblical definition of the word. While murder (and most other sins) greatly harms others, the murderer is not ultimately accountable to the victim. Rather, sin is committed against God alone. For a great example of this, let’s look at David.
David was one of the greatest men in the history of the Bible. He was a shepherd turned king, who not only killed the giant Goliath, but escaped the wrath of King Saul for years. Yet he was not perfect. One day, when observing his kingdom on his roof, he saw a woman bathing, Bathsheba. You know the story. David had her husband, Uriah, eventually murdered after he had slept with his wife. In punishment, the child resulting from David’s adultery died in his mother’s womb. Yet David said these words in his repentant prayer: “Against you [God], you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” (Psalm 51:4) Why did he say that? Because David wasn’t responsible to Uriah or his son for the immense hurt, pain, and death he caused them. He had to answer to Almighty God.
Sin is against God alone because sin is when we transgress God’s moral law. That law is most simply put in the words of Jesus: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:37-39) On top of these two foundational commands is the rest of the morality we find demonstrated in the Bible.
Sin is Defined in God’s Word
First, we find out what is sin in God’s Word. First, we will look at explicit commands. These are easy to grasp, but often hard to apply. Going back to the murder example, we find in the Ten Commandments a clear condemnation of murder: “you shall not murder.” (Ex. 20:13) While this seems easy, we are quick to forget because of our sinful flesh. This is one reason why Bible memorization is so helpful, so that we can remember what is right and wrong biblically when situations arise.
Another way the Bible defines morality is through biblical principles. This is something that can be very hard to grasp. Sometimes these are grey areas, and sometimes these are clear, but they still require reasoning founded on the Bible. For example, think of an abortion pill. Sure, there isn’t a command in the Bible that specifically bans abortion pills. However, we saw in the Ten Commandments that murder is wrong, and we see the personhood of fetuses in Jeremiah 1:5. Thus, abortion is wrong. While that is an easier, other practical applications can be difficult. This is one reason why God uses the local church, to help apply the Bible to daily situations.
Finally, God’s Word teaches us how to fight sin. Before we saw how to identify sin, but now we will look at how the Bible informs our fight against it. The Bible first promises the help of the Holy Spirit (John 14:25-26). The Holy Spirit helps us fight sin by reminding us of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit can’t help us remember things we didn’t already know. That would be teaching. While the Holy Spirit could teach us in moments of weakness, His chosen method is reminding us. Study up, lest you fail in temptation.
Sin is Defined by God, not Man
God, and in turn the Bible, is the only standard for morality. This is something that is crucial to the Christian worldview. While man made laws and treatises can often have great morality, they aren’t the standard that we look to. When determining whether something is right or wrong, we must look to the Bible for answers first.
Finally, we need to understand that man cannot make his own morality. First, we will look at taking away from Scripture, then adding. Taking away from Scripture is something that is prevalent throughout society today. Are homosexual acts really wrong? Is it really wrong to name-call? What’s the harm in premarital sex? All of these dominate our society’s thought, yet we refuse to look to God’s Word for clarity and wisdom. Taking away from God’s Word is sin. We cannot cut out the parts of Scripture that offend us. Does denying desires make us inauthentic to ourselves? Yes, because we have sinful desires. And being inauthentic to our sinful flesh is good. We as believers must deny the sinful desires of the flesh to lay up treasures for eternity.
On the flip side of taking away from Scripture is adding to Scripture, namely legalism. This has much more of a righteous pretext. Sometimes, adding extra boundaries in our lives is necessary. Jesus told us to cut out our eyes if they cause us to sin. However, we must be wary of imposing undue burdens on ourselves, and especially wary of doing this to others. Both extremes, adding and taking away from Scripture, are sinful. In conclusion, we must realize that sin is ultimately against God, and that God defines sin, not man.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.