What is sin?

Okay, a lot of people go through life completely ignorant of one of the biggest failures that comes of being a human being. And that's the fact, that everyone at one point or another, has sinned. Now, the word 'sin', has a major religious connotation, and there's no way around that. But it also is a word, that indicates a moral and or social standard, by which a society exists on. And to sin, is to do something that goes against those social or moral standards. Or in other words, to simply break the law. Sometimes it happens without even realizing that that's what you're doing... and other times, some people do it deliberately for whatever reasoning that that person has.

The word 'sin', comes from Hebrew, it's actually the 21st letter of the Hebrew written alphabet. Also, the word has Middle-English, Old English, and Indo-European roots. All these cultures, all have a similar word that means pretty much the same thing; to act or behave in a manner contrary to the social or moral laws of society. Kind of makes it obvious, that it's a common problem to almost every culture there is. Guess the saying is true: for every barrel, there's a bad apple.

While the laws or moral code of societies may be radically different, the constant thread seems to be, that there are people who somehow manage to go against those generally-accepted precepts that the group on the whole believes in. Sometimes, being an individual is a good thing, as no society can ever claim to be completely perfect. There are many such laws in existance, that often do not make complete sense as societal values change and adjust. But until those laws change, we must remain under the authority of them or risk having to be held accountable to the punishment for breaking a law. No-one is above the law, least of all me. Being an individual person, is not sin. But behaving in an unnatural way in comparison to your own personal modus operandi is a dangerous way to live. Not only for other people in your society, but also for yourself.

Why is this dangerous? What is the difference between being independant, or being simply eccentric, compared to just being sinful? Good questions, and here is my answer; It is dangerous because when we sin, there is no standard anymore. Once you come out from under the protections of society, be it religious or secular, and of your own personal sense of right and wrong, you open yourself up to all kinds of dangers, including death. Being eccentric, or naturally different than the mainstream crowd is one thing. When following your own religious or moral beliefs, you can expect to sometimes not fit in completely with all the traditional views of life. But at least you still have your OWN standard of living, to fall back on. And MOST of the time, other people who kind of understand where you're coming from. Having a standard of living, is really the biggest thing next to God Himself that keeps us from self-destruction. The difference between being independant and being sinful, is in having a standard of living. Defining yourself, finding your own boundaries yet keeping within those boundaries, is healthy. It's even encouraged, to think for oneself. At least there, the only downside would be when most people do not understand the way you think, when you're different than the rest of the crowd. A sinful person however, has no such standard by which to live. Or has behaved in a way that is contrary to even his or her own set standards. A sinful person is reckless, careless... a fool, as many philosophers and philosophies talk about so plainly. A fool, is someone with no direction or idea what he or she is doing; where he or she comes from, and most importantly, where he or she is going in life.

The book of Ezekiel talks about sin, in particular making a conscious decision to sin. And what the result is. Ezekiel 18:2,4-31 says:

'2"What do you people mean by going around the country repeating the saying,

25"Do I hear you saying, "That's not fair! God's not fair!'? "Listen, Israel. I'm not fair? You're the ones who aren't fair! 26If a good person turns away from his good life and takes up sinning, he'll die for it. He'll die for his own sin. 27Likewise, if a bad person turns away from his bad life and starts living a good life, a fair life, he will save his life. 28Because he faces up to all the wrongs he's committed and puts them behind him, he will live, really live. He won't die. 29"And yet Israel keeps on whining, "That's not fair! God's not fair.' "I'm not fair, Israel? You're the ones who aren't fair. 30"The upshot is this, Israel: I'll judge each of you according to the way you live. So turn around! Turn your backs on your rebellious living so that sin won't drag you down. 31Clean house. No more rebellions, please. Get a new heart! Get a new spirit! Why would you choose to die, Israel? 32I take no pleasure in anyone's death. Decree of GOD, the Master. "Make a clean break! Live!"'

Therefore, the fault of sinning doesn't rest at the feet of society, or in the laws. Nor in upbringing, as several 'experts' in psychology are wont to blame the parents or some psychological trauma as a sole or defining reason for what their kids do. It rests in the individual, who gives into the temptations in front of him or her. The blame of sin lies, in the lack of personal standard of living, within the person involved.

As I have previously stated, no society has ever achieved perfection. So without accountability for sin, society makes more and stricter laws to follow with tougher penalties, thinking this will discourage sin. But it doesn't! If anything, it encourages MORE people to sin! I pity those in authority to make the laws. For they are like the Greek king Sysyphus; cursed forever to attempt rolling a rock up a hill, only to watch it roll right back down again. Making tougher laws is like pouring water on a grease fire; It won't go out that way. It'll only make the fire spread worse. Romans 5:20 says pretty much the same thing on that score.

Why does writing new laws cause more people to sin, instead of stop them from sinning? Romans 7 talks about that. Romans 7:5 says that as long as we continue to live doing things in a way that is self-gratifying, doing whatever we feel we can get away with, sin calls the shots of our lives. Meanwhile, the law traps and limits us by it's strictures. And that feeling of being hemmed in, of being told all the more things we should NOT do, is what makes us all the more tempted, resentful, and rebellious to the law whether we realize it or not. And in short, the law itself is partly responsible for inspiring people to sin more, as new and stricter laws are made. And all we truly have to show for it in the end, is more pain and suffering from a real catch-22.

So is there a conscious choice to sin or not to sin? YES. It's called free will. It was the gift God gave Man, from the day Man was created. God gave Adam and Eve rules, and Eve chose to become tempted and eat fruit that was forbidden to her. And Adam chose, to eat of the fruit Eve gave him. You see? Each time, nobody put a gun to Adam OR Eve's heads... they took in the facts, and made their decisions. God said that if they ate of the fruit, they would surely die. What God meant wasn't that a bolt of lightning would come and fry 'em for eating God's fruit, it simply meant that Man would pay the price for knowledge, namely to have a finite time to use that knowledge before either having to pass it on to a new generation or take it to the grave. Facts of which, I'm sure Adam and Eve were unaware of completely, since knowledge of good and evil was yet to be introduced. After the serpent tempted Eve, Adam used logic and deduced that since Eve was still alive and standing after taking a bite, that maybe he should too. Sound logic, bad idea. Because in his curiosity to catch up to his wife, Adam displayed a trait that is in a lot of people today: selective memory. Or as Bill Cosby is wont to put it, brain damage.

'WHAT did I tell you???' 'You said not to eat the fruit.' 'RIGHT. Why did you eat the fruit?' 'I dunno!' Brain damage. When called to task, we suffer subjective and selective amnesia, in an attempt to cover our own assets from trouble. Which in the case of Adam and Eve, is mind-boggling to me. For a couple of people who just got a major I.Q. boost enough to realize they were naked, it should also have been obvious since they now knew the difference between good and evil, to know that they shouldn't try to hide from God... that doing so would be yet another sin on top of the first one, AND that it would be impossible to do that anyway. You're talking about the omnipresent being who created the UNIVERSE... and hiding in the bushes, would keep them from being seen by Him? Or that He who counts the hairs on our heads, would fail to notice some fruit missing from His tree? I seriously think not. Adam saw with his eyes that Eve hadn't been struck dead, and somehow managed despite the brain God gave him, to completely forget in light of the visual facts before his eyes, that to eat it was still forbidden to do. I think we both know which set of brains was doing his thinking THAT day... no wonder many artists paint Adam and Eve as blonds. I think the first recorded sin, is evidence of the much-joked about blond moment! :D

But if the stricter laws are inspiring criminals to find new ways to break the law, is the law a bad thing? Another good question. And a dangerous one, because left unanswered people will generally assume an answer, and when you assume you only make an ass out of you, not me. We turn again to Romans, this time to Rom. 7:7-10, which says:

'7But I can hear you say, "If the law code was as bad as all that, it's no better than sin itself." That's certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, "You shall not covet," I could [easily] have dressed my covetousness [my lustful interests] up to look like a virtue and [completely] ruined my life with it [as it went against what the law clearly said]. 8Don't you remember how it was? I do, [all too] perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of "forbidden fruit" out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me [into committing a sin]. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, 9and I went along without paying much [if any] attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it [hook, line and sinker]. 10The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong [into a regrettably messy path which leads to death].'

Here again, we see a link back to Adam and Eve. The temptation to do evil makes itself look better than it is, by tricking us into thinking we're doing the right thing, even though it's done the wrong way. The old saying about how the grass is always greener on the other side, is a perfect example of how temptation makes bad ideas seem good, by looking better than what we have by following the law. Temptation makes bad ideas, into forbidden fruit. Again, we turn to Romans. Rom. 7:13 says,

'13I can already hear your next question: "Does that mean I can't even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?" No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God's good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.'

So although the law inspires more and more kinds of crime, the law itself is not to blame for the new ways people break the law. It is temptation, it is the bad choices people make, that SEEM good at the time. It is wanting more than what they have, or seeking out things that are lacking, that tempt people into making bad decisions. And into committing a sin. The responsibility lies in the person who is tempted, whether to follow the temptation or not.

So how do we fight temptation? Where does temptation come from? Jesus told his desciples exactly how to face temptation, in Matthew 26:41,

'"Stay alert; be in prayer so you don't wander into temptation without even knowing you're in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there's another part that's as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire."'

And James advises us in James 1:13-15:

'13Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. 14The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. 15Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.'

So then, whose fault is it, that lead Adam and Eve to sin? Was it the serpent's? Or did Adam and Eve really cause their own expulsion from Eden? Everyone likes to play the blame game, when the jig is up. 'The woman gave me the apple and I ate it.' 'The serpent tempted me'. But nobody likes to hear that the fault of sin lies in our own hands. But it's true, when all else is said and done and God knew it. Circumstances and situations may come up to entice and lure us into making bad decisions, but the bad decisions ARE still made by us, and us alone. The serpent only posed the possibility that Eve wouldn't necessarily die on the spot for eating the apple. But it was still Eve who reached out and took the fruit. The serpent never touched the fruit directly. The serpent only put into words, thoughts that Eve herself had already thought about. And used her own natural curiosity, against her. So therefore, the first temptation to give into sin, came from Eve, and not the serpent. Just as the temptation Adam had to eat the apple didn't come from Eve directly, but from the obvious, but flawed logical evidence of his own eyes. Doesn't make the serpent blameless, or Eve for that matter. Far from it. But it does give credit where credit is certainly due.

And the punishment for that sin, was eventual death. As well as expulsion from Eden. But why? Why did God remove Adam and Eve from Eden? Because they weren't honest with God. They each blamed someone else, for their bad decisions. Moreover, they tried to HIDE from God, after they realized they had sinned. In the book of Jonah, God sends Jonah to a city called Ninevah to tell them that God was going to smite the city. But pay attention to what happens: First, Jonah doesn't want to deliver that message. What does he do? He tries to hide from God. He slapped on his Reeboks, and hotfooted it in the direct opposite direction, towards the town of Joppa to get on a boat and get out of Dodge. He wanted to get as far away from God, and what God wanted him to do, as he could possibly get. Again, this is free will operating, in counter to a direct order. Yup. You guessed it. In short, Jonah committed a sin.

But God took a bad situation, and instead of getting angry, He decided to make lemonade. He created a violent storm, and after Jonah confessed to the people on the boat why the storm was happening, the people on the boat prayed to God, giving the situation over to Him and on Jonah's request, they threw him overboard. When the sea quieted down immediately, the sailors believed in the power of God, and thanked Him.

But the story didn't end with Jonah lost at sea... far from it! God was in a warped and ironic mood that day since the sailors came to believe in Him, and since Jonah had a Monstro-sized case of pride and fear to swallow... God made the biggest whale he could find, to come and swallow JONAH. And so Jonah stayed there for three days and three nights-- while God waited patiently for Jonah to apologize for disobeying Him. Took him three whole days to swallow his pride... but it eventually occurred to him that he had to face the music. God's reaction, was immediate. No sooner had Jonah finished praying, than the whale got a bad case of indigestion and vomited poor Jonah onto the beach... surprise surprise, right back where he started from.

And so God sent another telegram down to Jonah. 'GO TO NINEVAH. STOP. TELL PEOPLE I SHALL SMITE THEM IN FORTY DAYS BECAUSE I CANNOT STAND THEIR SINS. STOP. GO RIGHT NOW. STOP. GOD.' Jonah 3:3-10 says:

'3This time Jonah started off straight for Nineveh, obeying GOD's orders to the letter. Nineveh was a big city, very big--it took three days to walk across it. 4Jonah entered the city, went one day's walk and preached, "In forty days Nineveh will be smashed." 5The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God. They proclaimed a citywide fast and dressed in burlap to show their repentance. Everyone did it--rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers. 6When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up off his throne, threw down his royal robes, dressed in burlap, and sat down in the dirt. 7Then he issued a public proclamation throughout Nineveh, authorized by him and his leaders: "Not one drop of water, not one bite of food for man, woman, or animal, including your herds and flocks! 8Dress them all, both people and animals, in burlap, and send up a cry for help to God. Everyone must turn around, turn back from an evil life and the violent ways that stain their hands. 9Who knows? Maybe God will turn around and change his mind about us, quit being angry with us and let us live!" 10God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. He did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn't do.'

Because the people of Ninevah listened, took stock of what their lives were like, and made an honest appeal to God for forgiveness as they cleaned house and turned away from sin, God spared them. A far cry from what Adam and Eve did in Eden! When they sinned, they tried to hide it from God. And God gave them their marching papers from Eden as a result. Likewise, when Jonah tried to run away from God, God gave Jonah his marching papers from the boat. But nowhere does it say in Genesis, that Adam and Eve asked God for forgiveness for their sin. Instead, they tried to play the blame game, and God wasn't playing it. Adam and Eve were sent out of Eden because they couldn't face up to the responsibility of breaking the rules. God feared, and rightly so, that if Man got his hands on the Tree of Life without learning first about taking responsibility for their actions, the results would be catastrophic. But Jonah was given a second chance because he repented. Because he took responsibility for his actions, his mistake of sinning by trying to run away from God when God called him to a task. Just as the people of Ninevah got a second chance when they turned away from their sins. The Lord really is the God of Second Chances, if we go to Him for help!

Cain was the eldest son of Adam and Eve, and although his sin wasn't a cosmic-sized blunder, he still screwed up BIG time when he fell to a sinful temptation. Got jealous of his brother Abel, because God favored Abel's offering of produce from his farm, over Cain's offerings of the choicest cuts of meat from the firstborn animals. So Cain gave into temptation and jealousy, and killed Abel. When God confronted Cain about the murder, and pronounced judgement, Cain didn't run. Instead, he faced up to the music and admitted to God that he didn't deserve to be in God's presence anymore. He admitted that he did not know how he could take the punishment, because he feared that he also would wind up dead because he killed his brother Abel. God's heart softened, at Cain's honesty. So God promised to put His mark on Cain, to protect him from harm for the rest of his days. And not only did Cain live to a ripe old age, but he became immortalized into history's pages when God used him to build a city, and become the ancestor of two half-brothers named Jubal and Tubal-Cain. Jubal was the first musician on Earth, the inventor of the flute and the lyre. And Tubal-Cain, became the world's first scientific inventor, the world's first bronze and iron smith, and he invented many tools using his forge. And when you think about it, music, using tools, and metal-working all became the cornerstones of many civilizations, including ours'. So we owe the seeds to almost everything we have today, all to a man who in his youth was a convicted murderer, who spent a good part of his life feeling that he didn't fit in, or belong anywhere. Quite a legacy!