What Is Sin?

Let’s talk about sin.

I don’t enjoy talking about sin very much.  But it’s a concern to most so we need to talk about it.

I’ll be honest about this – my views have shifted so dramatically over time that I hardly know HOW to talk about sin.  My perspective is so different than what it used to be when I was preaching and teaching mainstream Christianity.

If you’ve spent much time on my site, you know that I concluded that what I was doing spiritually didn’t work and moved on.  The resulting  journey, struggles, absolute fear, and every other emotion you could possibly imagine has brought me to a place where I see sin very differently.

Take it and check it out.  You may find that my conclusions help you in some way with your concerns and issues about sin.

Sin is very well defined in religion today – and then it’s not.  Strange isn’t it?

I mean one group of Christians says this is right and another group of Christians says the same thing is wrong and a sin.  They might even go on to say that God won’t love you anymore if you do it.

So you struggle with what you should do, shouldn’t do, wondering all the while if God loves you and if God will quit loving you at some point if you cross the line from doing right to doing wrong….

Christians, for the most part, find themselves stuck with this dilemma and the only way to survive is to define very definitely what is right and wrong and avoid the wrong at all costs.  This means doing whatever it takes.

If you’re tempted by music, then you stop playing the instrument you love and quit listening to music.  If you’re tempted by television then you rid your home of that device and avoid places that have them.  If you’re tempted by… well you get the idea.

It’s a fairly radical approach.  I guess it has scriptural foundation – it’s like cutting off the hand that offends, or plucking out the eye.

And it leads to a fairly miserable existence, except you tell yourself and all your fellow believers that you have joy, because you’re doing right and avoiding wrong.

And you probably don’t really believe it.

The joy if you want to call it that comes from feeling like you are right.

This brand of joy is a mixed bag.  It’s really self-righteousness and it only comes to you if you yourself are doing everything right – and it comes with the fear that one day you may slip up and do the wrong thing and all hell will break loose.

Personally, I think that’s hell – not joy.  Why would anyone want to live there?

I’ll tell you why people choose it.  They’re addicted to being right.

Being right is an addiction just like an addiction to drugs and alcohol.  In fact the addiction to being right is probably worse – and it may be the root of most of the addictions to external substances and stimulants.  That’s another topic for another day.

This avoidance of sin requires that a person constantly do what’s right – because after all, idleness is the devils workshop – which means that doing nothing is sin too, so you’re pretty dang busy if your’re a good Christian!

Stop for a minute and notice how you feel.  Feel the tension of keeping right and avoiding wrong?  Just writing this, I feel the tension associated with this lifestyle.  Having lived there for a number of years it’s etched deeply in my memory and so it’s easy to bring up those old feelings.

Anyway there is a better way.

The promises of God point to a way of life that is higher -  a way of joy and peace that passes understanding.

And understanding the nature of sin helps us find it.

First of all, sin exists because of judgment.

A judgment must be made before anything can be sin.  A judgment must be made before anything can be right or wrong.

So judgment is the root cause of sin.

A lot of people think that Adam and Eve committed the first sin when they ate the forbidden fruit.

They didn’t.

Adam and Eve discovered for themselves the root of sin when they went into judgment – which is what partaking of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil symbolizes.

Their experience is exactly the same as ours.  They didn’t do something that defines us before God.  No.  The concept of original sin is a religious, church convention designed to keep you toeing the line – and it’s worked for thousands of years!  Pretty good plan, wouldn’t you say?

You and I are no different than Adam and Eve.

We have the same opportunity to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowlege of good and evil.  We can live in a garden where everything is perfect, or we can live in a world where everything is judged by our arbitrary standard of right and wrong.

Your choice.

So where is sin?  Sin is where your judgments place it.

You sin when you do what you judge is wrong.  Others sin when they do what you judge is wrong.

Sin is only what you judge as being wrong.

Then there are the folks who say “Only what God judges sin is sin”.  (Usually stated rather haughtily )

Ok.  So define that.

It always comes back to you my friend.  You’ll likely have some ideas about what God would judge to be wrong – and the next person has some slightly different ideas.

And so the battle ever rages about what you judge as wrong and what the next person judges as wrong – and about the only thing you can agree on is that there is something wrong.

God is outside of all that.

Doesn’t involve himself at all.

Do you remember what God told Adam and Eve?  He told them not to eat that fruit.

He didn’t want them to make themselves sinners.

You see, the sin was NOT eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.

The sin was what they judged for themselves after they made judgements about themselves.

You might say they disobeyed God and that was sin.

Well that’s one way to look at it.

God knew that if they went into judgment that they would judge themselves and become sinners in their own mind.  God also knew that it would kill Adam and Eve eat that fruit.

Judgment produces sin which produces death.

Once you get into the cycle, it’s nearly impossible to break free.

Judgment, sin, death – judgment, sin, death.

Where is life in that sequence?

It’s not!  Life is outside that sequence.  Freedom is outside that formula.

Life a formula by itself.

You get to choose one or the other.

Life – true, free life is living free of judgment, sin, death and the fear of judgment sin and death.

That’s what Jesus tried to show us.

And we thought he was setting up a religion.

Nope.

We missed it my friends.  We missed it BIGTIME!

You know religion is really another name for judgment isn’t it?  Isn’t religion really another tree of knowledge of good and evil?

“Come join our group” they say.  “We’ll teach you what is right and wrong.  We’ll show you the way to heaven.”

Sounds good doesn’t it?  Sounds enticing.  Sounds similar to what the serpent said to Eve.

Eerie isn’t it?

It’s your choice.

Isn’t that wonderful?

YOU get to choose!

Now you know.

Choose wisely – and if you haven’t chosen wisely in the past, choose wisely today!