Thesis 13/36: Sin

DOCTRINES OF FAITH
Doctrine 13 / 36: Sin

Sin is the violation of God's law (1 John 3:4). God did not give His law for the purpose of showing a man how to live right, but rather to show man that he does not live right (Romans 3:20). It is evident through Scripture and through experience that all men violate that law of God. Even if a person does not know what the Bible says, God's word, they still have the moral law of God written on their hearts. So that even when they do wrong, it is a conscious violation of God's law. This law on their hearts is their conscience (Romans 2:14-15).

When God first created man, He created him in His own image. He did not create Adam with sin, or with a sinful nature. The very first sin recorded in the Bible is in Genesis 3 when Adam, knowing what God's law was concerning the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, decided that he was going to eat of the tree anyway. Thus, by this one act, sin entered into the world, and caused death to both him and all of his offspring (Roman 5:12, 18). That offspring, which is all of the human race, has been made in the image of Adam (Genesis 5:3). That image is a marred image of the perfect, sinless image that God had made. Therefore, all of mankind has a natural inclination and propensity to sin.

When a man is born again, God takes away the penalty which that person's sin deserves, eternal death. However, Bible and experience teaches that even after a man has been saved, he still sins. This is because the saved man still has his old nature, the flesh, as a part of him. Paul speaks of this war that goes on in the Christian between the flesh and the Spirit in Romans 7. He speaks of how he does the things that he does not want to do, and that he does not the things that he wants to do. This struggle is specifically stated in Galatians 5:17: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

How then is a man to win this war and cease from sin? Romans 6:6 says that the old man is crucified with Christ, so that the body of sin should be destroyed; 5 verses later he exhorts the Christian, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ or Lord" (Romans 6:11). The Christian is to remember that the purpose Christ came and died was to take away our sins (1 John 3:5), and while contemplating on this thought, he is to consider himself dead to those sins, looking to Christ and remembering His work. The more a Christian contemplates on the fact that Christ died for his sins, it will move him to sin less.

Once the Christian realizes that the Christian life is a constant battle between the flesh and the Spirit, what can he do to win the battle? Galatians 5 gives the answer in principle, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:17). If a person tends to please the flesh more than the spirit, then he is walking in the flesh and will end up sinning. However, if a person denies his self, his flesh, and walks in communion with God, recognizing the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God, then he will be walking in the Spirit and fulfilling the lust of the flesh.

A stumbling block over which a man can trip is the law. If a man recognizes his sin, and says that he will simply try to obey the law, he will fail. That is because the law tends to the flesh - it is an external thing. To truly obey the law, the change must come from the inside, from the Spirit. This is not to say that a man should not do external things to prevent sin. A man should take precautions to avoid putting himself in a place in which temptation will be strong. That is, a man that has a liking for alcohol, ought not to visit the bar.

Jesus answered the temptations that were presented to him by memorizing and bringing to the forefront Scriptures that dealt with the specific temptations (Luke 4:1-13). It would be wise for a Christian struggling with a specific sin to find Scripture that will help him deal with that sin, memorize it, and quote it when the temptation is recognized.

"God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able."