it's personal
the nature of sin
Sin is not being naughty.
If, as a child, you were taught only a little about God, you may have learned to think of it that way. Taking a cookie was sin. Spilling milk on purpose was sin. Punching someone in the playground was sin. But that was a childish way to think. We grew up and learnt that sin was not merely doing the forbidden—that it wasn't just being naughty, didn't we?
Clearly, our advertising industry still thinks of sin in those terms. Sin is indulgence. Sin is letting ourselves do things that “good” people would find unacceptable. Sin is hip. Sin is me doing whatever I want because I can and you've got no right to stop me (from buying this product). But we can't blame advertising for trying to convince us of these things, it is merely a reflection of the way we already think. We love to do the forbidden simply because it is forbidden. If I do it, I show my autonomy, I show that I am in control.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, these were the desires that led to the first sin. Look closely at this famous conversation between Eve and Satan...
Genesis 3:1-7 (ESV)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman,
“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent,
“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 But the serpent said to the woman,
“You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Satan's tactics
Step 1: Distort God's words: God did not say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”. He said (in chapter 2 verses 16-17) “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Satan has attempted to suggest that God is prohibiting much more than He in fact did prohibit. In response to this distortion, Eve also overstates what God said: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” So even though Eve has corrected Satan, she has overstated God's command in so doing.
Step 2: Deny that God's words are true: “You will not surely die.”
Step 3: Deny that God is good and wants the best for them: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened”
Step 4: Assert that if you keep obeying God you will be missing out on something much better: “when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Do any of these tactics sound familiar to you? Do you ever hear someone give you a distorted version of what God has said? Have you ever heard God's commands overstated? Has anyone ever suggested to you that He is not good, that if you looked at the world you'd see that he can't be good, that he exists to make life miserable? Has anyone ever told you that you are missing out because you are a Christian?
In fact, every temptation has these elements to it. Things that God does not desire for us are presented to us as desirable. The goodness of God is brought into question by assertions that God is keeping us from the good stuff. The word of God is distorted by people who are so eaten up by desire for something that they teach that God allows it.
Why doesn't our world see things this way? Why don't all people see that sin is a denial or distortion of God's word, a grasping for something that we think is better than what God wants for us?
Romans 1 helps us to answer this question:
Romans 1:18-32 (ESV)
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. ...
28... And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Notice the use of the past tense in the parts that are in bold. Paul describes in broad terms what has happened since the creation of the world: they knew God but did not honor him as God → they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened → they became fools → God gave them up to the punishment of their own desires → they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness. Then the change to the present tense: they are full of envy...
Our world does not think of sin in this way because they have pushed the knowledge of God out of their memory. They have become futile in their thinking, their hearts are darkened and they think it is natural that they should be self-determining, accountable to no one, especially not God. If they have any concept of sin it is to do with some God-less notion of morality, societal norms, or being “nice” to others.
But sin is not something we can determine from any other source. Why is it ok to sleep with your spouse and not someone else's spouse? Why did God forbid murder but command the Israelites to wipe out other nations? In these examples it is not the act itself that is sinful, it is the relationship between the act and what God has commanded. Furthermore, God commanded the Israelites to make sacrifices to Him but then condemned them for doing this without truly worshipping Him in their hearts.
All sin is personal. All our actions are either in accord with the commands of God or against them. As Romans 14:23 puts it, “All that does not proceed from faith is sin.” If we trust that God's words are true, that he is good, and that all that is contrary to his word is foolish and futile, then our actions will proceed from that faith. As Christians our hearts were darkened like the rest of the worlds', and our thoughts were futile. But we were rescued from that, our thoughts have been changed as we have been taught the word of God. So how do we stop sinning? First we'll find out whether we can.
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