What is Sin

What is Sin?

Introduction

The more we are falling in love with Jesus, the more we are getting closer to Him, having made the Lord as personal Saviour of our life, we need to please Him and we need to walk in accordance to His will. The only thing that comes against us is Sin and it happens every moment, every day of our life. When we resist sin, the devil will flee.

Definition of Sin

Doing what is wrong on God doing what is right, according to God’s rules. For example, if God says do not lie and we do, then that is sin. According to God sin separates man from God. Is. 59:2 very clearly says what sin is.

Ref.: Is. 59:2 - But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

So, the bible tells us that it is our sins that hide His face from us and he will not listen to our prayers. In such situations, we need to look into our sinful areas that hinders and confess it to the Lord for Him to hear us. The bible says about the anger of God or the wrath of God in Romans 1:18-22.

Ref.: Romans 1:18-22 - ¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. ²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

When we do not glorify God in all that we do, then we bring about the wrath of God on us. There are many laws in the Kingdom of God. One moral law that God has given to every man is the conscience. This conscience either accuses us or excuses us. So that it will compel us to remain within God’s boundary and God’s moral standards of conduct. This conscience is much like a human muscle, which when exercised becomes very strong. But if we start ignoring the urging of the conscience for a period of time, then it will not function like it should. For example, if we have made up our mind to speak the truth in all circumstances, then we are activating that muscle and that muscle is made stronger and stronger, that at no point of time we will speak a lie. In the contrary, if a thief is tempted into stealing the first time, when he ignores the urge of his conscience that tells him not to steal, but he goes off the point, he falls into the other category, thereby ignoring the urging of the conscience and it will not function the way it should. So, our conscience is like a muscle. If we exercise it for the good, we get a good result. But if we ignore it, we fall into the other category. So then, what are God’s laws? They are the Ten Commandments. God, had to give Moses the Ten Commandments, because prior to that we knew how the people were behaving, even though they were handpicked by God, even though they knew that it was God who was leading them, even though they knew they were special, even though they knew that they didn’t deserve it, but God gave it to them knowing that they were special and called and chosen yet they sinned and spell short of the Glory of God.

Ref.: Ex. 20:2-17 – ²“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ³“You shall have no other gods before me. ⁴“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. ⁷“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. ⁸“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labour and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. ¹²“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. ¹³“You shall not murder. ¹⁴“You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁵“You shall not steal. ¹⁶“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. ¹⁷“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”

We need to just see if we are in alignment with these Ten Commandments. If we are not, then there is something we have to do to change our focal point.

· The first is, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’ So, God commands that He be the focal point of all our affection. If we love our life, our spouse, our vocation, our possessions, our children, our vocation more than we love Him or the Giver, then we should change our position.

· The second is that we shall not have other gods before Him. He says that we shall not make other God that suit ourselves with our hands or minds. We shall not make money or wealth our God, our profession our God, our education our God. If we have any of these, we are having an idol and thereby have other Gods in the place of God. Anything between us and God becomes an idol.

· The third is we shall not make any carved images of any likeness of anything in Heaven above or the earth beneath or the waters below. This is one of the points that the other denominations strike us hard and say that we are going against the third commandment. It is one basis identity crisis we are facing as Catholics.

· You shall not take the name of your God in vain. Give honour to God’s name and not use it lightly or as a curse word.

· Keep the Sabbath holy. How we take time to prepare our self for Sunday Mass, probably from the previous evening itself so that we are conscious how we prepare to receive the Triune God, so that we become kinder, more patient, we become able to sober down on many things, and this starts to become our nature. We need to celebrate the mass along with the priest. A day that we need to specially set apart for God.

· Honour your parents. Those who honour receive a special blessing. Just honour your parents out of sheer obedience to God, irrespective of whether they are good, bad or rude. Some wonder why they had such parents, but out of sheer obedience to God that He would not have made a mistake to give them as parents or we as their children. We need to even tell, that as parents they know not anything is also a sin, in accordance to the bible.

· You shall not murder. Give respect to the most small things in life. The word of God says that whoever hates his brother is a murderer.

Ref.: 1 Jn. 3:15 - Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

This is a spiritual law. Jesus says that if we are angry with our brother or sister without a cause, then we in danger of judgement.

Ref. Mt. 5:22 - But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

So, our harmony with our brother and sister will save us from sin. Otherwise, we are called murderers.

· You shall not commit adultery. Sex is only for marriage. Looking at a woman to lust after her, who is not his wife, is stated to have already committed adultery in his heart.

Ref.: Mt. 5:28 - But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

This includes fornication. Fornication is having sex outside the marriage.

Ref.: 1Tim. 1:8-10 - ⁸We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. ⁹We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine

So, anything that does not fall into sound teaching falls into the other category. We need to be careful that we do not commit adultery.

· You shall not steal. Do not put any value to anything and try to take it into yourself. The value of thing actually makes one to steal, which we should forbid. Don’t bear false witness. White lies, half lies, exaggeration are all false witnesses.

· Do not covet your neighbours goods – (i.e.) desiring something that belongs to someone else - can be human beings, others possessions, for example, can be crazy of another person’s wife or husband, desiring for a friend’s way of life or his or her possessions. According to God’s rules we are all sinners.

None of us have kept all of God’s laws. And God has said that the wages of sin is death.

Ref.: Rom.6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ref.: Rom. 5:8 - But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ref.: Rom. 10: 9-10 - ⁹If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Ref.: Rom. 10: 9-13 - “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

So all who call upon the name of the Lord, will be saved. So, we have a chance to choose Him or reject Him. From the above verses, we know that we have a chance to choose Him or lose Him. If we do not accept Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, now, we are doomed. We cannot do it after we are dead. Believe then, that we have a judgement day, when we need to stand before the King of Kings. Every day our angel is going up and writing in Heaven as a record of our doings. How many books are there in Heaven to maintain records? There are two books, one is book of life and the other is book of remembrance. Every day, our assigned angel will record our day to day activity, good and bad, in the book of life. Accordingly, we are to be judged. So, the Lord says, if we confess our sins and repent, forget and be forgiven of all our sins from east to west.

In the Kingdom of God, on that day, God will judge us by His rules. His rules are the Ten Commandments. If we deviate any of them, we are liable to stand before God and answer on that day. But there is one loophole, since Jesus Christ came into the world and died on the cross for us, He has paid the debt for us. Hallelujah! So, the only way is, to accept Jesus, so that we will not be accountable for our sins.

Ref.: Heb. 9: 27-28 - ²⁷Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

We have a way through Jesus Christ and thank you Jesus. He sacrificed Himself once and for all to take away the sins of all of us, so that when He comes the second time in His second coming He will not come to take the sins of the world again, but to save us who are waiting patiently for Him.

What are the Kinds of Sins?

Our Catholic Church talks about seven capital sins, they are also called as Capital Sins. They are Anger, Envy, Lust, Pride, Gluttony, Sloth and Greed. To remember, lets frame the acronym, GASP LEG.

GASP LEG

· G – GREED - Greed is excessive interest or pursuing of materialistic things or goods. When we are greedy for excessive (i.e) over and above, then we call that as greed. Having enough is not greed.

· A – ANGER - Anger can be merely anger – that is hate towards a particular person, if not, Holy Anger. When we see Jesus, chasing out everybody from the temple, we find Holy anger, because the people did not revere God’s House. It was a just anger. But when the anger holds a hate for the other person or destructive means that burns in us to eliminate a person, then that is a sin.

· S – SLOTH – Excessive laziness, or postponing things from how you actually have got to do or failure to act or failure to utilise our talents then we call that as slothfulness.

· P – PRIDE – Excessive view of oneself without regard for others. When we think too much of ourselves. We portray ourselves at the first place.

· L – LUST – It is for sexual desires and when we have strong passion or longing for someone.

· E – ENVY - Intense desire to have an item that somebody else possesses.

· G – GLUTTONY – Eating or drinking excessive.

Ref.: Prov.6:16-19 - ¹⁶There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, ¹⁹a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Ref.: Gal 5:19-21 - ¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Cure from Sins

If we have any of these sins within us, the eternal life is not there according to The Word of God and it is true, unless we repent, make amendments for our sin. Though these seven sins are deadly and they are capital in the eyes of God, there are cures for these seven sins. Most of the saints and apostles, who loved God, did this. It is like an antidote. Sin is deadly, sin is contagious, but there is cure for seven deadly sins.

Humility cures Pride and so by being humble, we become a winner of pride. Kindness cures Envy. Abstinence or fasting cures gluttony. Chastity cures lust. Patience cures anger or wrath. Liberality (being a giver) cures greed and Diligence cures sloth.