What Makes a Sin a Sin?
Do you confuse sin with transgression? Do you know how to differentiate between them?
My name is Leroy Daley from Blogging About The Word, you can find me at www.atotheword.com.
On this channel, I teach Christians how to better understand their Bibles. I utilize Bible studies to explain relevant scriptures, here are little, there a little, line upon line, precepts upon precepts. Precepts must be on other relevant and correct precepts or else we will have confusion.
Last week, I dealt with transgression, and you will find a link to that Bible study in the description below. This week, I want to utilize the Scripture to define and explain the nature of sin.
Oftentimes, we hear people, Christians included, define trespass using their own terms and definitions, which most times are not biblical.
I’ve come across it many times, therefore, I decided to do this Bible study to sort of dispel that doubt concerning what is misdeed?
If you would rather watch the video of this Bible study, click the link.
What is the Bible’s Definition of Sin?
The Bible defines sin in a number of different ways. The first one we find is in (Genesis 4:7). It reads, “If thou doest well, shall thou not be accepted? [A]nd if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire and thou shall rule over him” (Genesis 4:7).
This was a conversation between the Lord and Cain. The back story is, Cain and Abel, Adam’s two sons, presented offerings to the Lord. Cain was a farmer, so he brought the best from the land.
Abel was a shepherd, so he brought an appropriate sheep. However, earlier, the Lord had cursed the earth. So, by Cain bringing his offering from the earth he was indeed bringing a cursed thing to the Lord. As a result, this conversation resulted from that.
Now, it’s important to note that the Lord did not reject his action or his offering, the Lord rejected him.
It says, and I’m going to read again, “If thou if you doest well, shalt thou or you, shall you not be accepted?”
“And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door“. So, it is the person that’s either accepted or rejected. So this is the first definition of sin here (Genesis 4:7).
What is the Meaning of Sin?
Therefore, sin is an unacceptable behavior before God and this behavior of necessity must come from a person. So it is unacceptable behavior before God.
Two Main Categories of Wrongdoing
Now, there are two main categories of offence in the Bible, one is ignorance and the other is presumptuous.
I’m going to read:
“If any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering” (Numbers 15:27).
“And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him; …it shall be forgiven him” (Numbers 15:28).
Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them” (Numbers 15:29).
“But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people” (Numbers 15:30).
Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him” (Numbers 15:31).
So here we realize that we can be in debt and not know about it. But there is another category of sin where people know about it, but they are high handed about it too. And that’s where they are presumptuous, very presumptuous.
Use These to Differentiate Between Transgression and Sin
These are two important categories and knowing them will also help us to differentiate between transgression and sin. (Leviticus 4:2 & 13) explain that when we trespass ignorantly it is not a transgression.
When we sin ignorantly, it can never be a transgression because for it to be a transgression, we need to know about it. We need to know what the Word of God says about it. Or was it spoken to you by God or a man of God, but you must first have to have knowledge for it to be a transgression, knowledge of it.
So, a transgression cannot be a presumptuous sin. But if it is presumptuous, that means we know about it and we go and do it nevertheless. And for that reason throughout the scriptures, we will never find that Adam sinned. We’ll never find that in scriptures because according to how the Bible defined sin, it never said that Adam sinned.
We say Adam sinned based on his actions. But we will find that he disobeyed God and then technically we could say oh, disobedience of God is wrongdoing. But the Bible sees sin and transgression differently.
And this is what confuses many people because they think that all violations are the same and that the Lord sees all of them to the same degree of unfavourableness and that is not true. So the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he is a Jew or a Gentile, have the same remedy for wrongdoing.
What Is Presumptuous Sin?
If you don’t really understand what presumptuous sin means it is sprinkled all over the Bible. We find it too in Deuteronomy one and this was a case where Moses spoke to the children of Israel and they disobeyed him.
And I’m going to read a verse from it, “So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the hill” (Deuteronomy 1:43).
So definitely you will realize it’s the attitude, the attitude behind it.
“And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously” (Deuteronomy 17:13).
So the Lord does not like presumptuous offense.
It’s not that the Lord likes sin. I’m not implying that, but presumptuous sin is like rebelling against God.
David in the book of Psalm prayed, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression” (Psalm 19:13).
We either trespass ignorantly or presumptuously.
Biblical Definitions of Offense
However, all unrighteousness is sin.
And this definition I think most of us know and we can find this in (1 John 5:17).
“All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death” (1 John 5:17).
All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death, but we know that the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So even though we know that the wages of sin is death, there is a sin, not unto death. We read that just now (1 John 5:17).
There Are Other Ways to Violate
However, a sin is not always an action, there are other ways to violate.
So let me read from Matthew chapter five verse twenty-eight.
“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).
And we know that adultery is transgression.
An error is not necessarily an action, it can be a desire, right.
Idle Donkey Follow Cane Bump to Pound
Now, let’s move on.
Similarly, the thought of foolishness is sin. Heh, this is a big one.
The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men” (Proverbs 24:9).
There’s a popular saying in Jamaica that idle donkey follow cane bump to pound.
In other words, a person that has nothing to do will do foolishness and get into trouble.
The thought of foolishness is sin. So sin doesn’t necessarily have to be an action. If we’re thinking about evil stuff, then we are sinning if we do that.
What is the True Definition of Sin?
And the one that I know many people know, and many people would say from the start is that whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law for sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).
Sin is the transgression of the law.
Conclusion
So, to sum this up, sin is any condition of the human heart that is undesirable and unacceptable to God. So it’s not just necessarily what we do. It’s what we think and what we do.
But we should also remember that when we sin, it’s not the action that the Lord doesn’t accept but it is the person. If we do well, then the Lord accepts us. That’s why it says all unrighteousness is sin.
Because if the act is not acceptable to God, it can’t be righteous. It must be acceptable to him to be counted as a righteous act.
So it’s the heart. David also prayed, he says, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).
Finally, there is a sin that many Christians and others dont think about. Whosoever fails to believe in Jesus Christ has sinned (1 John 5:10).
Consequently, when we pray, remember to acknowledge and confess our sins and our transgressions because we could sin and not know that we have sinned.
I hope this helps to explain what is sin and what is transgression.
Thank you guys for stopping. The Lord bless you. The blessings of the Lord be on you. Peace.
