Every great story has 3 main elements: a hero, a villain and a conflict. Without those 3 elements the story is unsatisfactory and boring. The hero needs a villain to to oppose and a conflict to resolve to build a strong narrative that satisfies and inspires readers. God must love to write because he has authored one of the greatest stories ever with Jesus as the savior of humanity, Satan as the villain and sin as the root of conflict.
Hamartiology is the theological study of sin, with "hamartia" literally being the Greek word for sin. Since sin is the main conflict in Christianity, we would naturally want to understand as much about it as we can. Hamartiology studies all the aspects of sin so that we can more easily identify what is and what is not sin. Naturally, there is a difference among churches in what they consider they sin. Beyond that, there is differences among where sin comes from and the nature of how it affects our relationship with God
What Does the Bible Say?
So what even is sin? Many Christians simply accept what sin is, but never consider why certain things are deemed sinful. 1 John 3:4 describes sin as a "transgression of the law." But didn't Jesus already fulfill the Judaic Law? The law described in this epistle is rather the eternal law of God, not the law that God had given Moses and then added to by mankind for hundreds of years. The theologian Augustine of Hippo thus defined sin as "a word, deed, or desire in opposition to the eternal law of God."
The doctrine of original sin is fairly consistent among all of Christendom. The original sin of Adam tainted the nature of humanity and led us to a state of total depravity (or being sinful by our default nature). The strongest evidence for this is Romans 5:12-19 where Paul states that "sin had came in the world through one man" and "spread to all men." Additionally, he asserts that even those that "did not sin like Adam" had "death reigned" over them and in Romans 5:19 that "one man's disobedience made the many sinners."
Another paradigm of sin that exists in the Bible is that of generational sin. Derived from Exodus 20:5 this idea is that sin of the parents, if unresolved, can be a "curse" on subsequent generations. For example, a father who is an alcoholic sets up his children to also be alcoholics. However, through Christ, this curse can be broken. Some theologians maintain that through frequent prayer, church attendance and communion, then generational sin can avoided. Logically, this makes sense as constant exposure to God and his congregation can drive away sin if properly taken in.
Denominational Differences
Denominations usually differ in classification of sin. Most protestants probably grew up with the old Billy Graham-ism "sin is sin." Sin, no matter how big or small carried the same punishment: spiritual death if left unrepented. Given the modern legal system, this is hard for us to rationalize. Why would telling a small lie and committing a murder carry the same penalty? The answer for this lies in the nature of sin and how it interacts with our relationship with God. The "sin is sin" crowd will maintain that any sin hurts our relationship with God, so the classification of sin is pointless; all sin is offensive to God.
On the contrary, Catholics (and some protestants) interpret sin to be much more legalistic in nature. They see sin as a legal infraction and thus, not all sins carry the same punishment (gravity) like not all crimes carry the same sentence in the modern legal system. Likely, we've all heard of the '7 Deadly Sins' before. Catholicism maintains that there are many different types of sins: mortal sins (7 deadly ones), venial sins and "sins that cry to heaven." The mortal sins are not actually deadly; they just may lead to more sin. If the mortal sins are left unreconciled, then the sinner may be separated from God eternally. Venial sins are 'minor' sins that do not cut the sinner off from God's grace. The "sins that cry to heaven" are what we think of as the worst of the worst (murder, sodomy, oppression of the weak and defrauding the laborer) that would sever the sinner from God's grace.
Some Methodists view sin in a completely different way. Those that still hold on to Wesleyan, Weslyan-Arminianist or Wesleyan-Holiness theology (named after John Wesley, the founder of Methodism) see sin as "every voluntary breach of the law of love." As such, Wesleyan Methodists and Nazarenes divide sin (also called "actual" sins) into "proper" and "improper" categories. "Sin proper" are sins that are committed knowingly and willingly. Conversely, "sin improper" are things that result from benign neglect and include things relating to forgetfulness or lack of knowledge. Only "sin proper" can separate the sinner from God and require repentance and resanctification.
Conclusions
Sin comes in many shapes and forms (and consequences depending on your denomination). However, one thing that binds all these views together is that acceptance of Jesus is the only way to be forgiven of them. While we all have our views and opinions on what constitutes sin, it is imperative to pray and reflect on everything we do and let the Spirit and scripture guide us to repentance.
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