How to be Free From The Bonds of Sin
In the Bible, the word for Sin in Hebrew is ‘Chatta’ah’; in Greek, it is ‘Hamartia.’ We can interpret both words as ‘missing the mark.’ Just as in archery when one misses the bullseye on the target.
I like to think of sin as a state, not an act. My reasoning is this. If I aim at the bullseye and miss it, I’m in the state of having ‘missed the target. If I deliberately aim to miss the bullseye, that is an act of aiming elsewhere.
The Bible describes sin as ‘missing the mark.’ In that case, one has to assume that the archer (a believer) was trying to hit the bullseye but missed, which means that the archer was not performing an act of deliberately missing the bullseye but was in a state of not achieving what they intended. Would you agree?
To continue, we need to pop into the Garden of Eden to get a little more enlightenment on the matter of sin.
“For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”
“…sin was not imputed…”[1] Why? Because there was no law on which to judge Adam and Eve. What did God say to Adam and Eve?
“…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die.” [2]. What did Adam and Eve do? To start with, Eve fell for the lie the slick-talking serpent told her. Then Adam bought the story from Eve. So what was the outcome? You know the story – they both died spiritually (the Spirit of God was no longer in them.) Did they sin? Not according to Romans 5, they missed the target. (another way of saying this would be, ‘separated themselves from God).
The result of this debacle was that Adam and Eve died spiritually, and right up until the law of Moses, all generations died spiritually. But sin was not attributed to them.
It works like this: Father tells his Son, ‘Don’t touch the heater, you’ll get burned. When the father is not looking, the Son touches the heater – the Son screams in agony. The child separated himself from his father’s advice: cause and effect.
With the arrival of Moses, the law was introduced, and people were held accountable for their disobedience to the law. Sin is now charged to those who disobey God’s commands, with its effects of cause and effect. Along with the law, arrangements for sacrifice for sins were introduced to allow for repentance. This arrangement is what I would call ‘formal, which would then carry through to the Death of Jesus on the cross.
You might ask about the incidents of Adam and Eve and God covering them with a slaughtered lamb. God arranged a sacrifice for Cain and Able and also Abraham and Isaac. All these incidents occurred in individual circumstances – they were not part of a ‘formal rule’ as they became in the law of Moses (Outlined in Leviticus).
However, with the arrival of Jesus, He promises forgiveness for sins and the power to overcome sin so that all humanity will be free to live according to God’s Kingdom on earth.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” [3]
Those born of the Spirit are no longer of the flesh, living by the flesh. They have the Spirit of God in them.
“And people who stay one in their hearts with him won’t keep on sinning. If they keep sinning, they don’t know Christ and have never seen him.” [4]
In my words, those who continue to build an intimate relationship with God know God and are always on the mark because God’s Spirit guides them continuously.
The difference between the testaments is this: In the Old Testament, apart from Adam and Eve, who had the power to say ‘no’ as they were spirits, no one could say no to sin after the two fell. This situation changed with the death of Jesus on the cross; now, for the first time, all humans were offered the power to say no to sin and yes to a life free of living in sin.
I hope you can all see that sin is a state or a condition of separation from God in whatever form that sin takes – but not an ‘act.’ Sin was only an act under the law of Moses. If I allow myself to fall into a place of separation from God, all that is necessary is to return to God to correct this state.
Until the next time…
Love and Blessings
Peter-James