What is Sin?

A few months ago, I attended Sunday school in my church, and I joined a class studying the Book of Romans. Towards the end of the course, each student in the class was asked to write an essay on one of the topics provided, and I choose this topic: Write a letter to a friend who is a non-Christian and explain to her the meaning of sin.

Now, the essay is marked and handed back to me, so I would like to use this opportunity to share with you my views on sin, with reference to the Bible.

Sunday School Assignment
        12 March, 2000.

Dear Lindsay,

It is of great surprise for me to hear from you. How are you? Is everything still going fine? You told me in your letter that a friend of yours has taken you to a church for Sunday worship. Yet you don't understand why people kept on telling you that you are a sinner and thus there's the need to repent, confess your sins and believe I God. So I am now trying my best to tell you what is sin.

You might think that sin is only some evil deeds such as murder, robbery, rape, and other serious crimes. However, sin is much more than those listed above.

Sin comes from the Greek word "hamartia" meaning literally, "missing the mark". Very often, the damaging effects of sin are underestimated. For example, when somebody is trying to shoot a mark on a board placed some distance away from him. If he missed the mark, the bullet could damage things around the shooting board. Similarly, sin draws us away form the mark of perfection that God has set for his people. It is a failing to meet the standards, guidelines and laws of God.  So what are the standards, guidelines and laws of God? They are all written in the Bible.

You might think that loving money, criticising each other, taking revenge and so on are normal acts of human beings and you might have even done them before. However, according to the Bible, they are not simply wrongdoings, but SIN, since all these acts are far away from the mark of perfection from God. As it is written in the Bible, in Romans 3: 10, "There is no one righteous, not even one�K" and Romans 3: 23, "�Kfor all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God�K" therefore, no matter how good and moral a person is from human beings' point of view, we are still sinners in the sight of God.

Actually, God wants us to live an abundant and fulfilling life. He knows better than we do what will make us happy and hopes to fill our hearts with joy, yet we always think that we can do well, that we assume that we know what is best for our lives disregarding the will of God. In our pride, we do not like to think we are "missing the mark", but the reality, we are very far away from the mark, and very often we don't even see it at all. And by not admitting our blindness we only make matters worse, because we do not ask for help from God to put us back on the correct trajectory. And since we do not ask for help, we drift even further away from God and His desire to guide our hearts towards His love. Therefore we sin (miss the mark) all the more without even knowing it. Once we are so far off course that we cannot even perceive the mark, we no longer have a reference point, and the likelihood that we will drift even further away form the mark is all the greater. Consequently, we become totally lost. This aspect of sin which is most underestimated. We do not become lost over night. It happens little by little without us realizing it. If all of us could easily see how terrible indeed sin is, the world would be in a much more harmonious state.

So to be simple, sin results in separation- separation comes in two forms: physical and spiritual. The physical separation is the death. The spiritual separation is a spiritual death, an eternal separation from God.

Physical separation could not be eliminated. Since death is 'the wage of sin' (Romans 6:23) However, spiritual separation could be eliminated, through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. By repenting, confessing your sins, and accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, your sins will be forgiven and spiritual death could be avoided. By then, you will be reconciled with God again and you will live in the love of God. The Holy Spirit would be granted to you to remind you of the things that you should do and you should not do (of course from God's point of view).

I hope that I could answer your question on sin. If you have any problems, you are always welcome to approach me. Just write to me or phone me.


Love,
Rita.

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since 28 April,2000.