I personally believe that this is the most important question for our time. Previous generations considered this a no-brainer. Human sin was a fact of life and the issue was how to deal with it, what God's plan was concerning it and how to live holy lives in a sinful world. 

These days the very notion of sin is suspect and considered obsolete and the focus is more on education or self-improvement. 

 

I've met very few people who have felt a true burden, guilt and/or conviction about their sins. It makes me wonder how people think about the Cross and salvation...has the cross and salvation become like a surgery you actually need but don't want because you don't feel ill?

 

The fashion these days is to preach about God's love, which is ironic since the Bible teaches us that God's love is most clearly seen on the Cross (1 John 4:10) where Jesus died as a sacrifice/propitiation for our...wait for it...sins. 

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So, what is sin?

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If I were to ask 100 different people I would more than likely get 80+ responses that it has to do with sex, in general, and homosexuality, in particular.

This is a very shallow understanding and a serious misunderstanding since it distorts one of God's greatest gifts to mankind (sex) as something inherently sinful or wrong, which is wrong and only makes Christianity look and sound boring, needlessly.

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I think this confusion or narrowminded thinking about sin is due to a general lack of understanding, even though many know that it sort of means "missing the mark".

One reason for this is the (seemingly) ever-changing nature of what sin looks like. It used to be card-playing, now it is something else. 

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This "moving ruler" for determining what sin actually is, is both widespread and somewhat understandable. It has lead to a sort of laissez-faire understanding of sin. Why bother with defining sin if the standard always changes?

Mega-church and superduper UMC pastor Adam Hamilton concluded as much when he addressed the Scandinavian Methodists with the statement: "- Don't stress or fret over this issue. Soon our young people will have grown up and taken places on our boards and committees and change it for us." 

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This means that there is no need to define sin since it just is the preference and fashionable beliefs of the time we live in, instead of being something unversal and time-less. 

 

This makes no sense to me. At all. Does murder or rape or lying become virtuous depending on the date? Does honesty go out of fashion? Can humans vote on what God's will is?

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If you have followed me this far you might have noticed that I haven't actually answered the question yet. That is on purpose because there is so much debris to clear out of the way before we get to the actual question. 

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First of all, sin is everybody's default setting, both in action and nature. Everybody is a sinner and everybody sins. Period. 

This means, among other things, that we should realize that everybody is on a level playing field. We shouldn't be surprised that people sin or that we sin. On the contrary, if even the pope has a confessor perhaps we can also realize that we are sinners  in need of salvation.

(Rom. 3:23, Psalm 51, 1 John 1:8-10)

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Second, you can't sin without knowing it. It is impossible to sin against God if you don't know what God's law is. In other words, you can't sin by accident. This doesn't mean that people can just "sin away" until they are told not to and that is fine. Everybody has God's law available to them to a degree that automatically renders certain beahviors and words and thoughts sinful. It is called our conscience. Human beings are not without excuse for their sin and its consequences simply because they don't have the full witness of God in their lives. They know enough.

(Romarbrev 1)

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Third, sin is a an active choice. You have to chose to sin, either by neglect or direct action. It doesn't just "happen".

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Jas 1:13  -15

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

1 John 2:15-16

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

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Fourth, sin leads to death and an eternity without God, a.k.a. Hell. 

Sin is why Jesus had to come and die on a cross and come back to life. Why He had to defeat the Devil. Why he had to offer such a dramatic cure and medicine (holiness) for such a dark stain and power (sin).

 

Rom 6:17-23

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.

For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rev. 20:11-15

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

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Fifth, sin is clearly about morals and ethics (how we should live, right and wrong) BUT perhaps the greatest issue here is whether or not we actually and truly and fully love God and our neighbor as ourselves. 

I think it is all connected, morals and ethics and love for God and neighbor...that the morals and ethics of the Bible, as interpreted by the historical Church, defines what it means to love God and neighbor and how to do it...and thus the opposite is also true about sin and what sin is. 

t is not to us to decide either.

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Lastly, sin is at base about putting our own will above God's...a denial that God's will is better than ours.

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A final thought:

The better we understand and appreciate the darkness and seriousness of sin the better we appreciate and understand God's grace and salvation. 

 

Rom 5:20

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.