1 John 3:4-5 “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. (5) And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.”
Sin is the most destructive force known to mankind, for it has destroyed the lives of countless numbers of people throughout the ages and continues to do so today. The scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ came to free mankind from the destructive power of sin. And so this series is written to teach the believer how to walk free from sin and consequently free from its destructive power. The gospel of God does not teach us that in this life Christians will never sin, what it does teach us however is that Christ has set us free from sin and it teaches us how to walk in that freedom. So what is sin? In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle John teaches us that sin is lawlessness. The word translated “lawlessness” means to disobey God’s laws. And so simply put, sin is the act of disobeying God.
Romans 6:16 “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
In the passage of scripture quoted above we see that the apostle Paul agreed with the apostle John by defining sin as being disobedient to God, for in this passage the apostle Paul directly contrasts sin to obedience. The obedience that he is referring to in this passage is obedience to God’s laws, for he tells us that obedience leads to righteousness. Paul tells us that sin on the other hand is the choice to disobey God’s laws thus leading to death. And so quite clearly we can see that sin is disobedience to God’s commandments. A very clear example of this truth is when Adam and Eve committed the original sin in the Garden of Eden. God had given them only one commandment, “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Adam and Eve chose as an act of their free will to disobey God’s only commandment and in doing so they committed sin.
Romans 5:12-14 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-- (13) For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. (14) Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
We have seen thus far that the definition of sin is the wilful disobedience of God’s laws. So what about those who have never been exposed to God’s laws? Is it possible for them to wilfully disobey His laws and thus sin against Him even though no one has ever told them about His laws? In order to answer that question we need to look at the evidence of sin. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us that death is the evidence of sin, for he teaches us that death can only manifest itself through the vehicle of sin. And so Paul teaches us that death spread to all men because all men sinned. You will recall that when God warned Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that He told him that in the day that he ate it he would surely die. Clearly God was speaking about spiritual death when He said that, which is exactly what happened to Adam and Eve on the day they ate the fruit, for they both died spiritually at that moment and they were separated from the life of God, and as a result of them dying spiritually their bodies eventually died physically. And so we see that sin always produces death. First it produces spiritual death and then eventually it produces physical death. Paul goes on to say in the above passage that even in the period from Adam to Moses before the law was introduced that people were dying, thus indicating that they must have been sinning because without sin death cannot manifest. So what law was mankind transgressing during that period thus causing them to die?
Genesis 3:6-23 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. … (22) Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-- (23) therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.”
The answer to the question as to which laws mankind were transgressing before the Law of Moses was introduced into the earth, lies in the conscience of man. The above quoted passage of scripture tells us that when Adam and Eve ate the fruit on that day their eyes were opened. And so we see that the eyes of their consciences were opened on that day, for God declares in this passage that for the first time they had knowledge of good and evil after they ate the forbidden fruit. And so from that time onwards everyone born into the earth have the eyes of their conscience opened at the age of accountability. The conscience of man is given to him by God to convict him to choose to do good and to reject evil (John 8:9). Because all men have a conscience, the Holy Spirit teaches us that they know instinctively what is right and what is wrong in the eyes of God (Romans 1:28-32). And so when men ignore their conscience and chose to do evil rather than good they therefore disobey God’s laws which are inscribed on their consciences and thus sin against Him. This truth explains to us how everyone sins against God, even those who have never heard of the Law of Moses. And so we can very clearly see from this section that sin is being disobedient to the laws of God.
Michael E.B. Maher
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