“What is sin?”  This is a question I don’t usually get asked so directly.  More people should be asking and considering it, so I sometimes ask it of people to get them thinking.  Unfortunately, while most people can confidently name many sins, they don’t know how to define sin or don’t realize its effects.  Fortunately for all of us, God answers this question in His written word, the Bible.
     Let’s search God’s word together now to find God’s answers to our question “What is sin?”.  In part one of this article we looked at His explanation of sin, and in part two we’ll explore the facts of how sin affects people.  Lord willing, we will examine with questions in other “Plowing the Fields unto Harvest” articles what He has done to provide His solution to the problem and what He requires of us to accept His solution for ourselves.

     Here are the facts about sin that we’ve learned so far —
     Fact #1: Sin, by definition, involves disobeying God.
     Fact #2: Sin involves a decision and action to stay away from doing what is right; i.e. avoiding righteousness.
     Fact #3: Sin is disobeying what God instructs and commands as being right.
     Fact #4: God will judge us (i.e. whether we’ve sinned or not) according to the words He’s given us through Jesus.
     Fact #5: People sin when they twist and distort the Scriptures to suit themselves.
     Fact #6: People act in faith when they act within their understanding of what God instructs and commands as being right, and so do not sin.
     Fact #7: People sin if they do what they think is wrong.
     Fact #8: People sin if they pressure others to sin.
     Fact #9: People sin when they refuse knowing or stop growing in understanding the Scriptures.
     Fact #10: God does not permit people to inherit sin.
     Fact #11: God demonstrates His fairness by punishing only those people who die in their sins and by His sincere desire for everyone to repent from their sins.
     Fact #12: God does not tempt, encourage, pressure, or force people to sin.
     Fact #13: People sin because they choose to sin.
     Fact #14: People who choose to remain in sin make themselves enemies of God.
     Fact #15: Sin has consequences that you should consider concerning both what sin causes and how God responds to sin.

•  “How does practicing sin affect my relationship with God?”
     Sinning against God separates a person from God.  In Isaiah chapter 59, God explains to some people why their prayers are not being answered.  “Behold the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save;” verse one begins, “nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.”  Verse two then explains, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”  Is God the one who breaks His relationships with people?  No, just the opposite.  What really happens is that people break their relationships with God by sinning against Him.  Fact #16: Sin separates people from God.
     As God presents His complaint against people who have broken away from Him in verses three through eight, He mentions three things that caught my attention:  (1) in verse four, their lack of interest to come to Him for justice and truth;  (2) in verse seven, their eagerness to sin;  and (3) in verse eight, their miserableness is a result of their choice to sin.
     Verses nine through fourteen then reveal these people’s thoughts and feelings about their miserable situation.
     “Therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us; we look for light, but there is darkness!  For brightness, but we walk in blackness!  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as at twilight; we are as dead men in desolate places.  We all growl like bears, and moan sadly like doves; we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.”  These thoughtful words come from the deepest innermost feelings of the heart.  And, equally deep within their hearts, these people do ponder the causes of their painful misery.
     “For our transgressions are multiplied before You,” these passionate verses continue to admit, “and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them: in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.  Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”  Fact #17: Sin causes people to suffer.
     How do these hopeless, despairing, and frustrating thoughts affect people?  “So truth fails,” verse 15 begins, “and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.”  These people conclude their only option and only incentive is to continue separated from God.  Fact #18: Sin causes people to despair.

•  “How does God feel about my sin keeping me separated from a relationship with Him?”
     “Then the LORD saw it,” the second half of Isaiah 59:15 tells us, “and it displeased Him that there was no justice.”  “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor;” verse 16 continues describing God’s reaction, “therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness, it sustained Him.”  God gets upset when you practice sin and unrighteousness as a way of life.  He wonders that you would accept sin as your only option.  He provides for you an alternative of salvation in His own righteousness.  Fact #19: Both sin and its results displease God.

•  “Would God punish me just because of my ignorance?”
     As we saw already, God holds people accountable for what they know and do.  Sin causes people to suffer and ignorance often adds to the suffering.  God doesn’t punish people for being ignorant.  On the contrary, God offers knowledge to replace ignorance.  Some people just refuse to listen.
     “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved,” Paul begins Romans chapter 10 passionately.  “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.”  (Your translation might read “true knowledge” or “right knowledge” at the end of verse two.)  “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”  Fact #20: If people ignore God’s righteousness and try to create their own, they sin.
     Read Acts chapter 17:16-31.  Paul is in Athens, Greece, and the people invite him to speak at the Areopagus because they admit ignorance of the God he preaches.  At the end of his public lecture, Paul advises them, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
     Ignorance does not separate people from God, but it does not excuse them either.  Fact #21: God does not accept ignorance as an excuse for sin.

•  “What business is it of God’s if I sin or want to live without Him?”
     In the first chapter of Genesis, God’s last general act of creation was making mankind to be the caretakers of His new world.  Verses 26 - 31 tell us, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’  So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.  ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’
     “And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.  Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food’; and it was so.  Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.  So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”  Fact #22: God has a right to be concerned about people’s sin … because God created people.
     Since the creation of men and women, God has had some general expectations of mankind to fulfill its God-given responsibilities and to enjoy its God-given privileges.  But, more important than that, God makes a special investment in human beings that He doesn’t make in other animals and He has a reasonable right to look for a return on His investment.  What unique investment does God have in both men and women?  What is the investment God has in you?  “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  Fact #23: God has a right to be concerned about people’s sin … because God invests Himself in people.
     Some portion, some aspect, some ingredient of what you are is intended by God to imitate God.  In fact, this part of you is what God considers to be who you really are.  And, as the creator, God knows what you need to cultivate your full potential to be like God.  When you are living in sin, you are turning away from your potential and are falling “short of the glory of God.”  Fact #24: God has a right to be concerned about people’s sin because … sin spoils God’s investments.
     “God is Spirit,” John 4:24 records Jesus telling a Samaritan woman, “and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  Later, in John chapter 8, Jesus tries explaining to some very physically-minded people that they need to be more spiritually-minded like God.  Jesus tells them that they need to believe that God sent Him or else they will die in their sins, i.e. die separated from God.  “As He spoke these words,” we read in verse 30, “many believed in Him.”  “Then Jesus said to those who believed Him,” verse 31 tells us, “‘If you abide in my Word, you are My disciples indeed.’”  He states the importance of this in verse 32: “‘And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”  Fact #25: Sin, being the opposite of obeying God’s Word, prevents people from correctly worshiping of God.
     We see in Jesus’s next statement to these people how sin, truth, and freedom affect God’s investment in them and you and me.  “Most assured, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.  And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”  Fact #26: Whoever practices sin is a slave of sin.
     Jesus’s discussion in John chapter three with Nicodemus, one of the Jewish religious leaders, tells us more about God’s goal for people.  Verses 16 & 17 record Jesus plainly saying, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”  Does this remind you of what we read earlier in Isaiah 59:15?  God sent Jesus to provide us with a better option than staying separated from God.  You and I now have a choice: (1) a broken relationship with God or (2) a healthy relationship with God.  Fact #27: God works to free people from sin.
     Are you understanding the situation yet?  God’s investment in you is like that of a parent in a child.  So when your sin separates you from God, He is concerned and upset the same way a parent is concerned and upset about a child that has run away from home into slavery.  He wants to free you from sin so you come home again.  Fact #28: God wants to free people from sin.

•  “Since God doesn’t want to condemn me, He wouldn’t keep me out of heaven, would He?”
     Many people think it doesn’t matter what they believe as long as they believe in God and call Jesus their Lord and Savior.  They feel God will accept anything they offer Him as long as they are sincere.  However, according to Jesus, they are mistaken.
     “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” Jesus asks in Luke 6:46-49.  “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:  He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.  And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.  But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell.  And the ruin of that house was great.”  Fact #29: One day God will ruin those who practice sin, even if they claim themselves to be Christians.
     “Not everyone who says to Me,” Jesus affirms in Matthew 7:21-23, “‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”  Fact #30: One day God will send away from His presence those who practice sin, even if they claim themselves to be Christians.
     Lawless people avoid doing the will of God.  Jesus will prevent them from entering the kingdom of heaven.  Who are these lawless people?  The apostle John tells us in 1 John 3:4, “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”  Fact #31: Sin makes people into lawbreakers.

•  “If my broken relationship with God goes unfixed, what should I expect from God?”
     In Romans chapter six, Paul tells Christians why they are better off as slaves of righteousness instead of slaves of sin.  “But now having been set free from sin,” he make his point in verse 22, “and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”  Then, in verse 23, he drives the point home.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Fact #32: Sin earns spiritual death.
     In his second letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul writes in chapter one, “since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,…”.  Fact #33: Sin earns destructive punishment.  Fact #34: Sin earns eternal separation from God’s presence.
     Hebrews 10:26-31 warns us that those who reject God’s terms should fearfully expect punishment and vengeance.  “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.  Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.  And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  Fact #35: Sin earns God’s anger.

•  “Is it reasonable for me to ask God for help overcoming sin?”
     We’ve seen that people who refuse God and choose to live in sin are in big trouble.
     We’ve also seen that God is willing to reconcile with those who are willing reconcile with Him on His terms.  In fact, Isaiah 1:18-20 records God’s offer to reason.  “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
     “‘If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword’; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”  Fact #36: Sin can be overcome, but only on God’s terms.

     Let’s review the facts we’ve learned about how sin affects people —
     Fact #16: Sin separates people from God.
     Fact #17: Sin causes people to suffer.
     Fact #18: Sin causes people to despair.
     Fact #19: Both sin and its results displease God.
     Fact #20: If people ignore God’s righteousness and try to create their own, they sin.
     Fact #21: God does not accept ignorance as an excuse for sin.
     Fact #22: God has a right to be concerned about people’s sin … because God created people.
     Fact #23: God has a right to be concerned about people’s sin … because God invests Himself in people.
     Fact #24: God has a right to be concerned about people’s sin because … sin spoils God’s investments.
     Fact #25: Sin, being the opposite of obeying God’s Word, prevents people from correctly worshiping of God.
     Fact #26: Whoever practices sin is a slave of sin.
     Fact #27: God works to free people from sin.
     Fact #28: God wants to free people from sin.
     Fact #29: One day God will ruin those who practice sin, even if they claim themselves to be Christians.
     Fact #30: One day God will send away from His presence those who practice sin, even if they claim themselves to be Christians.
     Fact #31: Sin makes people into lawbreakers..
     Fact #32: Sin earns spiritual death.
     Fact #33: Sin earns destructive punishment.  
     Fact #34: Sin earns eternal separation from God’s presence.
     Fact #35: Sin earns God’s anger.
     Fact #36: Sin can be overcome, but only on God’s terms.
     
     There is one more fact about the consequences of sin that I hoped you saw during our exploration.
     Fact #37: God gives us the freedom to choose whether we will obey or disobey Him, but one day He will enforce our choice.

     Lord willing, we will answer next time the question of what God has done to help us overcome sin, and after that the question of what God requires of us to accept His help for ourselves.

     [*EGW editor’s note:  Originally I had planned to publish this article and its sequel articles under the feature column “Questions & Answers.”  However, when the first half of the article was published, the initial reader feedback indicated some confusion understanding the topics worded as questions and some confusion as to the intent & reasoning of the article.  After considering this feedback, I made some clarifying changes to the article and then relocated the article to this feature column where asking lots of little questions is part of the study process.  Also, I extended the reader’s questioning of the article’s intent to questioning the intent of the Exploring God's Word site in general and prepared a Q&A article to handle that as well.
     Please keep sending us your questions, comments, and other input so we can continue improving our on-line efforts to help meet your Bible study needs. (Back to beginnning of article)]