After spending the past three weeks looking at original sin and its consequences, it is perhaps natural for us to ask “What is sin?” Fortunately, the Westminster Larger Catechism anticipates this very question and gives us an answer in Question 24. The Catechism provides us with this answer: “Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, any law of God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature.” At face value, this may seem to be a very simple answer to a very simple question. Unfortunately, we tend to have a very lenient view of sin (especially our own).
Want of Conformity
The wording of the first part of this question – “want of conformity unto” – is an interesting way of looking at sin. We tend to think of sin in terms of obvious and deliberate transgression. While that is, of course, sin, it is clear from this answer that we must look at sin in terms of any lack of conformity to the commands of God. If we fail in any way to meet the commands given to us by God in his perfect word, we are in sin. This means both the positive “go and do” commands as well as the prohibitions.
An often-overlooked sin is found in want of conformity the Greatest Commandment, taught by Christ in Matthew 22:37-38: “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” How many of us can honestly say that we have kept this commandment at all times, even if we only consider the time since we became believers? If we are honest with ourselves, we’ll likely find that we’ve seldom kept this commandment completely. Love of self, money, worldly friends, and a host of other things can often take a more prominent place in our hearts than they should.
Not Just An Action
Perhaps the easiest way we can justify our sin to ourselves is by taking comfort in the fact that while we had a sinful thought, we didn’t act on it. It is certainly better (relatively speaking) not to commit the sinful action in addition to the thought, but our thoughts can be sinful too. Christ makes this clear in a number of ways in Matthew Chapter 5. In Matthew 5:21-22, he says “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” Later, in Matthew 5:27-28, he says “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Christ then goes on to give similar teachings regarding divorce, unlawful oaths, and retaliation. All of these are incredible words of our Lord, but I suspect that the above teachings on anger and lust are the two we (and the world at large) most commonly struggle with. In both cases, we are taught that although acting on the thoughts is sin, the thoughts themselves are sinful as well. These thoughts are something we must guard ourselves against and be repentant for when they occur. Ultimately, all physical sins begin as thoughts, and we can allow these thoughts to continue until we build a callous on our hearts that keeps us from feeling the sting of our sin until it is too late.
What About Salvation?
It is somewhat common for people to struggle with the need to stop sinning when we know that we have been forgiven of all of our sins. In fact, we know that the forgiveness of our sins brings glory to God. So why shouldn’t we keep sinning? Paul addressed this very question in Romans 6:1-5: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
Incidentally, this section of Romans is where we get the statements we make as we baptize believers, which is typically along the lines of “buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life.” The “newness of life” aspect of becoming a believer is a critical component. This is the “fruit in keeping with repentance” we are taught to bear in Matthew 3:8 and Luke 3:8, and this is how we see the ongoing work of God in our lives once we become believers. If we continue in our sins just as we were before, we must ask ourselves what we really believe in. Have we really put our faith in Christ and repented of our sins?
Good News for Believers
Reading this devotional so far may have left some of you with some concerns. Maybe you still have some lingering sinful behaviors that you haven’t gotten rid of yet, and you’re wondering what that means for your salvation. Perhaps you’ve fallen back into a sin that you thought was behind you. The good news is that sanctification, the ongoing work of God in our lives to make us better conform to His will, is an ongoing process. No one becomes a believer and is immediately a perfectly sinless person. In fact, we won’t ever be fully sinless on this side of Christ’s return in glory.
Paul gives us a useful and encouraging explanation of this process in Colossians 1:21-23: “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” This will look different for everyone, but there should be a generally “upward” movement towards sanctification for every believer. There may be some bumps in the road, and at times we may fall back into old sins, but as long as we repent and fight those sins, the Lord will be faithful to ultimately deliver us from them.
Soli Deo Gloria
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