What is sin?

Sin is defined in the Westminster Larger Catechism as "any want of conformity unto, or transgression of any law of God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature" (emphasis added). Echoing the catechism, modern theologian J.I. Packer, in his book Concise Theology (Tyndale House, Illinois, 1993) defines sin as a "lack of conformity to the law of God in act, habit, attitude, outlook, disposition, motivation, and mode of existence."

Now while many people in this pluralistic society are losing sight of what the law of God is, still many more are at least vaguely aware that the law of God has something to do with the Ten Commandments as given in the Bible. They probably don't know what the Ten Commandments actually are, but have some idea that they represent a summary of what God expects from people in terms of their behaviours and their motivations, ethics or morality. We know that the law of God is directly related to the outward behaviours of people. For instance, the eighth commandment says "You shall not steal." And most people when reading that would say, "Oh, well, when I was young, I may have stolen a few trinkets, or perhaps some gum, or my friend's Roy Rogers and Dale Evans action figure set. But those don't count, surely." Well according to the Bible, they surely do count.

Added to this though, is the warning that Jesus gives in Matthew 5:27-28, (in the specific context of adultery). With this warning Jesus is telling us that our outward conformity to the law is not enough to do any real good. We must change not only our behaviours and habits of life—and this perfectly—we must also change the way we think and believe. In other words we must turn ourselves around in a radical way.

Wayne Grudem, in his Systematic Theology (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1994) has this to say about the seriousness of sin, "Sin is directly opposite to all that is good in the character of God, and just as God necessarily and eternally delights in himself and all that he is, so God necessarily and eternally hates sin. It is, in essence, the contradiction of the excellence of his moral character. It contradicts his holiness, and he must hate it."

Why should this matter to me?

According to Calvinism or Reformed Christianity—of which this site is representative—it matters to you (whether you believe so or not)—because you are dead in your sin (and sins) and therefore are unable—in and of yourself—to rectify this situation. You are guilty of a sin nature and of particular sins which are all abhorrent to God and yet are unable to do anything about your situation. You may think to yourself "My sins are tiny, far too tiny for God to be bothered. There are other worse sinners than I that God should be angry with." Yet it says clearly in the Bible that even though "The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression" He also will " by no means clear the guilty" (Numbers 14:18a). And we know from the letter of James that even if we fail in an insignificant way (according to our own human reasoning) to God it is the same as if we failed in the most important of ways.

This means we are all in the same boat, that is to say, we are all equally guilty according to God's perfect standards.

So we have some very bad news:
“… the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…. “The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one” (Gen. 6:5; Psalm 14:2-3).

But we also have some very good news:
[But] God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17).

These are the two extremes with which the Bible presents us.

The choice is yours.