Sin.

Introduction

The NSBC Statement of Faith says:

The origin of sin must be found in the sovereign plan of God; He permitted the existence of sin but did not author it. The obvious conclusion is that Satan was the first creature to sin, for he is present in his fallen condition at the temptation of Adam in Genesis 3. Sin is anything contrary to the character of God. It manifests itself as deceitful thoughts and intents of the heart, evil actions and conduct, and lack of godly actions. There is original sin, which has to do with what we inherited from Adam and actual sin, which are those specific sins we commit.

When discussing sin, there are inevitably questions that may come to mind, and challenges that we face when trying to understand its nature and origin, and even how it passes from one successive generation to the next.

“The origin of sin must be found int he sovereign plan of God; He permitted the existence of sin but did not author it.”

In all things, God has to be sovereign, for He is God. Sovereignty can be understood as “authority over all things”, or “control over all things”. God’s sovereignty is so intrinsic to His “God-ness” that if He were not sovereign, He in fact would not be God. What kind of God would God be if there was something outside of His control? How could we trust Him? The theologian R. C. Sproul puts it this way, “If there is one maverick molecule in the universe, one molecule running loose outside the scope of God's sovereign ordination, then ladies and gentlemen, there is not the slightest confidence that you can have that any promise that God has ever made about the future will come to pass.”

A tension builds up, then, when we discuss the nature and origin of sin. Is God the originator of sin? If God is the originator of sin, why then does He demand so high a price for committing it?

Let’s answer those questions with Scripture:

Ephesians 1:10–12 “for an administration of the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth in Him. In Him, we also have been made an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, to the end that we who first have hoped in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”

Everything is being worked out by God in agreement with His will, for the praise of His glory (vv. 6, 12, & 14). By necessity, this includes sin.

Acts 2:23–24 “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death. “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

Acts 4:27–28 ““For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.”

See Isaiah 10:5-11 and Habakkuk 1:5-11.

Can you think of any other account in Scripture where God used evil for His good purposes?

God has chosen to use sinners in this world to accomplish His purposes. While He sovereignly uses sinners for His purposes, He is not the author or originator of sin. There is no variation or change in God, therefore, in His sovereignty over sin, He remains unstained by it.

James 1:13, 17 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone...Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

Deuteronomy 32:4 ““The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.”

Malachi 3:6 ““For I, Yahweh, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”

This can provide believer with great hope, knowing that ultimately our all-together sovereign, omniscient, omni-present, all-together righteous and good God is sovereign over sin. It means that in all the things that we suffer here on earth, that God is in control, and is working them together for His glory, which is our good.

Romans 8:28–30 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.”

1 Peter 1:6–7 “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Satan was the first creature to sin, as he is in a sinful state in the Garden of Eden. We see a couple of passages concerning Satan, like Ezekiel 28:11-19 and Isaiah 14:12-15. I do not want to spend too long on Satan right now, because in the near future, we will be dealing with Angels and Demons, of which he is one.

“Sin is anything contrary to the character of God. It manifests itself as deceitful thoughts and intents of the heart, evil actions and conduct, and lack of godly actions.”

One of the main reasons that God cannot be the author of sin is because sin is diametrically opposed to God’s character.

1 John 1:5 “And this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

1 John 3:4 “Everyone who does sin also does lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.”

God has revealed a standard in His Word, namely His own character (Romans 3:23). We all have fallen short of that standard.

Sin starts in the heart.

Jeremiah 17:9 ““The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can know it?”

Romans 7:15–19 “For what I am working out, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with the Law, that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.”

Sin corrupts our entire nature. While God has left a witness in our hearts, our conscience (Romans 2:14-16), our entire being is effected by sin, and, apart from the grace of God, can only sin.

Ephesians 2:1–3 “And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

“Lusts of the flesh” could be distilled down to our “instincts” as fallen creatures. Like the instinct of the squirrel is collect nuts for the season, our instinct apart from salvation is nothing but sin.

Notice in Ephesians 2:3, even our mind is effected (noetic effect).

There are a lot of things that we no not to do that are called sin (lying, stealing, cheating, idolatry, etc.), however, sin is also knowing the right thing to do and not doing it.

James 4:17 “Therefore, to one who knows to do the right thing and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

“There is original sin, which has to do with what we inherited from Adam and actual sin, which are those specific sins we commit.”

There are typically two thoughts when it comes to how sin was passed down to us from our original parents.

Federal Headship of Adam:

“Federalism sees Adam as the representative head of all humanity. When Adam sinned, he sinned not only for himself but as the representative (federal head) of all humanity. His decision was binding upon all people of all time.”

Adam was the representative for all of humanity. He lived in perfection, he had no sin nature, and he did not experience any of the effects of the fall. Yet, he still sinned.

A good biblical example of this is David and Goliath. David stood as the representative of the nation of Israel against Goliath (1 Samuel 17:8,9).

We see this beautifully in Romans 5:17 “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

Seminal Headship of Adam:

“Seminalism sees Adam’s sin as something that corrupted the human nature he passed on to his posterity, as the entire human race was genetically present in Adam. Adam’s guilt is not passed on to his children, but his sinful tendencies are. His children, with their corrupted nature, readily join in Adam’s rebellion at the first available opportunity and are therefore guilty of their own sin.”

This seems to be an attempt to make sure that everyone is accountable for their own sins before God, and not just Adam.

A portion of this is understood to be true, as this is why the virgin birth of Christ matters. The sinner nature is passed down through the fathers. Being that Jesus was conceived of by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), and not of a human father, He could not have a sin nature.

We understand the actual sins we commit to be those evil thoughts and actions that begin in our heart.

Matthew 5:21-30

Matthew 15:1-20

James 1:12-15