Man's Sin and Transgression

Introduction: Defining Sin and Transgression

Transgression

the action of going beyond or overstepping some moral boundary or limit; breach.

Sin

(Guilt) Estrangement from God.

Sin personified as a destructive and depraved principle reigning over unbelievers and persisting in believers; especially as a slavemaster doling out payment with the currency of death and decay.

An act or feeling that transgresses something forbidden or ignores something required by God’s law or character; whether in thought, feeling, speech, or action.

The important thing to understand is that transgressions require a law, while sins don’t. One can sin without a law, but can never transgress without a law.

Romans 4:15 CSB

15 because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

Romans 5:13 CSB

13 In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law.

If we can sin without a law, we must become aware of what it means to sin. For, many of us have only concerned ourselves with not breaking laws. Yet, we are still sinful sinners.

Examples of Transgression

The Bible shows us one may commit a transgression without sinning. However, one can never sin without committing a transgression. Consider the many way David and Jesus transgressed the law without sinning.

Matthew 12:1–5 (CSB)

1 At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain.

2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”

3 He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry:

4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the bread of the Presence—which is not lawful for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests?

5 Or haven’t you read in the law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent?

Example of Transgression

Genesis 3:6 CSB

6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

1 Timothy 2:14 CSB

14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed.

Here’s a fundamental lesson: We often worry about the transgression of Eve, when we should be worrying about the sin of Adam. Furthermore, our theological framework is shaped to look like this warped motif.

Examples of Sin

Distance: Being away from the Father. (Luke 15:11-32)

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 1. The Synoptic Gospels and Acts.

The parable shows us what Jesus understands by sin. It is going out from the father’s house, i.e., godlessness and remoteness from God working itself out in a life in the world with all its desires and its filth.

Self-justification: The offering of our own righteousness for the covering of our sin.

Philippians 3:6 CSB

6 regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

Galatians 1:23 CSB

23 They simply kept hearing, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.”

1 Corinthians 15:9 CSB

9 For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Understanding the work of Christ: Sins or Transgressions?

A question we should consider is who did Jesus come to save? Sinners or Transgressors?

1 Timothy 1:15 CSB

15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.