What is sin according to the Bible?
Scripture does not leave us to guess what sin is — it gives a definition, and the whole of a person's standing before God turns on getting it right. Is sin only breaking a rule, or something deeper in us that would be there even if no rule had ever been given?
The definition: lawlessness
Commentators are unanimous that the older English rendering "sin is the transgression of the law" is a mistranslation, and that the mistake has done real damage.
William KellySin is not at all limited to crime, or to glaring evil. What a harmful and clearly false version is the one given in the Authorized Version of 1 John 3:4, where we read that "sin is the transgression of the law"! Millions have taken their idea of sin from it, and have been misled into the great error, on the one hand, of ignoring a vast amount of real sin, and on the other of arguing that all men must be under the law, since it is certain that all sinned... The true meaning of the apostle's statement is that "sin is lawlessness," the far wider and subtler evil of doing one's own will without the check of divinely imposed authority.
Why the wording matters
The correction is not a scholar's quibble. If sin were only the breaking of a given law, whole eras of human history would contain no sin at all.
F. B. HoleIf sin really had been the transgression of the law, then there would have been no sin committed in the world between Adam and Moses, as Romans 5:13-14 says. But sin is something deeper than that, for lawlessness is the denial and repudiation of all law, and not merely the breaking of it when given. If the planets that circle our sun were suddenly to repudiate all law, the solar system would be destroyed. Lawlessness among the intelligent creatures of God's hand is equally deadly, and destructive of His moral order and government.
Commentators do add that where a definite law does exist, breaking it is sin too — one writer puts it as "sin is not the transgression of the law, though every transgression of the law is a sin."
Not only acts, but a bent
Read this way, the verse is not photographing isolated deeds. It is describing the direction a life runs in.
William KellyHe is not speaking of particular acts, but about nature showing itself in our ways... A man who sins shows his will alienated from God — an evil nature derived from him who fell through Satan. Here the apostle regards man as doing nothing else but his own will, which is exactly what the natural man does. He acts independently of God, and, as far as he is concerned, never does anything but his own will. John is not speaking of positive outward acts, but of the man's habitual bent and character — his life and nature.
Sin and sins: root and fruit
Scripture uses the word in two ways, and the difference shapes how a believer grows.
A J PollockWe start by being concerned about our sins, that is the FRUIT of the evil nature. But if the fruit is bad the tree is bad, and this comes out in what the death of Christ sets forth... You begin by being troubled about the FRUIT, that is sins. But later you are troubled about the ROOT, that is the sinful nature. The cross of Christ settles everything for us. Sins are atoned for. The sinful nature is condemned... Sins can be and are forgiven. The sinful nature cannot be forgiven, it is CONDEMNED and set aside.
Wider than we like to admit
Because sin is self-will, it covers far more than the crimes we would readily name — including good left undone.
The Bible TreasuryNow, in the sight of God "all unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death" (1 John 5:17), that is, not calling for that severe discipline. There is much need to be reminded of this. Every unrighteousness toward God or man is sin. We admit to failures, inconsistencies, slips and mistakes; but to drop these polite words and put "sin" in their place would sharpen the moral sense.
The same point is made from James: sin is not only doing what is wrong, but failing to do what we know to be right.
What sin has cost
Sin is not a private matter with private consequences. Its result is written across every graveyard.
Hamilton SmithGod never says that death is the debt of nature; but He does say that death is "the wages of sin" (Romans 6:23)... Here then is the secret of death. There was no death for man until Adam had sinned. At the same time none of us can say we have to die merely because Adam sinned... "Death spread to all men because all sinned." The sentence of death is before you, because of the sins of your life that are behind you.
The One in whom there is no sin
John's definition is immediately followed by its answer — a Person, not a programme.
Leslie M. Grant"And you know that He appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin." The amazing manifestation of "God manifest in flesh" involved the blessed purpose of fully taking away sins. We know this required the dread suffering and death of Calvary. His manifestation in grace was no overlooking of sin, but the judgment of it, together with the removal of the guilt of many sins.
Summary
- Lawlessness. Sin is not first the breaking of a rule but the refusal of all restraint — doing one's own will apart from God's authority.
- Deeper. Because it is lawlessness, sin existed before any law was given, and it reaches people who never heard a commandment.
- Root. "Sins" are the fruit; "sin" is the nature that produces them — which is why forgiveness alone was never the whole gospel.
- Wider. Every unrighteousness is sin, including known good left undone; calling it a slip or a mistake only dulls the conscience.
- Answered. The wages of sin is death — and the sinless One appeared to take sins away, not by overlooking them but by bearing their judgment.