Being Sin Versus Sinning
Mike,
It appears from your digression in the Rev 1:13 commentary this past Sunday that the distinction between what we are and what we do is not clear to all. Perhaps it is your choice of the terms ‘what we do’ and ‘what we are’ that obscure the issue for some people. The natural man’s mind understands that when we sin, we are sinning. That is an equating of the two words; thus the word sin equals the word sinning and both are verbs of do ing or actions. If sin (Gk. harmartia) is simply missing the mark, then one always must do or try to hit the target in order to miss. For a believer, it is in knowing the target, Christ, and frequently failing to hit the bull’s eye. For the non- believer it is failing to see the target altogether and thus aim and fire in the wrong direction.
The Law was written to define sinful action and the consequence of failure in that action – trespass. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, in the fifth through seventh chapters uses the word for sin as a noun 30 times. The KJV translates it ‘sin’, a singular noun. The idea that Paul was trying to convey was that of a principle, the sin principle that “dwells in me” (vs.7.20) or in my flesh as he identifies in chapter 8 verse 3. It is that principle or nature, of which all mankind is in possession, that is inherent in being natural or material.
In the fifth chapter, Paul shows the differentiation between the sin principle and the actions of mankind that are the result of the sin principle. Beginning in the twelfth verse and on through the end of the chapter, he discusses the verb form of the word sin. In verses 12,14, and 16, the KJV translates ‘harmartano’ as sinned. But the verbs are in the aorist tense making the action an ongoing occurrence, more like ‘are sinning’ rather that the past tense form, but they are action (doing) nonetheless. It is in this section that Paul also uses the Greek word ‘paraptoma’ which is translated ‘offence’ but whose primary translation in the New Testament Greek is into the word ‘trespass’. Here in these verses Paul exposes the Law, the knowledge of good and evil, as the identifier of trespasses or the actions which transgress.
But from the beginning of chapter seven, his main topic is that principle of sin which causes those trespasses. I will not go into a full exegesis of chapters six and seven but suffice it to say that he clearly shows that the sin principle rules all mankind: “it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.” It is this principle or “law of sin” that you are trying to say that we are. We, in fact, are a living soul that is saddled with this body of death which constantly exerts its influence during our material existence. However, as a believer we are a new creature in a new creation on our way to becoming a living soul unencumbered by the material and housed in a spiritual body and this is Paul’s concluding point in his discourse.Rom 7:24-8:3 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
I thank God– through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God, by sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin and concerning sin, is condemning sin in the flesh,The power of the sin principle has been broken and defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the spirit of God. Thus it is Christ in me that enables me to ‘sin not’, the doing; and it is my abiding (living) in Christ, the new creation, which assures my avail of the spirit of God to the defeat of the principle of sin.
So it is that Heb 10 tells us, in burnt offerings concerning sin God had no pleasure, but Christ had a body prepared for him to do God’s will so he could take away the first (shadow offering) and establish the second (the true reality), the one sacrifice for sins (trespasses) for perpetuity. Every sin that has been done has been washed in the blood of the lamb who takes away the sin of the world. If you are not careful to discern, it is easy to confuse go and sin (verb) no more with let him who is without sin (noun) cast the first stone.
Just a few thoughts of this day’s meditation on Christ.
I remain your brother in the Christ.
S____
Hi S_____,
Thanks very much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. The verse you point out in Rom 7 is powerful:
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Paul presents this as it really is. Even when he wants to do the right thing, “sin that dwells in me” wins the spiritual battle, and he sins against his own will. I, for one, can certainly vouch for the veracity of that statement.
But yes, it is true, what we are and what we do are indeed synonymous to many who fellowship with us and to the whole orthodox Christian world. There are many Protestants who can see through the doctrine of the immaculate conception by simply realizing that the only way for there to be any truth to that doctrine would be for every mother of Christ since Eve to have been immaculately conceived, in order to keep Eve’s sinful nature from being passed on to Christ.
But even those Protestants who see through that absurd doctrine, have no interest in the details of the differences of the various sacrifices and their various varieties as revealed in the shadows given us in the law of the offering of the first six chapters of Leviticus. The whole orthodox Christian world is foreshadowed by this verse:
1Co 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I actually had a minister, who was also a Delta pilot, tell me that 1Co 2:2 proves that we are not supposed to go beyond Christ and Him crucified. That is the spiritual state of most ministers of orthodox Christianity and sadly, it is the spiritual state of some of those who are in our own fellowship via the internet. I was told in an e- mail from a brother who has been listening to our live stream in Liverpool, England, “The sin and the trespass offerings are one and the same, Mike.” So I feel the need point out what exactly is a sin offering; that it is an offering for what we are, and to make it clear that while Christ is indeed a sin offering, Christ is much more than a sin offering.
One point that is especially misunderstood is the fact that even Christ is “clothed with a robe, down to the foot… to cover the shame of His nakedness.” Such a thought, though it is implicit in Rev 1:13, is considered as blasphemous as saying Christ was “made sin.” It is a thought that is foreign to a world who thinks that Christ being made sin was the result of being nailed to the cross, rather than being “made of a woman, made under the law”. How many Christians do you know who have taken note that Christ told his followers to take up their cross and follow Him with His cross long before he was actually nailed to that cross?
Mar 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples
also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
“Denying ourselves” is the same as dying daily, as is made obvious in Luke’s account:
Luk 9:23 And he said to [ them] all, If any [ man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
So Christ’s flesh had to be covered just as our flesh has to be covered. It too, was a body of death by virtue of the law of sin that is corruptible flesh.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
I know I am preaching to the choir, so I will stop here. Thanks again for your help on this subject.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike
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