For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
In the Jesus prayer, we confess ourselves to be sinners. In this post I am going to discuss the nature of sin as it is defined in Strong's concordance as "properly, to miss the mark".
So what is our mark, or rather "Who" is our mark? Our mark is nothing short of God Himself as the source of our life and very existence. God said in creation "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" and it says "male and female created he them". This makes God our model for who and what we are intended to be, and this applies to all human beings without exception. It is also written that "in him we live, and move, and have our being" bearing witness to God as the cause of our existence and that not only did He bring us into existence, but sustains our existence, which is "in Him". The farther we stray from being in God's likeness, the more we seperate ourselves form what we are intended to be and lose our life, movement, and our very existence. This is why "the wages of sin is death".
Before the coming of Christ, mankind was given two ways of recognizing our standard for living. First, all mankind is given a law written in their hearts with their conscience bearing witness. There was also the law that was delivered to the Jews by Moses, of which Paul wrote "for by the law is the knowledge of sin". Because the law was given to help recognize God, and not just a checklist of things to do and not do, as our standard of living, James writes "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.". This is why we are told that we are given the choice to yield ourselves as servents "whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness".
With the coming of Christ, mankind received two things. First, we received the full revelation of the One who is our standard of living. Christ Himself said "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father". Paul calls Christ "the image of God" and says that we recieve "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". Not only does Christ, who is "the image of the invisible God", show us what we are meant to be as humans, but being the Word by which God created all that exists, also has the power to restore us to the image in which we were created but had strayed from through sin. This is why we are "to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren". This is why we are to "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" in baptism.
Two other words used to describe types of sin are transgression and iniquity. Transgress means "to go contrary to" and implies the violation of a command. Iniquity means "without law". These must be understood within the context of God as the source of our very existence and standard for living, as revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ as the One who gives the law, perfectly fulfills it, and heals the damage caused by sin when we turn to Him for healing.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
No comments:
Post a Comment