What is Sin?

Created Date: 14-Feb-2024

What is Truth?

Last updated: 16-Feb-2024
A A A  help

Sections:
 
1 God it the Embodiment of Truth 2 What is Sin?
3 What is Truth?    

God it the Embodiment of Truth

There is a logical connections between understanding what Sin and Truth mean in our life.  The more Godly truth we know, that comes from our relationship with God as we grow in Faith and Love of God, then:

  1. This will ultimately have us hating sin because we feel repulsiveness on thoughts before acting on a sinful desire,
  2. When acting on sinful desires *, we will feel remorse in our actions as we grieved God, ourselves and often others, and
  3. Most importantly the internal feeling of love from God that we receive from within us, from the Holy Spirit, when overcoming sinful actions.

* Thank God for His Son Jesus Christ our Advocate, 1 John 2:1, who paid the price for our sins for whom we can immediately confess our sins for forgiveness with Grace and Mercy.  There is absolutely no sin that we can commit that causes us to lose our Salvation.  When we have salvation, we are permanently marked by the Holy Spirit.

While we think of Truth as understanding the absolute facts of something, truth is more than knowing factually something as it means more about becoming perfect in truth as our God is Perfect in Truth.

1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
  Priority Sin Category Summary Scriptural Collaboration
1 Greatest The deliberate act of doing anything or not doing something required that offends God. The first five commandments and Matthew 22:37
2 Equivalent to the Greatest The deliberate act of taking anything belonging to someone, and deliberately not doing what God would expect for someone. The second five commandments and Matthew 22:39
3 Secondary The deliberate act of doing anything that is not sinful but causes others to commit sin. Romans 20:13-20 - example of eating given

Sin is always compared to darkness, which is the absence of light, and light is always compared to the truth of God.  Light, is used as a symbol of God in the Scriptures where God is more than a symbol as one of God's Attributes is Perfect Light.  Through God, with truth given, we have knowledge to avoid sin.  After the Judgment Seat of Christ, we will become perfect in Truth so that we can be in eternity with God.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.
John 15:1-2
and
John 15:5		 1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. 2 He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.

5 I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

What is Sin?

All Christians, through the Scriptures, Holy Spirit that indwells us, and even partially with natural understanding should know what the word sin means.  As we mature in our Christian life, we should be sinning less and less. 

The Ten Commandments are basic to understanding what sins not to commit, and Jesus Christ gave us a summary two laws that encompass the entirety of the scriptures.

Matthew 22:36-40 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.'

39 The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.


This is an excerpt from the topic on the Law of God:

Through the payment of Sins by Jesus Christ on the Cross with the perfect life Jesus Christ lived, the Old Testament Law had a fulfillment to God's Glory.  There were there are two summary and primary attributes of the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law. 

  1. Our sins would not prevent us from being with God in Eternity when accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, and
  2. Removed the absolute requirement of the Levitical Priesthood with their duties, that had
    (a) animal sacrifices * to temporarily remove consequences of sin,
    (b) giving of tithes, and
    (c) a specific place to worship as we can worship anywhere that includes Church
    as Christians can now go directly to God in all things in life, that includes confessing sins.

Jesus Christ's payment absolutely:

  • Did not give us freedom to commit sin,
  • Remove the obligation to not commit sin, and
  • When committing sin, understanding the ramifications of sin, will fall under God's Grace and Mercy.

* Note that in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ there will be once again Animal Sacrifices that Biblical Scholars and this author believe it is a memorial to honor God in a retrospective to the perfection of the fulfillment of the Law that have nothing to do with removing sins.

The Ten Commandments can be viewed as:

  1. The first five of the Ten Commandments are dealing with our relationship with God.
  2. The next five of the Ten Commandments are dealing with our relationship with each other.

When Jesus Christ summarized the Ten Commandments into the two commandments of Matthew 22:37-39, these two commandments still contained the Ten Commandments. 

There are three scriptural passages:

Romans 3:20 because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.
Romans 5:20-21 20 And the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly: 21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 7:13 Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful

that initially might seem like paradoxical statements concerning the Law of God, but they are additional aspect of law that makes aware of the need of a Savior. 

Knowing how we govern ourselves with God and each other as given by God then sin can also be summarized in three primary areas:

  Priority Sin Category Summary Scriptural Collaboration
1 Greatest The deliberate act of doing anything or not doing something required that offends God. The first five commandments and Matthew 22:37
2 Equivalent to the Greatest The deliberate act of taking anything belonging to someone, and deliberately not doing what God would expect for someone. The second five commandments and Matthew 22:39
3 Secondary The deliberate act of doing anything that is not sinful but causes others to commit sin. Romans 20:13-20 - example of eating given

Some of us may ask how can Jesus Christ state in Matthew 22:39 that His Second Commandment is equivalent to the Greatest, where the answer is in multiple scriptures such as Matthew 25:40

Matthew 25:40 And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
John 3:19-20 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

What is Truth?

The Christian most likely recalls the well-known question by Pilot to Jesus Christ which was "What is Truth?" in John 18:38.  Pilot did not know at that time, as some Biblical Commentaries state that Pilot became a Believer in Jesus Christ later in his life, that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Truth in His Godhead with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. 

John 18:38  33 Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, Are You the King of the Jews? 34 Jesus answered, Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me? 35 Pilate answered, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done? 36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm. 37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, So You are a king? Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. 38 Pilate said to Him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no guilt in Him.

In the none Christian common-world viewpoints, truth is relative and subjective:

There is the term called the Rashomon Effect that contains the belief that truth can be both relative and subjective.  The Rasho is often used in literature and theatrical performance, such as a movie, to show different peoples witnessing of an event that came up with a different conclusion on what occurred and in their viewpoint the truth.  The name of the Rashomon Effect comes from a 1950's movie by Akira Kurosawa named Rashomon where a murder is described in four contradictory ways by four witnesses where each witness believes their version is the truth.

This is from the Wiki page on Rashomon Effect:

In the Queensland Supreme Court case of The Australian Institute for Progress Ltd v The Electoral Commission of Queensland & Ors (No 2), Applegarth J wrote that:

The Rashomon effect describes how parties describe an event in a different and contradictory manner, which reflects their subjective interpretation and self-interested advocacy, rather than an objective truth. The Rashomon effect is evident when the event is the outcome of litigation. One should not be surprised when both parties claim to have won the case.

The Australian Institute for Progress Ltd v The Electoral Commission of Queensland & Ors (No 2) [2020] QSC 174 (15 June 2020), Supreme Court (Qld, Australia).

For the Christian, Truth is God in the way we:

When we have a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ as our Savior, and grow in depending on God for everything, then we:

  Area The Affect from the Truth of God
1 Freedom Gain freedom and liberty to enjoy life in this World despite ALL suffering including death.
2 Recognize To recognize sin when knowing the truth through God's Word
3 Rewarded Our lives will be more pleasing to God, which has the benefits of building Rewards in Heaven, as we are Faithful and Trustworthy because we know the true path in our actions and words spoken.

John 3:22 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
Proverbs 12:22 Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

In a general summary of God's Truth applied in our lives, means we conduct all interactions with God in our relationship with Him, and doing the same in our relationships with others.

What to read next?

Does Sowing and Reaping happen both positively and negatively?  What are the Four Greatest Sins.  What is the Holy of Hollies of the Old Testament?