Doctrine of Sin Notes

Doctrine of Sin

Subject

• In Karl Menniger’s published work, Whatever Became of Sin? (1973) he speaks about the “disappearance of sin” from 20th century society.
• Wrongdoing is now identified as a crime, a symptom of illness, or a “collective responsibility” (Grudem,451)
• The language of what sin is has changed. (2 or 3 ways sin has changed)

• Adultery is called “an affair”
• Fornication is called “hooking up”
• Two unmarried people living together before marriage was called “shacking up” and was scorned, now it is a “trial” to see if marriage will work
• Teenage pregnancy is no longer looked down upon.
• Cheating is seen as competing.
• Stealing is justified as getting what one deserves.
• Abortion is seen as a choice.

• Two Broad Categories

• Philosophical Naturalism- Sin is die to man’s essential finitude or creaturely weakness.
• Philosophical Idealism- Sin is due to bodily appetites or instincts, or to man’s possession of a body.

• Grudem defines sin as “any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.”

• Old Testament Words— know 3

• Chatat- “to miss”

• Gen. 4:7 in reference to Cain- “sin is crouching at the door”

• Avon- iniquity/wickedness

• Lev. 16:21 in reference to Aaron laying hands on the goat

• Pesha- revolt, transgress

• Prov. 28:19

• Shagah- to err, stray

• Prov. 28:10

• New Testament Words

• Hamartia- to miss the mark

• Rom. 6:6

• Paraptoma- fault, transgression, deviation from revealed way

• Eph. 2:5

• Aselgeia- lasciviousness, lewdness

• Eph. 4:19

• Anomia- lawlessness

• 1 Tim. 1:9

• Epithumia- lust

• Rom. 7:8- “desire”

• There are a variety of terms in the Bible that describe sin as rebellion against God.
• This rebellion is man’s actions, attitudes, and nature.
• Sin is any type of rebellion, no matter how great or small, against God’s moral law and/ or character

• Many people attempt to classify sin as “big” or “little”, but this is a humanistic approach with a subjective view.

• How did sin originate?

• Sin did not originate with God.
• It did not come from some eternally existing evil force.

• The devil was a created being.
• Is. 14:12-15
• Ezekiel 28:1-16

• The rebelión of angels

• Gen. 1:31; Gen. 3:1-5
• 1 Peter 3:18-19
• 2 Peter 2:4
• Jude 6-7

• Adam and Eve

• Genesis 3

• Doubt v.1
• Denial v.4
• Deceit v.5
• Desire

• Pragmatic- good for food
• Pleasing- looked good
• Powerful- able to make wise

• Disobedience v.6

• Eve was deceived, but Adam disobeyed without deception

• Results

• Fig leaves

• indicates they were intelligent and artistic

• Shame and fear

• They hid themselves

• Blame

• “The woman whom You gave to be with me.”
• “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

• Serpent cursed

• Probably had legs prior

• Ground cursed

• Adam was instructed to tend the garden so “work” is not a result of the curse

• Pain in childbearing and longing to be lord over husband
• Sacrifice

• Verse 21- God made tunics of skin. God was the first to make a sacrifice.
• Paradise lost

• Romans 5:12

• “Because all sinned”- All humanity was in Adam
• We area not just sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.

• Romans 5:16
• 2 Corinthians 11:3
• 1 Timothy 2:14

• The Extent of Sin

• No-one is immune to sin

• 1 Kings 8:46
• Ps. 143:2
• Proverbs 20:9
• Eccles. 7:20
• Is. 53:6
• Rom. 3:10,12,23
• Gal. 3:22
• 1 John 1:8

• Results of Sin (from Erickson, 619ff)

• Affecting the Relationship with God.

• Divine Disfavor
• Guilt
• Punishment
• Death

• Physical—Heb. 9:27
• Spiritual—Romans 6:23
• Eternal—Matt. 25:34-40

• Affecting the Sinner

• Enslavement
• Flight from Reality
• Denial of Sin
• Self-Deceit
• Insensitivity
• Self-centeredness

• Affecting the Relationship with others

• Competition
• Inability to Empathize
• Rejection of Authority
• Inability to love (agape)

• Views

• Pelagian

• Even human soul is immediately created in a state of innocence, free from depravity.
• Death is not a consequence of sin, but the natural outcome of mortal life.
• Man is a sinner because he sins, not because he is born sinful.
• If God requires us to live holy lives, we must be able to do so.
• Socinians and Unitarians hold this view.
• Pelagianism was condemned at the Synod of Carthage (418) and at the Council of Ephesus (431)

• Augustinian

• Adam transmitted sin to his progeny by means of natural generation.
• The entire human race existed seminally in Adam.
• Identified humanity as spiritually dead.

• Semi-Pelagian

• Attempt to find middle ground between Pelagianism and Augustinian views.
• Adam’s sin caused spiritual weakness rather than fallenness.
• Spiritually sick instead of well or dead.
• Wesuffer from a spiritual deficiency due to Adam’s fall.
• Common view of Roman Catholicism.
• Some would put Charles Finney (first to use the “altar call) into this category.

• Arminian

• Adam’s sin causes guilt, depravity, and punishment in the human race.
• God’s prevenient grace enables man to cooperate with God to overcome this state.

• Given to all humans indiscriminately.
• Basis of all the goodness found in humans everywhere.
• Universally given to counteract the effect of sin.
• Since God has given this grace to all, everyone is capable of accepting the offer of salvation.
• There is no need for any special application of God’s grace to particular individuals.
• John Wesley was a proponent of this view.

• Federal/Covenantal

• Adam was appointed head of the human race by God.
• God entered into covenant with Adam, agreeing to give eternal life on condition of obedience.
• The race is condemned on the basis of Adam’s sin.

• New School

• All men are born with a physical and moral constitution that predisposes them to sin.
• All do sin wen they arrive at moral consciousness.
• The original predisposition may be called sin since it leads to sin, but only voluntary acts are actually sin.
• God imputes men only their own acts of rebellion.
• This view was a reaction to Puritan theology.

• Neo-Orthodox

• The fall is representative of what happens to everyone.
• We all have our own “little scene in the Garden of Eden”
• Both Barth and Brunner rejected the reality of a literal, historical Adam and Eve

• Liberation Theology

• Sin is a collective reality revealed in social and political situations.
• Sin is a act of society rather than an individual act.

• Oppression of the poor, ethnic, or gender groups.

• The solution of sin is social and political freedom.
• Many stories taken as allegorical.

• Moses leading the Israelites shows God freeing His people from oppression.

• Mediate or Immediate

• Immediate

• Transfer of guilt and corruption

• Mediate

• Propensity for sin. Personal sin and personal responsibility.

• Are there degrees of sin?

• “Little sins” are still against a holy God.
• Different sins may have different consequences.
• The same sins may affect people differently according to their role or position in leadership.

• The Death of Infants

• All infants are lost due to their corruption by sin.
• Only elect infants are saved.
• All infants are saved through benefits of the atonement.

• Infants are in a state of sin and requires regeneration— Ps. 51:5; Eph. 2:3
• Infants posses relative innocence—Deut. 1:39; Jonah 4:11; Matt. 18:3-4

• Appear to be special objects of divine grace— Matt.18:5,6,10,14; Matt. 19:14
• Age of accountability

• You don't have to teach a child to sin.

• Evidence for the salvation of infants.

• Deut.1:39
• 2 Sam. 12:23
• Revelation 5:9?

• Closing Toughts

• Sin of commission and omission.

• Commission- doing wrong willfully
• Omission- unkowingly or without thought

• All sin is sin.

• 1 John 3:4; 1:9
• James 1:9

• We are held responsible by God or both.

• Idolatry

• Col. 3:5

• Fornication- “immorality”
• Undearness- “impurity”
• Passion- “physical side”
• Evil desire- “mental side”
• Covetousness- “greed”

• These sins follow the individual’s desires instead of God’s. We end up worshipping ourselves and not God. We make ourselves to be our own god.

• The Ten Commandments

• They reveal our sin.
• People do not understand their need for a Savior if they do not know that they need saving.
• Let God’s Word convict
• We are unable to keep them.
• If we sin once we have broken them all. They are a unit.