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Sin; we often correlate the word with doing “bad things”. Many things inform our perception of “bad”: our conscience, the natural world, our emotions, circumstantial knowledge, and past decisions. Naturally, we weave together our moral identity using our perceptions and the resulting quilt of our conglomerated senses forms our conscience; or, how we justify our reactions to the events composing our lives. On paper, this is fine, but we know the problem. We all possess varying emotions, different perspectives, and special tastes. As Blaise Pascal, succinctly writes, “The heart has its reasons, which reason knows not.” So, in reality, we have not come any closer to defining bad or good. Instead, we have allowed our opinions to reign, and the subjective truth of our ever-changing minds to feed our consciences. But as beauty, as goodness, as truth have a source of objective and indisputable truth, so does sin. Once, we view sin from God’s perspective, our conscience and moral understanding will find rest and assurance, we will not only be able to define what is bad, and identify the character of sin; but, embrace what is good.

In both the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament, sin literally translates to “missing the mark”. The mark or the bull’s-eye rests in God. Whatever lies outside of His person, anything that “misses the mark” of His revealed will, can be defined as sin. The Greek word for sin- hamartria- is formed by two root words: “not”, and “a part of”. So, when we choose sin, we decide on an action originating in our own person and not in the person of God. In sin, we choose the course and proceed by our willpower.

Sin rests in men and women attempting to cast off the will of God (Ps 2:1-6). Yet, the will of God always prevails. While God plays no part in sin, nor is the source of evil, He continues to work all things for His good. His providential care and sovereign plan are not hindered by the will of men. In the book of Genesis, the words of Joseph best summarize God’s ability to use evil for His good. Joseph says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive (Gen 50:20).” As we continue to discuss sin, we may take assurance in the fact that while sin may reign in our hearts, and continues to evidence its consequences throughout the world, God never removes His thumb of dominion from the back of sin. His goodness continues to conquer the sin of this world.

Ultimately, understanding sin begins with comprehending God’s nature and continues with an assurance that, despite sin's pervasiveness, God reigns over all things. For us to go against God’s will is to sin- Period! Furthermore, God reveals His will through His unchanging and inerrant word. By His Word, He directs our path and aligns our will in accordance with His purpose (Ps 119: 103-106). As we grow to understand the meaning of sin- “missing the mark” of God's will, we should begin to realize our own nature. By nature, we do not reside in the will of God; we need His word and guidance. Instead, our nature is aligned with sin. In the natural pursuit of and submission to our thoughts and desires, we continually find ourselves outside of God’s will. Apart from God, we are born in sin (Ps 51:5) and we will continue in sin our entire lives (Eph 2:1-5; Col 2:13).

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