What Is Sin?

The Battle with Sin

One catechism defines sin this way: “What is sin? Sin is rejecting or ignoring God in the world he created, not being or doing what he requires in his law.”¹ Or as artist Shai Linne says, “What is sin? Sin is the breaking of God’s law plus our condition, which means from birth we all got flaws.”²

Sin is in us and comes out of us. We are born with a sin nature, and even after we become Christians, we still battle with ongoing sin. Sin appears in our affections and our actions, in what we desire and what we do, in what we seek and what we say. It consists in doing what we shouldn’t (sins of commission) and in not doing things we should (sins of omission).

How Do I Fight Sin and Temptation?

J. Garrett Kell

Confronting the spiritual weight and consequences of sin, pastor and author Garrett Kell explores helpful ways out of temptation—including Scripture, community, and confession—toward freedom in Christ.

Sin Is Personal (Prov. 51:4)

Sin is also personal. During the Last Supper, Peter assured Jesus that he would die for him (Luke 22:33). Jesus, however, knew that Peter would succumb to temptation and deny him three times. Over the next few hours, Peter did just that. While Jesus was being beaten and wrongly accused, Peter distanced himself from his master, and even said “I do not know him” (Luke 22:57). As soon as the rooster crowed, “the Lord turned and looked at Peter,” causing Peter to recognize his sin against a man he loved and had followed for three years (Luke 22:61). We then read that Peter “went out and wept bitterly” (Matt. 26:75; Luke 22:62).

In other words, sin doesn’t merely break an arbitrary rule. It rejects God, who is personal. It effectively says to him, “I do not love you. I will not follow you. I will not obey you” (see Ps. 78:40; Isa. 43:24; Eph. 4:30). When Jesus looked into Peter’s eyes, he suddenly felt the weight of his betrayal. He had denied the one who had only ever loved him.

Or think of that famous story about King David committing adultery with the wife of one of his soldiers and then arranging the man’s murder. The Lord sent the prophet Nathan to expose David (2 Sam. 12), and David’s subsequent prayer shows how personal sin is. He cries out to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Ps. 51:4). Sin is always against God, and it’s always personal.

Sin Is Painful (Prov. 22:5)

It’s also painful. God designed life in this world to be lived in line with his law. This means that the world is “rigged”—rigged to work best by obeying God. Sinning, however, brings painful consequences. In Jesus’s story of the prodigal son, for instance, a younger brother spends all his wealth on prostitutes, parties, and perversion. Maybe he has fun in the beginning, but soon enough the consequences catch up with him, and he finds himself sharing slop with swine (Luke 15:11–32).

I’m not saying that obedience always brings happiness and sin sadness. Yet the Bible teaches again and again that “the way of transgressors is hard” (Prov. 13:15 KJV) and “thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked” (Prov. 22:5). As a pastor, I’ve sat with hundreds of people who compromised with sin and suffered the consequences. As a believer who struggles with my own sin, I’ve compromised countless times to my shame. Sin promises to be sweet, but its aftertaste is always bitter.

Sin promises to be sweet, but its aftertaste is always bitter.

Sin Is Punishable (Rom. 6:23)

Sin is also punishable. My family was driving down a country road recently when one of my children exclaimed, “That’s a lot of tombstones!” As I looked, I saw an entire hillside lined with gravesites.

The picture of all the graves reminded me of God’s warning that sin would bring death. God had said to Adam, “In the day that you eat of [the forbidden tree] you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Or as Paul later explained, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

But physical death is merely the “first death.” The second death is far worse. The book of Revelation contains a harrowing vision of the day of judgment, harrowing at least for those who do not know Jesus:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. . . . Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:11–15)

Sinning against God has great consequences. It separates us from relationship with him and incites his righteous, eternal wrath (Isa. 59:2; 2 Thess. 1:7–9)

Sin Is Pardonable (Isa. 55:7)

Gratefully, sin remains pardonable. Though our sin is great, God’s grace is greater (Rom. 5:20). Punishment is his “strange” work (Isa. 28:21). He doesn’t want to punish. He desires none to perish but for all to “turn, and live” (Ezek. 18:32; cf. 1 Tim. 2:4). God cried out through the prophet Isaiah,

Let the wicked forsake his way, . . .
let him return to the Lord,
that He may have compassion on him, . . .
for he will abundantly pardon. (Isa. 55:7)

In pursuit of this pardon, God loved the world and sent his Son to die for our sins and then rise again so that we could be forgiven (John 3:16). The good news offered to us is that God will not only forgive us if we turn to Christ but also empower us to fight sin (Titus 2:12–13). This means that, if we are trusting in Christ, we don’t have to be dominated by sin any longer. We can walk in freedom and joy (Gal. 5:16–17).

Notes:

The New City Catechism: 52 Questions and Answers for Our Hearts and Minds (Wheaton, IL: Crossway), q. 16 (46–47). Cf. Westminster Shorter Catechism q. 14; Westminster Larger Catechism q. 24; and Benjamin Keach’s Catechism q. 18, in The Philadelphia Confession of Faith Being the London Confession of Faith Adopted by the Baptist Association 1742, with Scripture References and Keach’s Catechism (Sterling, VA: Grace Abounding Ministries, 1977).
Shai Linne, “Atonement Q&A,” on The Atonement (Lamp Mode, 2008).

This article is adapted from How Do I Fight Sin and Temptation? by J. Garrett Kell.

J. Garrett Kell (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) is a pastor at Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. He is the author of Pure in Heart: Sexual Sin and the Promises of God. He and his wife, Carrie, have seven children.

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