What Christians get wrong about “SIN”
Sin
God is without sin
The biblical concept that God is holy and pure is rooted in the fundamental nature of God’s character as revealed in Scripture. This belief shapes much of Christian theology, especially teachings about sin, judgment, atonement, and salvation. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes God’s holiness — His complete moral perfection, and absolute purity.
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!”
Isaiah 6:3
“God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”
1 John 1:5
In these verses, holiness is not just one of God’s attributes; it’s foundational to all His other characteristics.
God’s Incompatibility with Evil
Evil does not have a place within God’s domain. Not that evil can not present itself – but that it can not endure. It causes separation.
The Holy of Holies in the Jewish Tabernacle and Temple illustrates a concrete architectural picture of that principle. The Holy of Holies represented the most concentrated manifestation of God’s presence on Earth. It was separated from the rest of the sanctuary by the veil.
We can frame the structure like this:
God (the Ark) → Holy of Holies → Veil → Holy Place → Outer Courtyard → Man
As one moved inward, the space became increasingly restricted and holy. Only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and even he could enter only under specific conditions on the Day of Atonement. The closer one comes to the unveiled presence of God, the less compatible impurity becomes with that presence.
The veil communicates that there is something about humanity’s sinful condition that prevents unrestricted access to God’s immediate presence.
“Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.”
Isaiah 59:2
Importantly, the veil isn’t there because God is unable to exist around evil. The barrier demonstrates that sinful humanity cannot simply enter God’s holy presence on his own terms. Impurity cannot establish dominion along side God’s holiness.
Biblically, evil (sinfulness) can present itself before God in the outer courtyard. The book of Job, for example, depicts Satan appearing among the heavenly beings.
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.”
Job 1:6 (KJV)
It is not that “Evil can never appear before God.” it’s “Impurity is not a part of God’s character.”
And the regulations surrounding the Holy of Holies demonstrate that crossing that boundary improperly was not harmless.
Leviticus 16:2 records God’s warning concerning Aaron:
“Tell Aaron… not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil… so that he does not die.”
That is an extraordinarily direct statement.
There is a boundary. There are rules governing access. And violating the boundary can result in death. It becomes a visible representation of the consequences of approaching God’s holiness while remaining unprepared or unclean.
This is the basis for the need of reconciliation (salvation). If we enter the presence of God – without santification – we will die. Sacrifices in the temple represented a substitute death for the individual seeking redemption from God. The sacrifice – a blood offering – was the price. The propitiation for man usurping God’s will – was the blood sacrifice that Jesus made when He died on the cross.
Did God create Sin ?
So, if God’s righteousness and holiness were present within creation, then where did “Sin” come from?
“There is sin leading to death…” 1 John 5:16-17
There is one SIN that is is beyond action – it is rooted in Intent – the will.
The desire to be GOD!
“I have a right to live however I want…”
“Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Judges 21:25
“
Sin exists because it
is the consequence of our will rather than the cause of it. ‘Sin’ manifests in the exercise of our own will.
Sin would not be present, without the expression of mans desire to replace God’s will with his own..”
This was God’s command (will):
“16 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” … The man said, “The woman gave me some of the fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:8
The problem is not simply that Adam and Eve performed particular wrong actions. “Eating” is not a sinful unholy behavior. Adam simply says she gave it to me and I ate it. It was Adan’s choice to eat it – he exercised his “free will” and chose to ignore God’s command.
The “Sin” was that Adam freely chose to disobey God’s will and made his own will the authority. Further, the Genesis account can be read as showing that Adam did not need a sinful nature in order to become a “sinner.”
Adam was not sinful by nature, but he was mutable – capable of turning away from God. So the existence of a thought or desire “to be like God” didn’t necessarily require that Adam already possess a sin nature. Rather, his free will could move in a sinful direction through choice.
If we remove God – then there is no “Law” If there is no Law there is no sin.
” 15 … for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.”
Romans 4:15 (NASB)
So, in a material world without God – then there is no moral judgement.
Richard Dawkins puts it:
“There is at the bottom’ of the universe ‘no design, no purpose, no evil, and no good.’ Existance has no moral character. There is no good or bad, wrong or right, sin or righteousness.”
Separation from God is a lawless world. Narural desires can be both good and bad – an “Amoral” existance. You decide what is best for yourself. No right or wromg. In a world with no God: Materialism — the philosophical view that matter and the physical universe are all that fundamentally exist. Mind, consciousness, morality, and meaning are ultimately understood as products of physical processes rather than something transcendent or spiritual. Man is a random evolutionary event. Nihilism — is the view that there is no inherent or objective meaning, purpose, value, or moral order to existence. In its strongest form, nothing ultimately matters because there is no transcendent standard by which anything can be said to matter.” Nature itself presents this chaos:
“Although there are numerous examples of moral-like behavior in animals, examination of the darker side of nature reveals creatures capable of deceit, dishonesty, violence and killing. Rape, cannibalism, infanticide, deception, within species killing, sexual intrigue, adultery, lethal violence, and wasteful predation have also been observed. Evolution appears responsible for both moral and despicable behavior. Natural selection is blind to our ordinary understanding of morality.” – Immoral-like Behavior in Animals, June 2020 – DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-45680-1_4 In book: The Multidisciplinary Nature of Morality and Applied Ethics (pp.37-44) Authors: David Steinberg
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Upon eating the fruit, the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened and they became like God – knowing good and evil.
And as a consequence, they knew they were naked. They were no longer innocent (naive).
“And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; … “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” – Genesis 3
The knowledge brought awareness. Then, Adam and Eve hid themselves from God… Adam and Eve “hiding” is man separating themselves from God. And, this separation from God leads to death – both physically and spiritually.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out with his hand, and take fruit also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. – Genesis 3:22-24
With Adam and Eve, the pattern is explicit. They sin, their communion with God is disrupted, and they are driven from Eden:
“Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden.”
— Genesis 3:23
And then comes an especially important detail:
“He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword… to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Genesis 3:24
Notice what is being guarded: the way back. After Adam’s expulsion, cherubim guard the way to God’s sacred presence and to life.
Two Kinds of Sin
It is clear in scripture that everyone has sinned and that death is the proof of sin.
For the wages of sin is death – Romans 6
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned – Romans 5
But in 1 John, there are two types of”sin.”
If anyone sees his brother or sister committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will, for him, give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death; I am not saying that he should ask about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. 1 John 5:16
If we look at all of scripture, we can see that there is a type of sin, which is the essence of all other sins and is the one for which scripture has no further “sacrifice.”
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins – Hebrews 10
This one mortal sin is – rejecting the Holy Spirit and retaining your own willfulness. “Sins” the fruit of an unrighteous will, can be forgiven – by confession, repentance and faith.
Essentially the two kinds of sin are:
Sins against Righteousness / Holiness / Obedience to God
Sin against the Holy Spirit (ie rejection of God and “Become Like God”)