What Is Sin? (the shocking truth you need to know)

What is sin?
You sure hear a lot about it. Some people dismiss it as archaic and outdated, while others hold picket signs protesting the existence of sin in others’ lives. But what exactly is sin?
My guess is you can probably come up with a pretty good-sized list of sins. And if you grew up in church, you probably heard phrases such as, it’s missing the mark or doing something outside God’s will. More theologically minded people might use words like “total depravity” or “original sin” to grasp at its meaning.
But still, most of us have a lacking view of the meaning of sin.
In this blog post we are going to look at the meaning of sin. Because I think our view of sin directly affects our view of God and what he’s done.
So, let’s dive into what sin really is.
What Is Sin?
To understand what does sin mean we need to understand how sin entered the picture.
When Sin Entered The Picture
You’ve probably heard the story before (Genesis 1 – 2). God created the world, formed man and women, and released them to live in the Garden of Eden in perfect harmony (union).
I know we know what happens next… but stay here for just a minute. Think about this, like actually dwell on what this would have been like. Humanity existed in perfect union, with each other and their creator. With the absence of sin, insecurity, and jealousy there was nothing that could break that union.
Except… eating from the tree of good and evil. That was the one rule they had. But why would God even give them the choice?
Love cannot be forced; love must be chosen by both parties. That’s why God gave us free will, the ability to decided if we want him or not. Without the choice to reject God there can be no true love.
Sin enters the picture when we reject God and the choice to go our own way.
Adam and Eve’s act of disobedience was more than a simple infraction. It was a breach of union that changed everything and not just for them, but for all of humanity. That day in that garden we became something new. Something altogether different. On that day, we moved from union with creation (life) and entered into a union with death.
Shane Wood describes this moment in his book Between Two Trees like this: “When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they were not merely disobeying a command, although indeed they were. They were not just committing an indiscretion, although indeed they did. The action was more dire, the result more severe. For sin is willful union with something or someone other than God.”
So, what exactly is this union?
For more about the creation story check out: The Creation Story And It’s Surprising Meaning
Sin Is A Union With Death
This significance of union is largely lost on us today. We simply don’t value it, or frankly understand it. But we are created with an impulse to it. We crave connection with others, and not just a passing conversation, but genuine connection. Because we were made for union. Why? Because we were made in the image of God.
God lives in an eternal state of union through the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit). They are not three separate beings that live near each other, but rather an interpenetration of three persons in one being. Confusing? That’s why the Bible calls it a mystery. The point is that God created humanity, us, in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). Thus we were created with this desire for union at our core.
So what is this union? It’s somewhat of a mystery, as is the Trinity, but we catch glimpses of it. A union is two becoming one flesh. It’s extending and preserving oneself by giving yourself and receiving another. A union is when two things becoming joined together in such a fashion that they cannot go back to their original state.
Think of the last meal you ate. In a way, you entered into a union with that food. You and the food were joined together and became one. You cannot go back to the two separate states you were before. Even if you threw it up… I know gross, but hang with me… parts of you would come up with the food and parts of the food would stay in you. Because a union is the intertwining of two separate things into one. And you cannot separate them the same afterward.
We were created for union. Union with each other and union with God. And in the beginning, in the garden, we existed in perfect union.
This is why sin is so much more than making a mistake. It’s willingly choosing to enter a union with something, or someone, other than God. And through our sin, we have entered into a union with death and the results are everywhere.
The Consequences Of Sin
It should be no surprise that following the new union the first act recorded in Genesis 4 is jealousy that led to murder. This is the fruit of our new union.
The evidence of this is seen all over today. This is why we retaliate rather than forgive. Why we isolate rather than seek community. This is why we seek our own needs and not the needs of others. This union has caused marriages to crumble, greed to run our lives, parents to abandon their kids, addictions that destroy, self-harm to be the norm, and makes love, true love, seem impossible.
We are united with death.
The reality is sin isn’t just a simple mistake. Sin has been wreaking havoc on our world and our lives.
And remember the implications of a union. It’s becoming one flesh, giving yourself to another. It’s a bond in which both parties are joined in a fashion in that they cannot go back to their original form. We are one with death.
The Solution To Sin
Here’s a question I see a lot. Why doesn’t God just kill off, obliterate, all sin? Like a precision laser, just cut it out of our lives.
From our understanding of what is sin we know that our union with death presents a problem. Because we are one flesh, so to kill one is to kill the other.
Again let me turn to Shane Wood who says it better: “Union stands at the center of the remedy, revealing the original problem in greater clarity: In Christ, divinity united with harmony; in Adam, humanity united with Death. Humanity union with death, then, presents a formidable problem if God is still intent on recovering his creation. He could not merely obliterate death after the fall, for we had become one flesh with Death. Thus, to destroy death is, to some degree, to destroy humanity. After the union, the two can’t be torn from each other any more than ingested poison can be extracted through a syringe.” – Between Two Trees
God cannot just destroy the sin in our life because we are one with it. We have been joined together with death.
Our culture vastly downplays the seriousness of sin. Our sin is not a simple mistake; it’s choosing someone or something other than God to enter a union with. We are one with our sin. That should cause us to pause and maybe have a moment of panic. The severity, the consequences, of our actions are dire.
So, what is is the solution?
The Sunday schooler in me wants to yell Jesus. And in this case, that would be correct, to a certain extent.
God’s desire is that humanity would enter back into a union with Him. The problem is man entered into a union with death, and we continue to run recklessly toward death, even after following Jesus. We can’t help ourselves, we are drawn to death, the darkness appeals to us.
To redeem humanity, to restore union with his creation, God entered into our union with death. He honored our choice by becoming one with flesh and embraced the consequences that came with it. He took on the wages of sin and death… and conquered sin, death itself. The union with death that once held us captive no longer has power over us. He didn’t just die for our mistakes (He did that too). He broke the bonds of our union.
The solution to our union with death is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. But it goes beyond, way beyond, just the forgiveness of our sins. Our redemption through Christ doesn’t erase our past. Rather it redeems it so it now exists in a totally different way. What once separated us from God can now be used for good.
We are being transformed from what we once were into a new creation. It’s not a one-time event, rather a lifelong transformation. We are being united from union with death and recreated to our original state.
That’s the beauty of the Gospel. It’s not a “get out of hell free card.” It’s an opportunity to re-enter into a life-giving union and rid ourselves of our union with death.
What Does Sin Mean?
What is the meaning of sin? Sin is our decision to enter into a union with something other than God. It is to become one flesh with death. This union is the result of evil we see in the world. And the evil we see in ourselves.
But our union with death doesn’t end our story because God won’t let it. He won’t give up on his pursuit of us. He is working to redeem us. He’s conquered sin and death so that our old union no longer has power over us. He doesn’t obliterate it; he doesn’t erase it. Rather He redeems it. He takes what was once brought death and turns it into life.
Because of this, we are now in a state of transformation. We are in the process of becoming something new. We aren’t there yet. Our prior union with death is still evident. But one day, we will be a new creation unshackled from the consequences of sin. We live in the in-between. In process. Being transformed. We are entering back into the union with life.
Looking for a great resource to help you grow in your faith? I HIGHLY recommend Mark Moore’s books Core 52 and Quest 52. These simple 15-minute daily readings will help you connect with God and understand the Bible better. They are INCREDIBLE. Plus there are kids/teen versions as well!
Thank you for this helpful clarification on our union with sin and death. I’m trying to witness to my neighbor and I think she does not understand the seriousness of sin and the holiness, or the way in which God is “other than” and set apart from us. However, she also is missing, partly because she’s Jewish, the very clear answer- her Messiah – made flesh unified with sin, becoming it, in fact, to die for her. But I am working with God on that. Thanks for your assistance. 😁
Hi there,
First off, I enjoy your blog and appreciate the intentionality and study behind your writings! This article was certainly no exception.
That said, I have found myself becoming increasingly sensitive to a sin-focus in our thinking relative to our relationship to God. Having grown up in the church and only finally starting to learn to see God as loving rather than punishing me for sin, I would just raise a few thoughts for you to possibly consider.
Don’t misunderstand, I am not seeking to diminish the work of the cross. In fact, based on my own experience, I am finding that my ability to receive the love of Jesus increases as I ponder the cross more seriously, personalizing the work it accomplished in my life, and increasing my understanding of Jesus specifically as a man. His death and resurrection on the cross were unmistakenly the most important events that will ever take place this side of Heaven.
Given this next statement, I first needed to make certain I am not coming across combatively regarding the perfect atonement for our sins, which are no doubt a serious issue.
With all that, how can we realistically argue the idea that sin wasn’t part of God’s design all along? Should we assume that God created satan and was “surprised” by his rebellion? Should we assume the tree was created and God was “surprised” when Adam and Eve ate from it? In John 1:1, we are told that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Should we assume that an all-knowing God had to make a contingency plan for man’s folly in eating the fruit, and that Jesus figured out after sin entered the picture that He would come down to earth at the perfect time?
My encouragement is for us to start to reframe sin as the ultimate cost of God’s unfathomable love for us. Because sin exists, we should cling that much harder to the idea that God loves us beyond measure. The challenge is that our dialogue around sin is so guilt-based that we remain focused on ourselves in the conversation rather than on God. We go to God in embarrassment rather than reverence, and I would pose that it’s a devastating perspective the church is propagating.
At any rate, thank you again for all of your earnest seeking and contributions, brother. Just wanted to throw some thoughts out there that I truly believe need to be more represented in the sin discussion.
Blessings,
Aarik
Jeffery,
Great article! You nailed it!
I would not be able to text everything in these comments; the acceptance of Christ began with repentance (weak translation) of the Greek), “Metanoia’ this means to make one’s life over, through the grace of God, the Spirit working within me a 360° conversion. It means, in the Gospel, nothing less than a total revolution of one’s life, outlook, worldview, values, attitudes, lifestyle! Once a person is called by Christ & empowered by Christ, he is in a state of Salvation.he becomes a new man.In a state of Salvation after metanoia…in the process here & now, of justification. For this reason, I am a new person, a new self, a new life, passed from death to life…left behind & constantly leaving things that are decreative, death-dealing stuff behind!
Jesus, is positive from his own experience & insights that a person in the process of Salvation will endure after physical life, Christ’s bodily Resurrection is evidence of this., his resurrection is an exemplification, an experience…it is the insight of the meaning of metanoia. As soon as I develop a personal relationship to Christ, I am connected to the reign of God which then in a very real way becomes present for me. There is no idea in my mind that this evil that I have to encounter in the world around me, this lack of integration, will be victorious. I am able to predict what will happen over a period of time, I know, I see…the disintegration which is setting in & rot goes only to one place & in one direction.. I understand all this bc of the transformation which occurs within me, in this new life..
Sin is the trangresions of the law . 1 John 3:16
Now all you need too figure out in the bible is, what laws are we not obedient to . It has absolutely nothing to do with what you are saying.
I think you missed the point of the article.
Hi Jeffrey, great article! I like the way you described union with your food. I am surrounded by colleagues who does things that are deem “in fashion.” Even Christians seems to be losing their voice in general. Being the only voice, I stop the preaching but focus on doing what’s right before God and pray. It is very sad, yet we have to be that Salt and Light despite the situation. Thanks for sharing a great article! Love & blessings, ivy
Like the disciples, we are often asleep in the Garden, dozing through the Christian life, ambivalent about our sin. But were we to watch and pray, to kneel beside our Savior in the grass, to hear his cries of anguish, and to see the bloody sweat upon his brow, then we would see the fearfulness of God’s wrath. And then we would know the sinfulness of our sin. Philip Graham Ryken ” Preaching The Word” Jerimiah Love you, Grammie
This is a great article. It describes the magnitude of sin leading to death. We so easily blame our “sin nature”, like that isn’t really us. The thought of the unbreakable union is spot on. Well written:)
Thanks for stopping by Tom! I always appreciate your comments!
You have done an excellent job of capturing the very essence of our sin — well said! However, you have missed a great portion of the gospel message (and the solution that Christ came to bring us). Throughout the New Testament, whenever you study the tenses of the words used to describe what Christ has accomplished for us… every reference is to a finished work (Greek: an action completed in the past and fully available in the present). It is is simply… this is what we WERE before our commitment to Jesus (as sinners, as dead to God [and in union with sin, as you so accurately presented])… and this is what we ARE now because (and only because) of Jesus’ work on our behalf. Every reference is an immediate shift in identity, because we are NOW in union with Christ. We are not BECOMING something new. We ARE something new (2Cor. 5:17). We are not in process of transformation (which process never seems to end!) we are totally remade to live completely in a new kind of life (Romans 6 describes HOW this comes about). While there is a process involved, it is more accurate (and Scriptural) to realize that it is process not of becoming more and more like Christ BUT in growing IN what Christ has already graciously provided to us. All the work needed to transform us into what God desires us to be has been done (Jesus: “It is finished!”) and now we must realize that work and apply that work in our lives by faith in what Jesus has done (see Gal. 2:20).
I think there’s a difference between justification and sanctification. What you seem to be talking about is justification. That is we are forgiven for our sins the moment we put our faith in Jesus. We instantly become righteous in His sight. The verses you mentioned are talking about justification. However, this article was not talking about it. Which could be a mistake and something I should clarify… What I was getting in this article about being transformed was sanctification which is the process works to form us to be more like him. That is a life-long process and does not happen instantly. It’s evident by our continued desire and bent towards sin even after following Jesus. But as we follow Christ we start looking more and more like Him. That’s why I would argue we are becoming something new. We are not there yet. Yes, we are declared righteous immediately and yes we can enter into a union with God immediately. But the work of God is still ongoing in our life. We are being transformed into something new.
Amazing! Thank you for explaining it further.