Introduction & Summary
In this series, I will argue that Christianity’s emphasis on sin is misguided and anachronistic, since Jesus decisively broke the power of sin through his crucifixion and resurrection.
In place of the term “sin,” we need more precise terms to describe moral and ethical concepts that are still relevant today, and distinguish them from religious rules that do not apply to Christian believers.
Ultimately, we need new ways to think and talk about the Gospel in our context.
An Anachronistic Concept
In explaining the Gospel and teaching how believers should live, many churches today seem to be making the same mistake as the “Judaizers” Paul warned the Galatian church against—requiring obedience to the Law of Moses. This has major implications for evangelism and discipleship, since many churches explain the Gospel in terms that can only be understood by first accepting extinct worldviews like those of Second-Temple Judaism or even Bronze-age Canaanite Yahwism.
The most problematic feature of this worldview is the idea of sin that must be punished unless atoned for. Whether Christianity makes sense when explained in this way, as it was and did to the early Jewish believers, depends entirely on one’s worldview.
In the worldview of 1st-Century Judea, the question was not whether to make animal sacrifices, but to whom. The need to atone for sin in this way was a shared assumption, and the debates of the day focused on whether to sacrifice to YHWH, Caesar, or regional deities.
Today, most people do not believe in the concept of atonement for sin via animal sacrifice, nor is it necessary to convince people of this concept in order to accept Christianity.
In fact, it is a substantial barrier to the Gospel—one that the New Testament clearly describes as unnecessary.
What Is “Sin”?
The term “sin” itself is much of the problem. Depending on how we define and use the term sin, it may or may not be relevant to believers today. In the End of Sin series, I will define sin as:
Sin: the violation of arbitrary religious rules.
The New Testament reveals the early church’s difficulty grappling with the moral and ethical obligations of believers, apart from the Law of Moses.
Of course, “sin” is an English word that does not appear in the Greek New Testament, but rather is used to translate a variety of terms including hamartia, skandalizō, anomia, and others (see Appendix).
In many of the Epistles, Paul and the other writers address a variety of moral and ethical problems facing the early Christians. Clearly, Christ’s victory over sin does not mean that Christians live with no moral or ethical boundaries.
Defining sin as the violation of arbitrary religious rules allows us to distinguish between different concepts such as:
Harm
Crime
Scandal
Injustice
Strife
A look at the 10 Commandments reveals that, while “sin” might have once been a convenient shorthand, we clearly need more specific concepts to determine what applies to people today:
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make idols.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet.
On one end of the spectrum, theft and murder are universally considered crimes and harms; no appeal to religious principles is necessary.
On the other end of the spectrum, keeping the Sabbath is an entirely religious rule, with no interpersonal or legal consequences.
Clearly, a concept that lumps these two types of rules together will lead to misunderstandings and difficulties in communicating.
To Christians, sin serves as a catch-all moral and ethical term, describing any negative, harmful, or prohibited behavior.
But what do non-Christians think when they hear the word “sin”?
There is no secular parallel. Talking about sin is therefore the marker of a judgmental person who seeks to impose their arbitrary religious rules on others.
As a result, it’s an extremely difficult concept to use in explaining the Gospel.
Is it fair to characterize sin as “arbitrary religious rules”? Certainly, many rules in the Bible, like prohibitions against murder and theft, enjoy near-universal support among believers and non-believers alike.
But reading the Old Testament, we find a great deal in the Law of Moses that indeed strikes us as arbitrary:
A prohibition against work on the Sabbath (Saturday)—Exodus 20:10
A prohibition against tattoos—Leviticus 19:28
A prohibition against clothing made of wool and linen woven together—Deuteronomy 22:11
A prohibition against eating pork, shellfish, and ostriches—Leviticus 11:7-19
It’s easy to discern a practical rationale for many of these laws—such as those relating to infectious disease, and the prohibition in Deuteronomy 20:19 against cutting down fruit trees in times of war.
But the Law of Moses needed no rationale—“I am the Lord your God” was often the only explanation given. The Law defined Israel’s national identity as God’s chosen people, and violations were punished by exclusion from the community or death.
In contrast, the New Testament has a conspicuous lack of rules.
A great deal of the New Testament is devoted to explaining how there are no arbitrary religious rules under the New Covenant, yet Christians are still to lead moral, ethical lives. Complex discussions of these issues, like Paul’s arguments in Romans and Galatians, are often difficult to follow because they were written in response to specific situations that are unfamiliar to us.
Reading in English, it’s difficult to distinguish between different concepts that are translated as “sin.” Wronging someone else, committing a crime, or breaking religious rules were all essentially the same thing.
Christ’s Victory Over Sin
Because much of the New Testament was written to Jewish believers, we find frequent references to sacrifice and atonement for sins—reinforcing the message that continual sacrifices at the temple were no longer necessary.
The endless cycle of sin » repentence » sacrifice » atonement » forgiveness was ended at last in the sacrifice of Jesus.
A common misconception is that we have a new endless cycle of sin » repentence » forgiveness, with the sacrifice and atonement taken care of in advance by Jesus. This is not how the New Testament explains the Atonement.
In Colossians 2, Paul explains how God’s forgiveness was a once-and-for-all event:
And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths.
If with Christ you died to the elemental principles of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.
—Colossians 2:13-16; 20-22
Subscribe for future articles in which I will elaborate on this argument.
Appendix: Words Translated “Sin” in English
Hamartia
G281 ἁμαρτία hamartia, n. [173] [√ 279]. sin, wrongdoing; usually any act contrary to the will and law of God:– sin (77), sins (74), sinful (4), guilty of sin (3 [+2400]), sin offering (2), sin offerings (2 [+4309]), sinning (2), sins (2 [+4472, 3836]), commit a sin (1 [+279]), guilt (1), guilty of sin (1), sin (1 [+2237]), sin (1 [+4472]), sinned (1 [+1639, 4472]), sin’s (1)
Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 3:6 “and they were baptized by him [John the Baptist] in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.”
Matthew 9:2, 6 “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, child; your sins are forgiven.’” & “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”
Matthew 26:28 “for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
G283 ἁμαρτωλός hamartōlos, a. [47] [√ 279]. (a.) sinful, as an absolute moral failure; (n.) sinner, one who violates God’s will or law; in some contexts, one who does not keep orthodox traditions and behaviors:– sinners (29), sinner (9), sinful (5), sinful life (1), sinner (1 [+467]), sinner (1 [+476]), sinners (1 [+476])
Matthew 9:10 “many tax collectors and sinners came”
Matthew 11:19 “the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”
Matthew 26:45 “Now the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
G279 ἁμαρτάνω hamartanō, v. [43] [→ 280, 281, 283, 387, 4579]. to sin, do wrong; usually to do any act contrary to the will and law of God:– sin (14), sinned (12), sinning (8), sins (4), commit a sin (1 [+281]), doing wrong (1), done wrong (1), leave life of sin (1 [+3600]), sinful (1)
Matthew 18:15 “If your brother or sister sins against you”
Matthew 18:21 “Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive?’”
Matthew 27:4 “He [Judas] said, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’”
Skandalizo
G4997 σκανδαλίζω skandalizō, v. [29] [→ 4998]. to cause to sin, cause to fall (into sin), offend; to fall away (from the faith), go astray; to take offense:– causes to stumble (9), fall away (7), stumble (2), took offense (2), cause offense (1), cause to fall (1), cause to stumble (1), causes to fall into sin (1), led into sin (1), offend (1), offended (1), turn away from the faith (1), willS (1)
Matthew 5:29 “If your right eye causes you to stumble”
Matthew 18:6 “If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin”
Matthew 18:8-9 “If your hand or foot causes you to sin” & “if your eye causes you to sin” (NIV: stumble)
pas ho scandalon: everything that causes sin
G4998 σκάνδαλον skandalon, n. [15] [√ 4997]. stumbling block, obstacle, offense; something that causes sin:– stumbling block (3), makes fall (2), causes sin (1), entice to sin (1 [+965, 1967]), make stumble (1), obstacle (1), obstacles in way (1), offense (1), such thingsS (1), theyS (1), things that cause people to stumble (1), things that cause to stumble (1)
Matthew 13:41 “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers”
Anomia
ho poieo anomia: all who do evil
G490 ἀνομία anomia, n. [15] [√ 1.1 + 3795]. wickedness, lawlessness, lawless deed:– wickedness (5), lawlessness (3), breaks law (1 [+4472]), ever-increasing wickedness (1 [+1650, 490]), ever-increasing wickedness (1 [+490, 1650]), evil (1), evildoers (1 [+2237, 3836]), lawless acts (1), transgressions (1)
Matthew 13:41 “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers”