What is Sin?

I was talking with my small group last night about this question, especially as it pertains to evangelism. How do you get a person to believe that they are sinful? Does the word "sin" even resonate anymore? The classical definition is that sin is the breaking of God's laws. God set up specific requirements for the people, for the world, in order that we come to him perfectly reverent, thus protecting his supreme holiness. His laws are not for himself, he is not governed by them. Rather, they are for us, we are governed by them. And so when we break those laws, we sin. Wayne Grudem basically agrees, defining sin as "any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature." But that is not easy to swallow. People in non-legalistic societies, where freedom is treasured more than restriction, not only do not resonate with talk of law and sin, they despise it. So what to do?

First off, there are no good answers. Sinners, by nature (and name), do not like looking at their own sinfulness. So this problem is, in reality, an old one. And so our job is to uphold both the truth represented in the Bible, but do so in a way so people will understand it. And as is the case with most things, different people will respond to different "tactics." So the question becomes, how do we go about explaining sin today? The problem, as I alluded to above, is that Americans are hopelessly individualistic. We do everything on our own, by ourselves, for ourselves. Communication happens distantly, most families are at least partially broken, and there is no need anymore for sacrificial interdependency. In the end, they desire freedom. We usually speak of freedom poetically as we clutch American flags and roman candles on the 4th and sing the last few lines of the Star Spangled Banner at baseball games. But our words do not always reflect our beliefs. In truth, Americans desire total autonomy. Autonomy from "the man," from the fam, from God, from everything. And we expect them to hear us as we talk about Moses on Mount Sinai and his list of rules? No thank you, many Americans say. Thankfully, there is a way to get through even to them and help them understand that they have sinned against the living God.

Tim Keller has been very helpful to me on this subject. He has said that he made the decision to talk about sin only in terms of idolatry. That is, he tells his people (New Yorkers) that idolatry (sin) is being deceived by and enslaved to anything that is not God. "Sin isn’t only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry," Keller has written. And this, I think, resonates. Why? Because even they know that, deep down, those things they love are not things that are satisfying. For example, the promiscuous clearly take something good God has given (sex) and use it in a way that enslaves them. If you gently explain this to them (though they may react to it caustically at first), it will make sense to them because their use of sex never did feel all that satisfying. And they'll even begin to feel as though they really aren't as free as they once thought.

Read this article by Keller for a more thorough treatment of the subject.