What About This "Sin" Thing?

Just a few months ago, I was meditating on the wholeness we have in Christ. Later on, I began to think about what can often rob us of such experience. These are my thoughts…

Two things that often war against the awareness of our wholeness in Christ are circumstances and sin. One is related to the seen realm while the other is related to the unseen.

Circumstances, a compound word made up of “around” (circum) and “stance,” are usually external things going on around us. Whether it be physical sickness, financial hardship, economic unrest or everyday trials, these things can often affect our stance.

On the other hand, there is the unseen thing we refer to as sin, which is contrary to our nature, and ultimately distorts our perspective of who we are in Christ. As we’ll discuss later on, sin causes us to get out of step with the truth of who we are.

Just a heads up: I will be getting into the origin of the word “sin.” Although this may seem a bit belaboring, please know that this is not for the sake of wallering in theological certainty, but to lead us into greater understanding of what we’re dealing with when we say “sin.” You see, I believe that in order to experience freedom from sin, it’s paramount that we understand the root. So many times we focus solely on the symptom of sin (not the root), and thus fail to deal with it in adequate fashion. Allow me to illustrate: Imagine you went to the doctor to seek healing for a headache, and after running tests, the doctor tells you, “Now, make sure you don’t have any more headaches.” You would look at them in confusion and say something like, “Doc, I know that, I don’t want to have headaches. That’s why I’m here.” Sounds absurd, right? Instead, the doctor would seek to treat the root and cause. Though the symptom would be a helpful guide, it would be a deeper issue that the doctor would seek to heal.

We’ve told a generation “Don’t cuss, don’t drink, don’t lie” and have failed to deal with the root. We’ve said “Don’t smoke,” but I wonder if we’ve showed them how to be on fire.

Sadly, because we have not learned to identify the root issue of sin, we’ve magnified the symptoms—worse off, we’ve reinforced a works-based mentality. For many, this has produced a mindset that Christianity can be boiled down to a list of do’s and don’t’s—nothing more than just another religion. For this, we have suffered.

DEFINING SIN

Excuse me for a minute, but I feel we need to break down the origin of the word “sin,” as it’ll help us understand more fully what we’re dealing with here.

Sin in the Greek is hamartia. As a verb, it means “without a share in.” The more traditional understanding is “to miss the mark” or “to wander from the path of uprightness and honor.”

As a compound word, hamartia is made up of ha meaning “without” and meros meaning “form.” Simply, it can translate to “without form” or “without your allotted portion.”

Interestingly, meros is the root of morphe, where we get metamorphe (“with form” or “transform”). Seeing that hamartia means without form, it’s fair to say sin is the opposite of transformation.

Transformation (metamorphe)—the reorienting of our mind—takes place when we behold the One in whom there is no sin or darkness (2 Corinthians 3:18). Logically, it would be safe to say that sin (hamartia) begins its process of distorting our identity when we look away from the One living within us (Hebrews 12:1-2).

ERROR OF JUDGMENT

Hamartia as it pertains to dramatic literature was first used by Aristotle in his Poetics (330 B.C.). Hamartia is…error that leads to a chain of actions which culminate in a reversal of events from felicity to disaster. Aristotle introduced the term casually in describing the tragic hero as a man of noble rank and nature whose misfortune is not brought about by wicked behavior but by some “error of judgment.”

In light of its historical use, sin can also be defined as an error in judgment—a situation in which we forget and fail to understand (the image of) who God is and who we are. Although hamartia is a Greek word, one of the clearest Hebrew (Old Testament) illustrations of sin is in the book of Deuteronomy: “You neglected the Rock who begot you, and forgot the God who gave you birth” (32‬:‭18‬).

Beloved, this is the fallen mindset.

Sin isn’t necessarily the act of cussing, drinking, cheating on taxes or your spouse, and so on. Those are merely acts birthed out of our attempt to cope with the futility of misplaced identity (mis-identification)—the forgetting of who we are.

A foundational truth is that mankind acts out of their mindset or paradigm. In other words, what we believe to be true about God and ourselves plays out in our lives. This explains why Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” I can almost hear Jesus saying “Father, forgive them for they know not who they are.”

To say it another way: sin is the act of stepping out of tune with God’s original harmony. It’s forgetting and failing to discern the song he sings over your life. Biblically speaking, it’s the image of Adam and Eve in the garden.

For this, sin is the distortion of our true design, the lie of who we are not. It points to a disoriented, distorted, bankrupt identity. To quote Francois Du Toit, “The root of sin is to believe a lie about yourself.” I imagine this is why Jesus came saying, “I AM,” overthrowing the lies of what we believe about ourselves and the One who created us.

JESUS BROKE THE POWER OF SIN

Jesus came in the full revelation knowledge of his Father. In fact, the apostle John declares of him: “No one has seen (or known) the Father but the Son.” In other words, Christ knew who his Father was—rightly discerning his heart, motives, mind, and so on. This led to an unwavering trust in Abba as well as a fascination of who he was in him. They were one in heart and mind: “For I discern the truth. And I am not alone in my judgments, for my Father and I have the same understanding in all things, and he has sent me to you” (John 8:16).

In light of this, what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 seems to make more sense: “He who knew no sin [who refused to believe or receive anything other than what Abba believed to be true], became sin [entered into the illusion of what we believed to be true], that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”

This is why Paul goes on to say: “Let this mind be in you, that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5), and “Put on the new man” (Ephesians 4:21-25).

CHRIST HIT THE “MARK”

Jesus came to untangle the inward duplicity and wickedness (knotted-up-like-wicker state) that laid waste on the human race. We weren’t thinking according to our true nature—we were in sin, out of sync with what the Father, Son and Spirit knew to be true about us. For this, the Son came…

“Jesus, well aware of their every thought, said to them, “Every kingdom [inward reality] that is split against itself [inward duplicity] is doomed to fail and will eventually collapse” (Luke 11:17)

The most common understanding of “sin” is to miss the mark. So, if sin is to miss the mark, I’m compelled to ask: What “mark” are the scriptures referring to?  What mark is it that we can often miss? In light of the language of hamartia, I believe the mark is the awareness of knowing who we are in him. When we know this truth—the highest reality of his thoughts about us—we become free and fully alive in who we were created to be. When we awaken to this reality—the highest truth of who we are—we are hitting the mark. We are living in the destiny laid out before the beginning of time. This is what creation is crying out for (see Romans 8:19).

GO AND SIN NO MORE

In the book of John, we have Jesus setting a woman free from the condemnation of the religious system. While the spirit of religion sought to bind her in the falsity of who she was not (by keeping record of her wrongdoings), Jesus steps forth and speaks a better word. He then tells her “go and sin (hamartano) no more” (John 8:11).

First of all, Christ could deliver the woman out of her shame and mis-identification (of who she was not) because he knew no sin. Quite simply, he reigned above it: “For I absolutely know who I am, where I’ve come from, and where I’m going. But you Pharisees have no idea about what I’m saying” (John 8:14 TPT).

Furthermore, when Jesus stripped the situation of impending condemnation, he released the woman to be free. In saying “Go and sin no more,” he wasn’t necessarily saying, “Now, make sure you don’t commit adultery, drink, cuss, and steal.” I’m sure he didn’t want her doing anything that harmed herself or others; the deeper issue was the fact that he had just re-identified her as one made in his image—fully loved and free of condemnation—and was giving her the necessary grace and permission to live in the truth of who she really was.

He had just spoken his truth over her, and was charging her to go forth in the power of that word. I can hear Christ saying, “Now, go and refuse to come into agreement with who they say you are not—remember who I say you are.”

Praise be to the Father, for Christ has hit the mark and now invites us into his world to know and experience what he knows and believes to be true about the Father and ourselves. 

Friends, we are like this woman who, at times, get caught up in the lie of who we are not. But Christ, the one and only Truth, speaks a better word. I can now hear the Father saying, “Go and sin no more. Refuse to identify with anything other than the truth that YOU ARE LOVED WITH THE SAME LOVE IN WHICH I LOVE MY SON, JESUS! Place yourself in the middle of my all-consuming fire and watch how I re-identify you as my beloved in whom I am well-pleased. Take on my mind, my judgment, my discernment—and let yourself be free and fully alive in the way that I see you.

-RA

The word used in different forms is: sin (96), sinful (2), sins (75). Scriptural references: Matthew 1:21; 9:2, 5-6; John 1:29; 8:34; 9:34, 41; 15:22, 24; 16:8-9; Romans 4:7-8; 6:22-23