Some notes on Sin

Thomas Aquinas writes:

. . . sin is broadly used to mean any failure of activity, natural or designed, to reach its goal . . . . But the meaning of sin proper to morals is of cuplable failure of will to reach a due goal because it is drawn toward an unsuitable one.

Essentially, sin is "missing the mark", failing to measure up to a proper standard. The "mark", in this case, is God's Law. Biblically speaking, "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4, NIV) or in the King James, "for sin is the transgression of the law."

So, our duty to God is live our lives in such as way as to avoid clashing with His will. Put positively: Our best interest is served when we are in line His Law. Life should be lived in such a way as to avoid sin, to "hit the mark" as it were. The trick of it is, of course, learning what the mark is. I like how John Wesley's mother explained it (Letter, June 8, 1725):

Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.

For a more in depth look at a biblical view of sin, check out "What is Sin?" by Tony Warren.

Bondage of Sin

I've finally picked up True Spirituality, by Francis A. Schaeffer and, as is my habit with a new book, before I really dug into it, I skimmed through a couple pages. I think I'm really going to enjoy this, because the first thing that my eyes landed on really struck a chord with me. Chapter 8 begins with:

In the first seven chapters we considered freedom in the present life from the bonds of sin. Now we turn to consider the question of freedom in the present life from the results of the bonds of sin. . . . At this point we begin to come into very sharp conflict with the intellectual thinking of the second half of the twentieth century, and we will see that Christianity has to say to this.

With this chapter we begin our consideration with the question of "true spirituality" in relation to my separation from myself, which is the result of the fall and a result of sin. Now we must keep this in the right order. The sin causes the bondage and the results. Sin causes the bondage, and not the other way around. (p.83)

Sin, then, is the cause of bondage, not circumstances, not our mental health, not the government or poverty, not drugs or food or sex. Sin is the cause of moral evil in every form and the cause of all oppression, whether self-imposed or not. It is not those circumstantial evils that causes bondage, but our sin nature that creates the bondage that births those evils.