PROJECT FOR MAN AND SIN

A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO
ICI UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
TH2062 MAN AND SIN FIRST
EDITION

BY
LEONARD KINUTHIA KIHARA
1428
MARCH, 2005
Leonard Kinuthia Kihara, 1428 THE1042 Man and Sin

Introduction

God created man (male and female) in His own image (Gen. 1:26, 27). At this
point man was perfect with no speck of sin in him. However, man fell from his
condition when he sinned by disobeying what God had commanded him (Gen. 3).
This resulted in sin coming into the world.

In this project, the following areas in relation to sin are looked into:

1. The causes of sin.

2. The character of sin.
3. The results of sin, prior to one’s death.
4. The ultimate result of sin.

The Causes of Sin

a. Ignorance

The English use of this term refers to lack of knowledge or unawareness. In

relation to sin, it refers to hardness of the heart. I Peter 1: 14 says, “As obedient
children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance”.
Ephesians 4:18 has this to say about sinful men: “They are darkened in their
understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is
in them due to the hardening of their hearts”. This ignorance is a willful refusal to
consider the truth of God. Such people’s understanding gets darkened. Continuous
ignoring of the truth results in more ignorance that in turn leads to sin.

b. Going astray

Another cause of sin is going astray i.e. off course or off track. Isaiah 53:6 says
that, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each has turned to his own way.” This
means that people have left the ways of God and are drifting from Him. One wrong
turn can lead to farther straying resulting in sinfulness. Another word used to
describe this condition is wandering. Since the Lord is our Shepherd and we are the
sheep of His pasture, moving away
from Him is described as the picture of wandering sheep. Ezekiel 34:6 uses this
picture of wandering to show the straying.

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c. Disobedience

Disobedience is a cause of sin for it involves deliberate choice to ignore God’s

will. In Romans 5:19, II Corinthians 10:6 and Hebrews 2:2-3, the word
disobedience is a translation of the Greek verb parakoe meaning “hearing amiss”
or “refusing to listen” – being inattentive to what

one hears. This cause one to become more and more insensitive to the truth leading
to hardening of the heart.

The Greek verb apeitheia is translated as “disobedient” in Ephesians 2:2; 5:6 and
“disobedience” in Hebrews 4:6, 11. It describes the condition of being
unpursuadable and denotes obstinate rejection of the will of God.

The Character of Sin

The Bible uses various terms to emphasize the character of sin.

a. Missing the mark

To sin is to miss the mark or fall short of God’s righteous standard. This falling
short is not just due to a weakness or mistake, which may be excusable; it suggests
a making a moral choice that is offensive to God.

The Hebrew word chatta’th, which means, “missing the mark,” is the most
common word for sin in the Old Testament. It appears in both its noun and verb
forms more than 600 times in Scripture and is often translated “sin,” as in Exodus
32:30 and Psalm 39:1.

b. Ungodliness, Unrighteousness, Lawlessness

This class of words reveals that sin involves a lack of certain moral and spiritual
qualities.

Ungodliness suggests that sin is any thought, act, or way of life that is opposed to
the character of God (II Timothy 2:16; Titus 2:12; Jude 18).

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Unrighteousness is the absence of righteousness or the failure to measure up to

God’s standard. Romans 3:10 says, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” In
Romans 1:18, godless and wicked people or unrighteous people are placed side by
side. Such people take what is true and turn it into something evil.

Lawlessness refers to either a condition or an act. A lawless person refuses to live

under God’s righteous laws. The apostle John in I John 3:4 clearly states that “Sin
is lawlessness” and Jesus accused the Pharisees of hypocrisy for outwardly they
were keeping the law but inwardly they were quite lawless (Matthew 23:28).

c. Injustice

This is the sin of not giving people their rights or not treating all people fairly.
Psalm 82:2 asks, “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the
wicked?” God warns against this in Leviticus 19:15; “Do not pervert justice; do not
show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor
fairly.” Any form of unfairness to others, therefore is injustice and hence sin.

d. Rebellion

This is the sin of willful disobedience. God says in Isaiah 1:2 that His children
have rebelled against Him. Rebellion and stubbornness are closely related (Psalms
78:8) indicating that a rebellious person has a very hard heart. In the New
Testament, rebellion is pictured as an act of turning away from the faith (I Timothy
4:1) or from God Himself (Hebrews 3:12).

e. Lust

Lust together with desire is translated from the Greek word epithumia. It can
sometimes refer to good desires as in Luke 22:15 where Jesus says that He had
eagerly desired to eat the Passover with the disciples.

Most times, however, this word refers to describe evil desires that stem from a
sinful nature: the lust of the flesh (I Peter 4:2-3, I John 2:16). Sin often reveals
itself as an uncontrollable desire for evil. In fact James 1:14 says, “… when by his
own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.”

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Leonard Kinuthia Kihara, 1428 THE1042 Man and Sin

f. Evil

This word is used often in the Bible. In Matthew 22:18, it says that Jesus knew the
evil intent of the Pharisees while in Mark 7:21-23, Jesus lists some sins that come
from the hearts of men, among which is “malice.” The Greek word for malice is
plural and is translated “acts of malice or evil.” Furthermore, all the different kinds
of sin in verse 23 are called “evils”.

Sin manifests itself as evil intent or evil acts.

The Results of Sin

There are different terms in the Bible used to describe the results of sin.

a. Evil

The Hebrew word ra in the Old Testament is usually translated “evil,” but refers to
evil as the result of sin. Such evil as described in Amos 6:3 and Genesis 44:34 is
not sinful in itself, but is a result of sin. In other Old Testament passages, the word
ra refers to moral evil as a condition or state resulting from sin (I Kings 3:9).

b. Wickedness

In Deuteronomy 9:27, the Hebrew word resha is translated “wickedness” and

carries the thought that a wicked person is restless and never at peace with himself
or others. Isaiah 57:20-21 also speaks of such people. Wickedness hence is a result
of sin.

c. Guilt

Sin also results in guilt, i.e. it makes the sinner deserving of punishment. Jesus told
the Pharisees that their guilt remained because they claimed that they could see
(John 9:41).

d. Trouble

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Finally, sin brings trouble to the sinner. Proverbs 22:8 says that he who sows
wickedness reaps trouble. This however, should be understood that not all trouble
is as a result of sin.

The Ultimate Result of Sin

Sin affects all areas of life: Man’s relationship with God and others, man himself
and the entire world.

In this section, the ultimate result death is looked into. The Bible speaks of three
kinds of death: spiritual, physical and eternal.

Spiritual death is the condition of a person who has broken off his relationship with
God. Sin separates one from God, the source of life. Such a spiritually dead person
lives his life “gratifying the cravings of (the) sinful nature and following its desires
and thoughts (Ephesians 2:3). This state is transformable when a person becomes a
believer in Christ Jesus. If there is no change of heart, at physical death, a
spiritually dead person transits from a physical state of existence to a spiritual
state. A believer in Christ moves into a fuller spiritual life while non-believer
transits into a darker from of existence.

Eternal death is the final separation from God. It is also known as the second death
(Revelation 20:14). It is identified with God’s final judgment for the sinner after
his physical death. The final judgment therefore, is complete separation from God.
It is also called the “eternal punishment” as contrasted to “eternal life” for the
righteous (Matthew 25:46). Such people will be confirmed in hell where there will
no order but only chaos.

This is the destination of all who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and
Savior but instead have chosen to live as rebels. They have rejected the revealed
truth of God and suffering awaits them consequently. There is no turning back for
them.