Sin

Definitions of Sin and Different Types of Sin

  • Dictionary definitions of “sin”
    • A destroyed state of human nature in which we are estranged from God.
    • An offense or transgression against religious, divine, moral, or God’s Law.
    • A serious shortcoming (fault)

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  • Original Sin is the condition people share due to The Fall (Genesis 3).  It consists of the loss of original righteousness; and hereditary corruption of humanity.  The effects range from:
    • Pelagianism … where it did not taint human nature and that mortal will is capable of choosing good or evil without special divine aid … to …
    • Wesleyan-Arminianism … where it is called ‘sin nature’ where people have a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt and are able to choose or reject once drawn by God … to …
    • Calvinism … where it is called ‘total depravity’ and humans have no option (or ability) to choose and God determines everything.

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Personal Sin involves an act against God or another individual; and can be intentional or accidental.  It is a direct action that weakens the relationship between the parties involved.  Personal sins include actions, thoughts, and desires. 

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  • ‘Hamartia’ (ἁμαρτία) appears 221 times and means “to miss the mark,” as in an archery competition, and therefore fail to receive the prize.  This is the general word for sin and encompasses the other 6 words, in the sense that in all sin, we are missing the mark.  We are aiming at God’s best, but miss it.  Can also mean wrongdoing, error, or offense.

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  • ‘Hettema’ (ἥττημα) only appears twice and means “diminishing what should have been given full measure.”  We all need God’s constant help on this one.  Placing emphasis on the things that please God will bring God’s wonderful blessings into our life.
    • loss – defeat – failure – shortcoming – inferiority to a particular standard
    • Romans 11:12 … Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
    • 1st Corinthians 6:7 … Even to have such lawsuits with one another is a defeat for you. Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated?

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  • ‘Paraptoma’ (παράπτωμα) appears 19 times and means the following … trespass – transgression – sin against – to sin as a moral failure to keep a command – a stumbling aside – a false step – fault – offense – fall in faith – “stepping out of the bounds of God’s law.”
    • Matthew 6:14-15 … “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
    • Mark 11:25-26 … But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too. But if you refuse to forgive, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.
    • Romans 4:25 … He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.
    • Romans 11:11-12 … Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
    • Ephesians 1:7 … He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

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  • ‘Agnoeema’ (ἀγνόημα) appears once and means “ignorance when one should have known.”  Ignorance, however, is no excuse and a warning that we need to stay in the Word and learn as much as we can about God and His Law / Commands / Requirements.
    • Hebrews 9:7 … But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

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  • ‘Parakoe’ (παρακοή) appears 3 times and means “to refuse to hear and heed God’s Word.”
    • Disobedience – unwillingness to hear – an erroneous or imperfect hearing
    • Romans 5:19 … Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
    • 2nd Corinthians 10:6 … And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient.
    • Hebrews 2:2 … For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished.

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  • ‘Parabasis’ (παράβασις) appears 7 times and means “to intentionally cross a line.”  When God draws a line, we can suffer great loss by intentionally stepping over.
    • Transgression – breaking – violation – a stepping by the side – deviation
    • Romans 2:23 …
    • Romans 4:15 …
    • Romans 5:14 …
    • Galatians 3:19 …
    • 1st Timothy 2:14 …
    • Hebrews 2:2 …
    • Hebrews 9:15 …

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  • Anomia’ (ἀνομία) / ‘Paranomia’ (παρανομία) appear a combined 16 times and mean “lawlessness or willfully breaking God’s written rules.”  God has rules to bless and protect us, not to curse us.
    • Wickedness – lawlessness – lawless deed – violation of law – iniquity – sin
    • Matthew 7:23 …
    • Matthew 23:28 …
    • Romans 4:7 …
    • 2nd Corinthians 6:14 …
    • Titus 2:14

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Denominational Beliefs on Sin (ABC Order)
(If Your Denomination Isn’t Listed, Please Send Me What They Believe)

Anglican … Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians vainly talk;) but it is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit; and therefore, in every person born into this world, it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in Greek, (which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh), is not subject to the Law of God. And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized; yet the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.

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Free Will Baptist … Man, being tempted by Satan, yielded and willfully disobeyed God, becoming a sinner and incurring God’s judgment upon sin. All of Adam’s descendants inherit his fallen nature and thus have a natural inclination to sin. 

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  • Lutheran (Ausburg) …
    • 1] Also they teach that since the fall of Adam all men begotten in the natural way are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with 
    • 2] concupiscence; and that this disease, or vice of origin, is truly sin, even now condemning and bringing eternal death upon those not born again through Baptism and the Holy Ghost.
    • 3] They condemn the Pelagians and others who deny that original depravity is sin, and who, to obscure the glory of Christ’s merit and benefits, argue that man can be justified before God by his own strength and reason.

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Lutheran (Missouri) … We teach that the first man was not brute like nor merely capable of intellectual development, but that God created man in His own image, (Genesis 1:26-27; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10), that is, in true knowledge of God and in true righteousness and holiness and endowed with a truly scientific knowledge of nature, (Genesis 2:19-23). We furthermore teach that sin came into the world by the fall of the first man, as described in Genesis 3. By this Fall not only he himself, but also his natural offspring have lost the original knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and thus all men are sinners already by birth, dead in sins, inclined to all evil, and subject to the wrath of God, (Romans 5:12, 18; Ephesians 2:1-3). We teach also that men are unable, through any efforts of their own or by the aid of “culture and science,” to reconcile themselves to God and thus conquer death and damnation.

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  • Nazarene – We believe that sin came into the world through the disobedience of our first parents (Adam and Eve), and death by sin.  We believe that sin is of two kinds: original sin (depravity), and actual or personal sin.
    • We believe that original sin, (or depravity), is that corruption of the nature of all the offspring of Adam by reason of which everyone is very far gone from original righteousness or the pure state of our first parents at the time of their creation, is averse to God, is without spiritual life, and inclined to evil, and that continually. We further believe that original sin continues to exist with the new life of the regenerate, until the heart is fully cleansed by the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
    • We believe that original sin differs from actual sin in that it constitutes an inherited propensity to actual sin for which no one is accountable until its divinely provided remedy is neglected or rejected.
    • We believe that actual or personal sin is a voluntary violation of a known law of God by a morally responsible person. It is therefore not to be confused with involuntary and inescapable shortcomings, infirmities, faults, mistakes, failures, or other deviations from a standard of perfect conduct that are the residual effects of the Fall. However, such innocent effects do not include attitudes or responses contrary to the spirit of Christ, which may properly be called sins of the spirit. We believe that personal sin is primarily and essentially a violation of the law of love; and that in relation to Christ sin may be defined as unbelief.

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Seventh-day Adventist … Man and woman were made in the image of God with individuality, the power and freedom to think and to do. Though created free beings, each is an indivisible unity of body, mind, and spirit, dependent upon God for life and breath and all else. When our first parents disobeyed God, they denied their dependence upon Him and fell from their high position. The image of God in them was marred and they became subject to death. Their descendants share this fallen nature and its consequences. They are born with weaknesses and tendencies to evil. But God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself and by His Spirit restores in penitent mortals the image of their Maker. Created for the glory of God, they are called to love Him and one another, and to care for their environment.

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Southern Baptist … By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race.  Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. 

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United Methodist (Original or Birth Sin) … Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.

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Wesleyan (Sin: Original, Willful, and Involuntary) … We believe that through the disobedience of Adam and Eve sin entered the world and all creation suffered its consequences. The effects of sin include disruption of the relationship between God and humanity, deterioration of the natural order of creation, and exploitation of persons by evil or misguided social systems. The whole of creation groans for redemption. Each person is born with a proclivity toward sin, manifested in an inordinate orientation toward self and independence from God, leading to deliberate acts of unrighteousness. The residual effects of Adam and Eve’s disobedience include a marred human nature from which arise involuntary shortcomings, faults, infirmities, and imperfect judgments, which should not be accounted the same as willful sin. However, as manifestations of the fallen nature of humanity, these shortcomings of God’s holiness still necessitate the merits of the atonement, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and the self-control of the believer. Willful sin results when a morally accountable person chooses to violate a known law of God, using freedom of choice to please self rather than obey God. The consequences of willful sin include a loss of fellowship with God, a self-absorption with one’s own interests rather than love and concern for others, a bondage to things which distort the divine image, a persistent inability to live righteously, and ultimately everlasting misery and separation from God. The atoning work of Christ is the only remedy for sin, whether original, willful or involuntary.

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