SIN-DEFINED

Sin is mankind’s willful choice, in spite of the unceasing mercies and kindness of God, to refuse to honor Him by reflecting His character. God made us for that supreme purpose, but we determined to go the way of our own selfish preoccupations. Any action that does not reflect the character of the Creator in its motive and consequences is sin. It is an assault on God’s prerogative to spurn God’s glory and act in our own self-interests.

John Hannah

To God be the Glory, Crossway, 2000, p. 27.

Sin is the misguided and selfish determination to seek happiness in places where ultimately only emptiness and disillusionment are found. Spiritual hunger is not sin. Sin is declining God’s offer of filet mignon to fill our spiritual bellies with rancid ground beef.

Sam Storms
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p. 28, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.

Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power [and] the contempt of His love!

John Bunyan

Sin is what you do when you are not satisfied in God.

John Piper

Future Grace, p. 9, used by permission, www.desiringGod.org.

The root of our sinfulness is the desire for our own happiness apart from God and apart from the happiness of others in God. All sin comes from a desire to be happy cut off from the glory of God and cut off from the good of others.

John Piper

Desiring God, Baptist Church, 1996, p. 281, used by permission, www.desiringGod.org.

Sin is what you feel and think and do when you are not taking God at His Word and resting in His promises.

John Piper

This Momentary Marriage – A Parable of Permanence, Desiring God Foundation, 2008, p. 130, www.DesiringGod.org.

Sin is lawlessness. In other words sin is man’s refusal to submit to God’s law, that is, God's Word. It is insubordination.

John Piper

Jesus Christ is an Advocate for Sinners, Sermon, February 10, 1985, www.DesiringGod.org, Used by Permission.

Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. Not only is it sin, it is a perverse distortion of the image of the Creator in us. All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in Him.

Augustine

The Confessions of Saint Augustine.

Sin is believing the lie that you are self-created, self-dependent and self-sustained.

Augustine

What is sin? Sin is a species of rebellion against God. It is self-pleasing: it is the utter ignoring of God’s claims: being completely indifferent whether my conduct pleases or displeases Him.

A.W. Pink

The Way of Salvation.

Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the delight for spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin.

Susanna Wesley

Written to her son John before he departed to college.

A sin is anything that violates the moral law of the universe. Any time we do what God tells us not to do or fail to do what God commands us to do, we commit a sin. And every time we sin, we are found guilty in the sight of God and deserve divine judgment.

Philip Graham Ryken

Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 39.

Sin is not weakness, it is a disease; it is red-handed rebellion against God and the magnitude of that rebellion is expressed by Calvary’s cross.

Oswald Chambers

I can remember when I was an undergraduate student, how enlightening it was to learn from William Temple that what the Bible means by sin is "self-centeredness." Let me tell you how Temple puts it in his great little book, Christianity in the Social Order. He says, "I am the center of the world I see. And where the horizon is depends on where I stand. Education may make my self-centeredness less disastrous by broadening my horizon of vision. It's like a man climbing a tower who sees further in terms of physical vision while remaining himself the center and the standard of reference. I am the center of the world I see." That's what the Bible means by sin. Luther talks about man curved in on himself. Malcolm Muggeridge talks about the dark little dungeon of my own ego. That is sin, a twist of self-centeredness that has us imprisoned. But God's order is that we love him with all our being, and then that we love our neighbor and put ourselves last. Sin is the reversal of the order.

John Stott

Freedom, Preaching Today, Tape No. 102.

Sin hath the devil for its father, shame for its companion, and death for its wages.

Thomas Watson

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 260.

Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.

John Bunyan

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 260.

Sin is not merely wrong acts and thoughts, but sinfulness as well, an inherent inner disposition inclining us to wrong acts and thoughts. We are not simply sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.

Millard Erickson

Christian Theology, Baker, 1998, p. 596.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism answers the fourteenth question, “What is sin?” by the response, “Sin is any want of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God.” Here we see sin described both in terms of passive and active disobedience. We speak of sins of commission and sins of omission. When we fail to do what God requires, we see this lack of conformity to His will. But not only are we guilty of failing to do what God requires, we also actively do what God prohibits. Thus, sin is a transgression against the law of God.

R.C. Sproul

Cosmic Treason, Tabletalk, May 2008, p. 7, Used by Permission.

Every sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is an act of rebellion against the sovereign God who reigns and rules over us and as such is an act of treason against the cosmic King.

R.C. Sproul

Cosmic Treason, Tabletalk, May 2008, p. 6, Used by Permission.

The Bible uses many terms to describe the nature of sin: ignorance (Eph. 4:18), error (Mk. 12:24-27), impurity, idolatry (Gal. 5:19-20), trespass (Rom. 5:15), etc. Sin's essence is placing something else in God's place. It is anything that falls short of His glory and perfection. Sin is disobedience.

H. Wayne House

Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine, Zondervan, 1992, p. 90.

We never see sin aright until we see it as against God… All sin is against God in this sense: that it is His law that is broken, His authority that is despised, His government that is set at naught… Pharaoh and Balaam, Saul and Judas each said, “I have sinned against heaven and before thee”; and David said, “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.”

W.S. Plumer

Quoted by Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, Sovereign Grace Book Club, 1958, p. 449.

We need to call sin what the Bible calls it and not soften it with modern expressions borrowed from our culture.

Jerry Bridges

A sin is any act, word, or thought that breaks a command or instruction from God. Our sin may affect those around us or may be directed at someone in particular, but we need to see that all sin is primarily against God.

Karl Graustein

Excerpted from: Growing Up Christian, P&R, 2005, p. 181. Used by Permission.

A sin…consists in doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God

J.C. Ryle

Holiness.

Sin is essentially a departure from God.

Martin Luther

All sin results from failure to act in faith.

John MacArthur

Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 359.

Sin is a transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4) and defiles His image in man, staining his soul with Satan’s image (John 6:70; 8:44). Sin is hostility and rebellion against God (Lev. 26:27; 1 Tim. 1:9). It is ingratitude toward God (Josh. 2:10-12), is incurable by man himself (Jer. 13:23), affects all men (Rom. 3:23), and affects the total man (Jer. 19:9), body, mind, and spirit. It brings men under the dominion of Satan and the wrath of God (Eph. 2:2-3), and it is so persistent in the heart of man that even the regenerate person needs to continually fight against it (Rom. 7:19). It subjects man to trouble (Job 5:7), emptiness (Rom. 8:20), lack of peace (Isa. 57:21), and to eternal hell if he does not repent (2 Thess. 1:9).

John MacArthur

Sin is the rejection of God’s authority. Sin is based on a denial of God’s goodness and truth. Sin involves idolatry.

Richard D. Phillips and Sharon L. Phillips

Holding Hands and Holding Hearts, P&R, 2006, p. 39. Used by Permission.

Sin is a deliberate treason against the majesty of God, an assault upon His crown, an insult offered to His throne.

C.H. Spurgeon

A Jealous God, Sermon 502, March 29, 1863.

Most sins are ungodly exaggerations of things that are good.

Edward T. Welch

When People are Big and God is Small, P&R Publishing, 1997, p. 101.