The one and only Sin

So often people talk as if there are so many different sins.  Yet the list of sins differs by the person and denomination.  The problem with making a list of sins is that nobody really seems to agree on what sin is.  Do all the Old Testament laws found throughout Exodus and Deuteronomy count still today?  Should woman wear jeans or would that constitute dressing like a man which in Deuteronomy law was forbidden.  (Deuteronomy22:5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this. NIV)  Maybe we are wrong for wearing blended fabrics, which seems to be forbidden (Deuteronomy 22:11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. NIV)

The title to my post states that there is only one sin.  Yet, how can that be?  There are so many laws and rules in the Bible.  That may be true.  Yet I hold to the position that sin is not defined by the rules, but by the disobedience to the rule maker.  Thus there is no sin apart from disobeying God.  The reason this is important to realize is because the rules that God sets for one person (or group of people) may not apply to everyone.  There are a couple of instances that I can think of in the Bible where this comes up.  The first is in Deuteronomy 11, right before Moses gives a set of laws to Israel before they take the land that God promised their ancestors.
"¹Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, always.
 ²And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm" KJV
In this scripture Moses is pointing out that there are special rules for a group of people, and not meant for the children.  The next point is brought up in the new testament.  Jesus drank wine (does not matter in this illustration if it is alcohol or not, and thus, is not up for debate here) this is brought up in Luke 11:19( "The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber [a person who drinks a great deal of wine-Collins English Dictionary, Unabridged], a friend of publicans and sinners." KJV).  Yet we also read in Luke that John the Baptist was to not drink wine (Luke 1: 15
 "For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." KJV).
We know that Jesus didn't sin, yet he drank wine.  On the other hand there were specific instructions that John not drink wine.  So does the Bible contradict itself? No.  So the only other deduction is that God has a set of rules for each person (or sometimes a person group as seen in the Deuteronomy text).


Even the first sin in recorded history, was not about eating an apple.  It was about disobeying God.  God told Adam and Eve not to eat from a certain tree and they did.  Thus it was a sin.  No one has ever deduced from this that we are not suppose to eat from a fruit tree, but what we have deduced is that we are not to disobey God.  Yet so many times we try and use rules set for others and their failure and subsequent punishment proof that we are suppose to follow that same rule, yet we disregard the other rules that God has set for us.  How often do we get mad that someone is "sinning" yet we fail to follow a posted speed limit sign. (Yes following the laws of a nation are the same as following the laws of God. If you don't believe me read Romans 13:1-2.

Romans 13:1-2" ¹ Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ² Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. )


The law and rules that we are given by God are set so that each person be accountable to God, not to man. So many times people ask me what I think about certain things.  I am honored that people care where my opinion lies on whether I think something is wrong or not, but that isn't up to me.  I can tell you why I may be convicted one way or the other about it, but that is it.  Paul preaches this same idea to the Romans in what has now become one of my favorite Bible passages (though my favorite verse is still from James), Romans 14.
"Romans 14:¹ Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ²One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand...
¹⁴ I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean." KJV


The next question then is "how do I know what is disobedient to the Lord?"  This is answered with two other questions.  The first would be; do you feel convicted about it?  When, as Christians, we accept Jesus Christ as God we are given the Holy Spirit.  This Spirit is the one whom convicts us so that we may know what laws God has set forth.  If you still aren't sure if you are being convicted by the Holy Spirit or by the laws of man, the next question would be; will this honor God?  To find that answer you can look to the Bible, but also if your conviction does come from the religious laws of man, it may be safe to remember what Paul said in Romans 14: 20-21 "Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹ It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall."  So if you are not sure if drinking alcohol is a direct disobedience to God, yet to someone else in your life it may be best to abstain from it so that you do not tempt them into it.  This is out of love for you neighbor.

"...the seed of the church"

Tonight I started reading A Concise History of Christian Thought. Though I am still in the first 500 years of Christian history there seems to be a theme. That theme is martyrs. I knew that martyrs were a part of Christian history, but I never realized the role they played in spreading the word of Christianity.

In a message to the pagans of his time who were killing Christians, Tertullian wrote this:

Your Cruelty [against us] does not profit you, however exquisite. Instead, it tempts people to our sect. As often as you mow us down, the more we grow in number. The blood of the Christians is the seed [of the church]... The very obstinacy you criticize teaches for us. For who on seeing it is not excited to enquire what lies behind it? Who, having enquired, does not embrace our faith?"

This quote stands to show that Tertullian was witnessing a growth in the church that was caused by the sacrifice that people were being forced to make in the name of Christ. This was an idea that had been witnessed a generation prior to Tetullian by Justin Martyr.

Justin Martyr in late part of the 100s (approx 160s around the time of his arrest) said, when explaining why Christ was superior to Socrates, "For no one trusted in Socrates, so as to die for this doctrine. But in Christ... not only have philosophers and scholars believed, but also artisans and entirely uneducated people have despised glory, fear and death."

The idea that people were willing to die for their beliefs, not just to be persecuted while living out their beliefs, is an amazing thought. When a group of people can believe so earnestly in a common idea that they would die for it, there must be something to it. This is something that seekers were seeing in the martyrs of the early church.

I now hear so often high officials within our churches saying they need to grow the church. I feel if we want to grow the church then the Christians that fill the church need to be willing to shed their own blood. As Christians we hide from any type of persecution. We live church lives at church and that's it. If we stopped worrying about growing the church as a business and instead lived as the first Christians of the church we would be growing naturally.

I am not talking about suicide by faith. If you are willing to die for your faith, then that means you won't fear living for it either. These days in our blessed country we may not find our lives in mortal danger for living for God. We do, however, find our pride to be at stake and for some that seems to be harder to give up. I believe that history (and even the Bible) shows there are three types of people. Christians is one group and the other two are defined by the way they react to Christians. The first of other two are the ones that when encountering a Christian, disrespects and is in conflict with them. The other is the one that sees a Christian, and wants to know more about what Christians believe and are seeking. Those latter two though are only going to surface when they see how far Christians are willing to go for their faith. For who would die for their faith if they weren't fully convinced of its resurrecting power?