Before the Bible uses the word “sin,” it vividly shows us its natural history (Genesis 3:1-13). It does not bring first the theory and then the practice, but vice versa, it first brings the practice and then derives from it the fundamentals. Sin entered this world through the tantalizing question, “Should God have said?” (Genesis 3:1). Sin is an action that is contrary to God’s will. Excellent mirrors for recognizing one’s sinfulness are the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). If someone lives without the Word of God, he does not know His will and therefore automatically and permanently lives in sin. The word sin (Hebrew chattath), which appears for the first time in the Bible in Genesis 4:7, means to miss the mark, and the Greek word “hamartia” can be translated in the same way. Other meanings of the word sin are to become, to twist (Hebrew awon ), malice, wickedness (Hebrew raa ), violence (Hebrew chamas ), evil disposition (Hebrew räscha ). The mere lack of righteousness is sin: “Woe to him who builds his house in unrighteousness” (Jeremiah 22:13). In the New Testament the corresponding definition of sin is: “But whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). Hermann Bezzel qualified as sin the reduction of man to himself. In John 16:9, Jesus identifies the general sin of people with their lack of relationship with him: “who do not believe in me.” Sin is the great disturbance in the relationship between God and man. Anyone who does not experience course correction through repentance and forgiveness (1 John 1:9) experiences the consequence of falling short of the goal as an immutable law: “The wages of sin is (eternal) death” (Romans 6:23). Many people put health at the top of the list, but do not pay attention to the worst disease: sin, the disease that leads to death.
