Q: What is sin?
A: Sin is rejecting or ignoring God in the world he created, rebelling against him by living without reference to him, not being or doing what he requires in his law – resulting in our death and the disintegration of all creation.
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
1 John 3:4
The word Gospel simply means Good News – but in order for the news to be truly good, we must first understand the bad news that precedes it. The bad news is simple, in principle: we were created for a purpose, but we failed at that purpose. We have rejected or ignored our Maker, rebelled against him by living without reference to him, we have not done or been what he made us to do or be. Paul says it succinctly in Romans 3:23 when he says: “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
This announcement is offensive to the modern ear. It tells us that there is something wrong with us. We are surrounded with other messaging. We are told that there is, in fact, nothing wrong with us - we are beautiful, we are enough, we can be whoever we want to be - and if we aren’t happy with how we are, we can do whatever we need to change it. We are said to be autonomous, fully self-governing, fully self-determined.
And yet, that is the crux of sin – to not properly acknowledge our position in this world as creature, to not properly give reference to our Creator. We are not self-made, we never have been. We have been gifted with this life, gifted with every breath. It is not our life to own, for I have done nothing to earn it or merit it. Sin is a mere punching at the wind, kicking and screaming that we are not our own maker, that we are not truly autonomous.
R C Sproul said (in his book The Holiness of God) that sin is ‘cosmic treason’, a ‘futile attempt to dethrone God in his sovereign authority’. And that is truly what our punching at the wind is – a futile attempt to overthrow God’s position of authority over us. For he is not flummoxed by our sins, his plans are not thwarted by our rebellion. Peter teaches us this in his prayer in Acts 4:27-28:
[27]for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, [28]to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
In his sovereign outworking of salvation, God knew the sins of man and he used even the worst of all sins - the murder of the one sinless man - to overthrow sin and death. And yet, in his infinite grace, he has made a way for us to know him, despite our sinfulness. He has forged a path through sin and death for us, on our behalf. The bad news behind us, the good news before us. That is the gospel.