The primary definition of
“sin” given in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary seems to have been taken
straight from the Bible, for it says, “Sin:transgression of the law of God.”
In 1 John 3:4 we read, similarly, “Sin is the transgression of the law.”
However, this is an instance where the King James Version provides a poor
translation of the text. Much misunderstanding of the true meaning of sin can
be traced to the mistranslation of this verse.

    To be sure, the
transgression of God’s law is included in the domain of sin. But sin can also
occur in matters concerning which no positive law or commandment of God has
been given. “As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law”
(Rom. 2:12). Also, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had
not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (Rom. 5:14). From the
time Adam was expelled from the garden until the days of Moses, there was no
law given for man to transgress. Yet man’s sinfulness and wickedness were
displayed time and time again during that period, as the Book of Genesis
clearly reveals.

    What then is sin? The
more accurate rendering of 1 John 3:4 is this:“Sin is lawlessness.” In other
words, he who sins is one who behaves as if there is no law—as if God has no
will for him. Thus, sin is the spirit of self-will, the spirit of doing what we
want to do without regard for God’s will for us.

    There is much instruction
in all of this for us today. To consider sin to involve only the breaking of
one of the commandments given in God’s Word tends to have a deadening effect
upon the soul. One tends thus to become self-satisfied in the fact that he is
not breaking any of the commandments of Scripture (or at least not any of the
ones he considers to be important). At the same time he becomes lax about those
details of his life concerning which there is no specific commandment to be
found in Scripture.

    The vital question we
need to keep constantly before us is this:“Am I at this moment doing God’s will,
or am I doing my own will?” It must be one or the other. There is no
middle ground.

    All too often we
substitute for this vital question a somewhat different question. This question
takes various forms:“Is there any intrinsic evil in doing such and such a
thing?” “Is there anything wrong with it?” “Will any harm come from this or
will it hurt anyone?” But these are all such negative questions! Let us turn
these questions around and rephrase them so that they sound more like our
“vital question”:“Is there any good in doing such and such a thing?” “Is there
any possibility that God will be well-pleased with it?” “Will glory come to the
Lord from this?” “Is it God’s will that I should be doing this thing at this
time?”

    In this present age with
its generally low moral condition, it is not difficult to find children of God
who think they are living upright lives, but who are, in reality,
self-willed, “lawless” individuals. This is possible because they are content
to compare their lives with those about them who are morally corrupt.

    How apt we are to be
dragged down to the level of those Christians who walk after the spirit of the
age. Thus, how needful it is to have our eyes fixed on Christ; to have Him
before us as our only Object and the only Standard of our lives. Let us not
forget that “sin is lawlessness” and lawlessness—or self-will—is sin. May it be
the desire of our hearts, moment by moment, to seek His will and not our
own.