The Definition of Sin (And How to Overcome It)

"Whosoever commits sin also transgresses the law of God:

for sin is the transgression of the law of God."  1 John 3:4

What is sin?
TRANSGRESSION

What is being transgressed?
GOD'S LAW

What is God's law?
GOD'S WILL.

So sin is ultimately when we don't respect boundaries.

We supremely dishonor the  boundaries of the Creator.

We dishonor the boundaries of His creatures.

 

Think of the first two  of the 10 Commandments, God's law, God's will for us:



1.  I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.  You shall have no other gods before me. 

The boundary:  God's Unique Identity.

2.  You shall not make graven images to worship them.

The boundary:  God's Unique Qualities

 

When God created the heavens and the earth, He distinguished, categorized, named, and separated some creations from other creations. 

• Light from darkness.  Day from night.
• The waters above (clouds) from the waters below (seas)
• The land, called earth, separated from waters, called seas.
• The greater light to govern the day (the sun) from the lesser lights governing the night (moon and stars)

To disregard God's supreme distinction is sin.

To disregard the distinctions in creation is sin.

We overcome sin by changing our minds, and thus our actions:  Repenting.

We stop thinking and acting like we are our own Creator and all creatures are subject to us, and we start thinking and acting according to the truth, since "we exchanged the truth for the lie and worshipped the creature instead of the Creator," according to scripture.

How do you feel when your unique feelings and perspectives are disregarded, treated as though insignificant, as though your unique existence makes no difference?  Remember how you and I have lived most of our lives treating God like exactly like this. 

Remember of how we've resisted the boundaries of our own identity.  We don't set limits, nor so we respect the limits of others.  We hate limits.  We want to be what we are not and do what we can not!  We want someone else's wife or boyfriend.  We want someone else's life or job.  We want to look like our favorite celebrity instead looking the way God made us to look.  We want any and everything except the life God gave us, or to be the person he made us to be.

But if we begin right now to accept what we are NOT, and what we ARE, by realizing who God is, and who God is not, we will overcome the essence of our sin in every situation: 

Boundary transgressions.

Choose to accept the boundaries of God in your life.
Say,

"God, you alone are God.  I am what you made me, nothing more or less.  I accept that everyone is yours, not mine, to be what you made them to be.  From now on, I will not cross the line of who you are, or who they are.  Nor will I allow anyone to overstep their boundaries with me."

• To overstep boundaries is the essence of sin.
• To over come sin, respect the Creator's boundaries supremely, and each of His creature's boundaries impartially.

(Image from phoenixajournal.wordpress.com)