Estimated Read Time: 11 min

Supporting Text: Genesis 3, Numbers 21:9, Job 1–2, Psalm 51:5, Proverbs 6:16–19, Isaiah 6:2, Isaiah 14:12–14, Ezekiel 28:12–15, Mark 7:21–23, John 8:34, Romans 3:23, Romans 5:8, Romans 5:12–21, Romans 6:23, Romans 7:14–25, Romans 8:19–23, 1 Corinthians 15:21–22, 2 Corinthians 4:4, 2 Corinthians 11:14, Ephesians 2:1–5, 1 Timothy 2:14, 2 Timothy 2:26, 1 John 5:19, Revelation 12:9

If I were to ask you to define sin, what would you say? Would you simply define sin as evil according to Christianity? Or would you give it a broader definition? Perhaps as an act of evil within a religious context, a social injustice, or even harm committed against the planet?

Certainly, all sin is evil, but it goes much deeper than that. To establish a clear definition of sin, let’s begin by examining the Hebrew and Greek words translated into English as ‘sin.’

Hebrew

• Chattath encompasses offense and habitual sinfulness but fundamentally means “to miss” or “to forfeit”—a deviation from a standard.
• Pesha (also rendered pehshah) conveys “breaking away from just authority” and carries connotations of rebellion and revolt—defiance.
• Avon (iniquity) denotes “perversity” and “evil,” suggesting moral crookedness.
• Asham (trespass) means “to be guilty” and often appears in cultic contexts as a sin offering.

Greek

• Hamartia, the predominant New Testament term, is used 174 times. It literally means “to miss the mark” and became the general word for sin, encompassing both the inner principle of sin and its outward manifestation.
• Hamartema appears only four times and differs by limiting its meaning to the outward expression of sin—an actual act of disobedience against divine law.

Ultimately, sin misses the moral standard established by God. It also includes the rebellion and defiance involved when people sin against Him.

That is a definition of sin, but the issue goes much deeper. Humanity does not merely commit individual sins; we also possess a sinful nature. To understand how we came into this condition, we must begin with the origin of sin itself.

We could begin with humanity’s first sin in the garden, but the biblical story of sin begins earlier, with Satan’s rebellion.

Scripture gives us a considerable amount of information about the evil one. Two primary passages, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, provide much of his backstory. For a more detailed treatment, you can refer to the Living Logos episode Satan and Cherubim. You may be surprised to discover that the cultural portrayal of Satan as a figure with horns, a tail, and a pitchfork is far removed from the biblical description.

Scripture tells us that before Satan fell, he had been both in Eden, the garden of God on earth, and on the holy mountain where the throne of God is in heaven, a place he continues to visit in the accounts of Job 1–2 and Revelation 12:9. Ezekiel tells us that Satan was originally created as a sinless cherub who would have been around the throne of God, until unrighteousness (sin) was found in him. (Ezek. 28:15)

Instead of giving praise to God, Satan desired that praise for himself and he made several claims (I will statements) which are captured in Isaiah 14 which he quite possibly made from the garden of Eden, based upon the language he used:

1. “I will ascend into heaven” (Isa. 14:13).
2. “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God” (Isa. 14:13).
3. “I will sit upon the mount of the congregation” (Isa. 14:13).
4. “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds” (Isa. 14:14).
5. “I will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14).

In that final statement, Satan claims that he will be like the Most High. This is the same lie with which he not only deceived himself but also tempted Eve (Gen. 3:5). That takes us to original sin in the garden.

Genesis 3 gives us the account of humanity’s fall. There we encounter a tree, a woman (Eve) and a serpent (Satan).

There is much about this exchange that we can know. Scripture tells us that Eve was deceived, but Adam was not (1 Tim. 2:14). Like Satan, Adam sinned willfully. Therefore, it is through Adam that sin entered humanity.

There are also details about this exchange that remain uncertain. Was this an ordinary serpent speaking, or was this Satan himself? Perhaps it was Satan that appeared directly and Eve did not yet know that he had fallen, or perhaps animals were able to speak before the fall. Whichever is true, Eve does not appear to have been startled by a talking serpent. Then again, Balaam did not appear particularly startled when his donkey spoke to him.

Allow me to take a brief detour, because there is evidence that this could have been Satan appearing directly rather than just using the serpent as a proxy. The Hebrew word translated “serpent” is nachash. This word can be connected to the word translated “bronze” in the account of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21:9. There, the term for the Brazen Serpent is nachash nechosheth, suggesting that the serpent may have appeared shiny or luminous. The root consonants also form words referring to shining metals used elsewhere in connection with divine beings such as with (Isaiah 6:2).

Note: There is a connection between nachash and saraph (burning one). This connection emerges from their shared symbolic function rather than etymological derivation. When God sent burning serpents (nechashim seraphim) to punish the Israelites, He later instructed Moses to create a saraph (“burning one”) on a standard for healing.

Potentially, then, a shining serpent, an emblem of sin, appeared to Eve. We can further understand this from Paul when he tells us that Satan can appear as an angel of light – a Shining One (2 Cor. 11:14). Additionally, we also know that “serpent” and “dragon” are names applied to the evil one (Rev. 12:9). Therefore, this may have been Satan himself tempting Eve rather than Satan using a serpent as his proxy. Regardless of whether Satan appeared directly or worked through the serpent, Scripture identifies the Devil as the power behind the temptation.

When Genesis 3 takes place, Eve and the serpent are at the tree. The serpent begins sowing doubt concerning the Word of God, something he continues to do today. The deception he uses is the same deception that he had embraced himself. Genesis 3:5 tells us that he assured Eve that she would not die and suggested that God did not want her to eat the fruit because doing so would make her like God, like the Most High.

As already mentioned, Paul makes it explicitly clear that Eve was deceived, while Adam sinned willingly. Perhaps Adam watched and heard the lie. In that moment, he removed his faith from God, his Creator, and placed it in the words of Satan, the original sinner. When that happened, sin entered humanity. Humanity died instantly by becoming separated from the eternal, life-giving God.

Picture a beautiful flower cut from its stem. It may remain beautiful for a time, but it is no longer connected to its source of life. It is dead despite its lingering beauty, and time will soon reveal the evidence of its death. It was the same with Adam, and it is the same with us. Separation from God is the biblical definition of death.

From that point forward, Adam, now cut off from God, could produce only offspring in his own image. That image still resembles the image of God originally given by the Creator, but it is cut off from God because of the sin Adam passed to us all.

Because of that event, the whole creation groans and travails (Romans 8:19-23). Humanity was brought under the curse of sin, along with everything placed under human dominion. That dominion was transferred to Satan, who became the god of this world (Eph. 2:1–5; 2 Cor. 4:4).

This is why God’s originally perfect creation is no longer perfect. It is why evil, death, disease, corruption, and everything else we recognize as wrong exist within the world. Adam rejected God, accepted Satan’s word, and brought sin into the world and into humanity. That is why we cannot meet God’s moral standard and why humanity is ultimately rebellious and defiant toward God Himself.

It is because of this event that every single human that has come from Adam now possesses a Sin Nature. Several passages connect Adam’s transgression, humanity’s sinful condition, and the reign of death:

Romans 3:23 — “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Romans 6:23 — “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Psalm 51:5 — “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

Romans 5:12 — “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

1 Corinthians 15:21–22 — “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

It was through Adam’s act that sin entered the world. It is through Adam that everyone is now born with a sin nature. This remains true even for Christians: all humanity possesses a sin nature.

The sinful nature is an inherent part of our being, something with which we are born alongside our human nature. It explains our general propensity, or tendency, toward sin. It is also part of the reason each one of us possesses particular inclinations toward specific sins.

Our sinful nature affects every part of our lives. Sin is internal to our nature (Mark 7:21–23; Prov. 6:16–19) and influences us more deeply than we probably realize. This corruption reaches so deeply that even the good we attempt still falls short of true goodness and remains mixed with sinful motives and behaviors. It is because of this sin nature that we also become slaves to sin and Satan, and is the reason why ultimately, we die.

Because all of us are born with a sin nature, all of us eventually become practitioners of sin (Rom. 3:23). Jesus explains the result plainly: “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Sin is therefore not merely an occasional action. It becomes a master that holds the sinner in bondage.

Paul describes this bondage from the inside. He speaks of being sold under sin and of sin dwelling within him. Although he desires to do what is right, he finds himself unable to carry it out without also confronting the sin at work within him (Rom. 7:14–25). He describes the law of sin as warring against the law of his mind and taking him captive (Rom. 7:23). Our will recognizes what is right, but willpower alone cannot overcome the
sinful nature that holds us captive.

This slavery does not exist in a spiritual vacuum. Sin also places humanity under the influence and power of the evil one. Ephesians 2:1–5 describes those who are dead in sin as following the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air. 2 Timothy 2:26 speaks of people being caught in the Devil’s snare to do his will, while 1 John 5:19 declares that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.

Sin therefore gives Satan authority over us and enables him to keep us in bondage. Our sinful nature bends us toward rebellion, our sinful actions enslave us, and Satan works through that bondage to draw us still further from God.

This bondage has an inevitable end. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Sin may promise freedom, pleasure, or fulfillment, but its final payment is always death. Paul explains that death entered through Adam’s sin and has reigned from Adam onward (Rom. 5:12–21).

Death is therefore not an unrelated tragedy added to the human experience. It is the final consequence of the corruption and bondage that began with sin.

When discussing sin, many of us concentrate on particular sins: sexual immorality, greed, pride, and others. But these individual sins are symptoms of the underlying disease. The deeper problem is the sinful nature from which those actions grow.

Once we understand this, we realize that humanity’s problem is much worse and deeper than we may have imagined. By our very nature, we are incapable of meeting God’s moral standard and are, in fact, directly opposed to Him.

That is another reason Romans 5:8 is so remarkable:

Romans 5:8 — “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

In the next article, we will examine more specifically what is and is not a sinful act, including sin in the lives of Christians.