May 12, 2015 – “S” is for Sin

“And Jesus to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more.” John 8:11
“Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” 1 John 3:4ff

The Greek word for sin is “Hamartia”. It literally means “to miss the mark” – like an archer missing the target.

The Catholic church has divided sins into two “types” — Mortal sin and Venial sin.
The Mortal Sin is a sin that removes the baptized person out of G*d’s State of Grace and therefore denies them the reward of heaven.
The Venial Sin does not bring eternal punishment but requires some “satisfaction” for the sin.
For a sin to be Mortal, it must meet three requirements:
1. it must be a “grave” matter
2. the sin must be committed with full knowledge
3. the sin must be committed deliberately
The Mortal Sin is a serious sin. Examples of Mortal sins would include murder, sexual sin, theft, bearing false witness, and the like.

Venial sins come to us for the reason that, at humans, we have “Concupiscence” – or a tendency to sin.

What do Lutherans think of sin? Lutherans believe that all people are sinners, and while capable of doing works that are “outwardly good” are not capable of doing works that satisfy G*d’s justice, mercy and grace. Every human thought and deed is infected with sin and sinful motives – we are by nature sinful and unclean. But I do not believe that Lutheran’s believe that we can ever be out of G*d’s grace. From our state of Grace we try to live in the manner that G*d wants us to live – fully knowing that this struggle is not winnable without the help of Jesus. If the thief on the cross can turn to Jesus for forgiveness, and receive it, we should live knowing that nothing can remove us from the state of Grace, but we need to constantly be seeking forgiveness and living Grace-filled lives by loving G*d and neighbor as fully as we can. We are justified by grace, which comes to us through faith, and therefore our good works should flow from us, including our need for repentance and forgiveness.

Pastor Dave