The Bib­li­cal me­a­ning of the word sin seems to have be­co­me obs­cu­re to an un­for­tu­na­te­ly lar­ge amount of pe­op­le. Spe­a­king about sin may even be avoi­ded in spi­ri­tu­al con­ver­sa­ti­on. Of­ten it feels ea­sier to speak on­ly of God’s grace, love and ac­cep­tan­ce, be­cau­se this type of speech do­esn’t usu­al­ly of­fend any­o­ne.

But sin is one of the ba­sic con­cepts of the Chris­ti­an faith. If we un­ders­tand the me­a­ning of that con­cept, we can see the gre­at­ness of God’s grace and for­gi­ve­ness. If a per­son does not feel sin­ful, he can not long for the for­gi­ve­ness of sins pre­pa­red by Je­sus. Then he is left as a slave to sin.

Not one per­son can live such that they would not sin in thoughts, words or deeds. Ac­cor­ding to Apost­le Paul: “All have tur­ned away, they have to­get­her be­co­me worth­less; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:12).

God cre­a­tes the lon­ging for eter­nal life in a per­son’s he­art and gi­ves him the gift of faith. Still each per­son is cor­rup­ted with ori­gi­nal sin be­cau­se of fal­ling in­to sin. Sin al­wa­ys inf­lu­en­ces our thoughts and deeds.

Ac­cor­ding to the Bib­le, the re­ward of sin is de­ath (Rom. 6:23). Through faith and Je­sus’ me­rit, a per­son can still re­cei­ve as a gift all their sins for­gi­ven and eter­nal life. Star­ting from their child­hood, each per­son needs the care ac­cor­ding to God’s word to be pro­tec­ted as a be­lie­ver.

God’s law in­di­ca­tes to the one who has fal­len in­to un­be­lief that they have not been ab­le to ful­fil God’s will. He has sin­ned and needs the for­gi­ve­ness of sins. Be­lie­ving the proc­la­ma­ti­on of ab­so­lu­ti­on from God’s king­dom frees a per­son from the po­wer of un­be­lief and de­ath and trans­fers them to be­co­ming a li­ving mem­ber in God’s king­dom.

The re­for­mer Mar­tin Lut­her de­picts in the Lar­ge Ca­tec­hism how God’s king­dom is like a mot­her which gi­ves birth through God’s word to each Chris­ti­an and car­ries him. A be­lie­ver needs the care of the gos­pel in God’s king­dom. A per­son who be­lie­ves from the he­art is sa­ved and is a par­ta­ker of eter­nal life al­re­a­dy here on earth (John 6:47).

Text: Pek­ka Ait­ta­kum­pu

Sour­ce: Päi­vä­mies 6/2016

Trans­la­ti­on: A.H.

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä nu­me­ros­sa 15.11.2017