TEN WONDERS
OF THE WORD
WONDER 3: HOLINESS
A HOLY GOD
God’s attribute of holiness means that He is set apart from creation. He is unique and His absolute
perfection is sacred. This attribute of purity is what sets God apart from all creation. Leviticus
11:44-45:
For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and
you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any
creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the LORD who brings you
up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I
am holy.
SINFUL MAN
If holiness means purity, then sin is man’s opposition to God’s holiness. Sin is evil and impure. It is
an act of independence and mutiny against God described in 2 Timothy 3:2-5:
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,
unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such
people, turn away!
THE NATURE OF SIN
Sin is an ugly reality and in the famous Romans 3 passage which is based on Psalm 14, the Apostle
Paul describes man’s depravity. “There is no-one righteous, no-one seeks God, all have turned their
own way, they are worthless, there is no-one that does good, they practice deceit with their tongues
and their lips are like the poison of a snake. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness, their feet
are swift to shed innocent blood, ruin and misery mark their ways and the way of peace they do not
know. There is no fear or respect for God before their eyes.” This is the horrible depraved image of
humanity.
TWO BASIC TYPES OF SIN
Some sins are doing what we should not do and other sins are not doing what we should do.
A. Sins of commission
Sins of commission means that we do what we should not do as described in 1 John 3:4
“Everyone who sins breaks the law, sin is lawlessness.”
B. Sins of omission
Sins of omission are not doing what we should do. James 4:17 says “Anyone who knows the
good he ought to do and does not do it - sins.”
SEVEN DIABOLICAL SINS
Proverbs 6:16-19 gives us a dim and dark version of these seven diabolical sins.
These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a
proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that
devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness
who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.
In simple words these sins are pride, deceit, murder, plotting evil, quick to do that which is wrong,
false witness and a trouble maker.
NUMEROUS NAMES FOR SIN
Sin
The Hebrew word often translated “sin” is chata, it means to miss or to forfeit or to lose something.
The basic Greek word for sin is hamartia which means “to miss the mark.” This word hamartia is
used in Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
Trespass
The Hebrew root word for “trespass” is maal which means to cover up or to hide. The Greek word
for trespass is parap toma which means to slip or to fall. Paul the Apostle used the word parap toma
in Galatians 6:1 “Brothers, if somebody is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him
gently but be careful that you are also not placed in a position of temptation.”
Iniquity
The Hebrew word of “iniquity” is avon which means perversity or a fault. In Isaiah 53:11 it says “my
righteousness servant (Christ) will justify many and He will bear their iniquities.” The Greek word for
iniquity is adikia which means unrighteous and immoral. This word is used in James 3:6, “the tongue
is a fire, a world of evil. It corrupts the whole person. It sets the whole course of one’s life on fire. It
is set on fire by hell.”
Evil
A common Hebrew word for “sin” in ra which means bad or harmful. The Greek word for evil is
kakos.
Wickedness
Another Biblical word for “sin” is wickedness. In Hebrew it is translated from the word rasha which
means ungodly. In Psalm 11 it says “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the
wicked.” The Greek equivalent of wickedness is anomia.
OTHER DESIGNATIONS FOR SIN
There are 41 different characterisations of sin found in Romans 1:
Godlessness, wickedness, men who suppress the truth, not glorifying God, futile, foolish, exchanging
the glory of God, sinful desires, hearts of sexual impurity, degrading, lies, serving creation, shameful
lusts, unnatural, lustful, indecent acts, perversion, refusing to retain the knowledge of God,
depraved minds, doing what ought not to be done, various wickedness, greed, depravity, envy,
murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossipers, slanderers, God haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful, evil,
disobedient to parents, senseless, faithless, heartless and ruthless.
WORKS OF THE FLESH
Works of the flesh can be described as acting in your own way or demonstrating a warped or
depraved sense of reasoning and acting. Galatians 5 introduces us to the works of the flesh. There
are several different depictions:
Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage,
selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy and drunkenness.
SIN IN RELATION TO GOD
Put succinctly, sin in relation to God is unbelief in Him, rebellion against Him, transgression against
Him and pride that seeks to exalt itself above Him.
DEGREES OF SIN
A widely held opinion is that sin is mutiny against God and that all sin is an act of disobedience
against God’s will and therefore all sins, as such, are weighted in the same way. This widely held
opinion is in fact not correct. Matthew 23:23 speaks of weightier matters of the law, therefore
referring to some laws as being more important and of a greater degree than others. This implies
that if there are degrees in laws, there must be degrees in consequences. In John 19:11 Jesus said to
Pilate that “the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” Hitler, Idi Amin, Gadhafi
and a host of other atrocious characters in history will suffer to a greater degree in hell than a
person who has lived a good life but who has rejected Christ Jesus as the only way to heaven. The
more severe punishment for some is due to the heaviness of the sins they have committed Revelation 20:12. If one can lie, one can steal. If one can steal, one can kill. Murder is death and
devastates a family. Adultery devastates a family and kills a marriage. In some instances one sin
leaves greater consequences than other sins and in this regard sins have degrees, notwithstanding
the fact that all sin is an act of mutiny against a Holy God.
HAS GOD CREATED ALL THINGS AND IF SO DID HE CREATE SIN?
If God created everything, then that means that God created the devil. And if sin is real then God
must have created it. We cannot deny that God has created everything and that sin is real. To deny
sin as being real is to reduce it to a non-reality or illusion. This conundrum is an argument often
used by the critics of the Bible. However, God indeed did create everything (substance) but sin is not
a thing for substance. Sin is a lack in a good substance. It is a distortion, an aberration of something
pure. Evil is a parasite. It exists only in something good as a corruption of its goodness. Evil is like
the rot to a tree or rust to a car. Both rot and rust corrupt the good substance, but neither rot nor
rust can exist in and of itself.
God created man’s ability to make a choice. The fact that man rebelled in making Godly choices
resulted in sin. So who created sin? God or man? The answer is clear. Sin is a consequence of
disobedience. We know that the devil also sinned when he chose to declare a rebellion against God.
One third of the angels joined him in his mutiny.
THE BATTLE OF THE MIND
In Ephesians 6:10-18 we are reminded of the battle and struggle for the mind of humanity. The
collective mind of mankind is in rebellion against God. We are therefore told that the struggle is
against forces that would want us to corrupt the goodness of God’s will by driving us further and
further away from God. We must put on the whole armour of God.
LABEL EACH SECTION OF THE ARMOUR WHERE YOU SEE AN ARROW AND INCLUDE THE VERSE
THAT SPEAKS OF EACH SECTION (EPHESIANS 6:10-18)
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