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can be found in classical Greek writers where the word means "to miss", as in shooting
(Il. 23: 857), or "to miss the way" (Thucyd. 3: 98, 2). As a rule the LXX renders chata
by hamartanein; other renderings are rare.
The apostle Paul gives expression to the radical idea of sin in Rom. 3: 23 when he
says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God".
Sin is essentially negative.
At first sight it may appear that these two words chosen by God to express generic sin
are not strong enough, that we look in vain for the guilt, the transgression, the positive
wickedness of sin. Upon closer acquaintance with the subject we learn that wickedness
and rebellion with all their concomitants spring from that initial failure on the part of
man. Man was made in the image of God, and placed on the earth to have dominion. By
the deception of Eve Satan caused Adam to miss the mark, to come short of the glory of
God expressed in the "image", and he who had been given dominion himself came under
the twofold dominion of sin and death. One has only to read II Cor. 4: 4, "the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God", to see the complete reversal
of this failure on the part of Adam brought about by the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. There are one or two passages in the N.T. which taken together present an
inspired and authoritative definition of sin.
Sin defined.
"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of
the law" (I John 3: 4).
A literal translation of this verse reads:--
"Every one who is doing the sin is doing the lawlessness also, and the sin is the
lawlessness."
"The sin is the lawlessness." The definition is negative. In I John 5: 17 we read,
"All unrighteousness is sin". Again unrighteousness is negative. In Rom. 14: 23 we
read, "Everything which is not out of faith is sin". Not out of faith is once more a
negative. Here we have the three occasions where Scripture uses the expression "sin is",
and in each case it has to be defined by a negative. Sin is the negation of law, of right, of
faith.
Anomia and anomos do not in their primary sense mean transgression, but rather that
state denominated "not under law" with its resulting condition "lawless". For
example, I Cor. 9: 20 and 21 places the Jew who was "under the law" in contrast with
the Gentile who was anomos, "without law", in this instance limiting nomos to the law as
revealed in the O.T. The same may be said of Rom. 2: 12, "Those who sinned without
law"; for in the fuller sense sin cannot be imputed where there is no law at all (Rom. 5:
13). Sin is that state and resulting condition that places the sinner outside the pale of