There are three passages of Scripture that categorically assert the nature of sin:
Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4).
Sin is unrighteousness (1 John 5:17).
Sin is anything not of faith (Rom. 14:23).
Sin is the negative of law, of righteousness, and of faith. Scripture defines
sin, in the first instance, by what it is not. God alone is positive; evil is
only able to deny, refuse, obstruct, disobey. It is darkness and death, the
negatives of light and life.
There is a further negative in Romans 3:23, where sin is defined as 'coming
short' of the glory of God. 'Coming short' is the essential meaning of the most
important word translated 'sin' in the Scriptures, viz., chata.
'Seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss' (chata -- sin) (Judg. 20:16).
Hamartano, the New Testament equivalent, is derived
(according to Cremer) from two words meaning 'failure to attain or to arrive'.
This tragic failure, this missing of the mark by man, has entailed all the terrible
aftermath of guilt and shame. The failure that marks initial sin is soon followed
by deadly ignorance and alienation from the life of God (Eph. 4:18); life and
its activities become purposeless toil; vanity, iniquity, deformity, deceit,
ruin and death make up the tale. These words are not strung together at random
or for effect; they are but a summary of the words used in Scripture to describe
sin, and the interested reader will find a fuller examination in The Berean
Expositor Vol. 16, pp. 183-191.
So far as man is concerned, sin is universal.
'There is none righteous, no, not one ... all the world ... guilty before God ... all have sinned' (Rom. 3:10,19,23)
Scripture declares that sin is of the Devil, who 'sinneth from the beginning',
and that sin is abhorrent to the holiness of God.
Should the reader have come into contact with a course of teaching that seeks
to include sin as a part of the 'all things' that are 'of God', he is earnestly
recommended to read the booklet, 'Sin and its relation to God' -- same author
and publisher.
What are the wages of sin? 'The wages of sin is death' (Rom. 6:23). When the
Old Testament writers speak of the wages of sin, they speak of destruction,
of perishing, of being cut off, of being consumed. 'Hell' in the Old Testament
is the translation of sheol, meaning the grave. This can be seen by referring
to the following passages; Genesis 37:35; 42:38; 44:29 and 31; Job 14:10-13;
17:13,16 (pit); Psalm 6:5; 30:3; 49:12-15. The New Testament speaks of death,
destruction, perishing, punishment and torment. Where it speaks of hell, the
original is either hades (the New Testament equivalent of sheol) or gehenna.
It has been taught that the words used by the Saviour 'their worm' and 'the
fire' (Mark 9:44,46,48) -- must imply conscious suffering. Seeing that He quoted
from Isaiah 66:24, we are confident that no such implication was intended.
Throughout the whole of Paul's recorded ministry, hell is mentioned once, and
we must remember that he declared that he was 'pure from the blood of all men'.
His one reference is in 1 Corinthians 15:55: 'O grave (margin, hell), where
is thy victory?'
The references to the gehenna of fire are restricted to the scriptures that
deal with Israel and the kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount, which contains the
first reference to gehenna, uses it of Christians, which hardly fits the orthodox
teaching concerning 'Hell'. The only passage that contains the words 'everlasting
punishment' is Matthew 25, where the judgment of the nations in connection with
their treatment of the Lord's brethren is in view. Some enter the kingdom; some
are cast into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. Anyone
who preaches eternal life on the terms set out in Matthew 25 can consistently
use the warning of everlasting punishment as the alternative. But where the
preacher announces that 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son', the alternatives must be 'perishing' or 'everlasting life' (John 3:16).
If he preaches, with Paul, salvation by grace, and declares that 'the gift of
God is eternal life', then he must follow Paul in the omission of all reference
to Hell, and plainly say, 'The wages of sin is death' (Rom. 6:23).
References to torment are as follows:
Matthew 18:34 Used of one that had been pardoned.
Revelation 9:5 Lasting five months.
Revelation 11:10 Inflicted by the two witnesses.
Revelation 14:9-11 Endured by the worshippers of the beast.
Revelation 18:7,10,15 Used of Babylon, which at the end 'shall be found no more at all'.
Revelation 20:10 Used of the Devil, the False Prophet, and the Beast.
The poverty of orthodox teaching is shown by these references. If torment is
preached to-day, what violence must be done to the contexts of these passages.
The final word concerning the lake of fire in Scripture is that it is 'the second
death'.
Further and fuller exposition of this and allied subjects, such as the soul
and the word 'eternal', together with a concordance of the word translated 'Hell'
(Old Testament and New Testament) will be found in the pamphlet, 'Hell, or Pure
from the blood of all men' -- same author and publisher.