Has Satan Perverted The Definition of Sin?

Emphatically, Yes. But read on and you be the judge.

We all know that Satan doesn’t want us to follow God. So it stands to reason, and history proves it, that he has and is doing everything he can to make it extremely difficult and almost impossible to be a good Christian. One of his most successful methods is to pervert our understanding of sin and what it is.

We have all been taught that sin is what we do that God has instructed and even commanded us not to do. Look at the 10 commandments. You shall not… You shall not, Etc. There are other commandments instructing us to do things as well as not to do things. Honor thy father and mother so that it may go well with thee, Etc.

But sin can be simplified even further. Jesus said that if you even think to sin that you are guilty of it.

Matthew 5:28 (NIV)
28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Don’t think that this scripture applies only to adultery. It applies to every temptation of sin. So sin is not an action, rather the action is merely an outward manifestation of the thought of sin, which is the real sin. The action is what reveals the sin in your heart. If you can grasp this, we can go even farther in the true understanding of sin.

God said that Abraham believed God and that his faith was attributed by God as righteousness.

Genesis 15:6 (KJV)
6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Romans 4:3 (KJV)
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

His righteousness was not because he followed Gods laws to the letter. God’s laws had yet to be given to man. Therefore Abraham’s righteousness could not have been due to his following God’s laws just as his sin could not be due to his breaking of God’s laws. So what is his righteousness?

Made even simpler, Abraham believed God. That is, he agreed with God. You can’t believe what anyone says unless you first agree with him or her. So simply put, Abraham’s righteousness is attributed to his agreeing with God. So this one little fact is the absolute definition of righteousness. Therefore, disagreeing with God has to be the definition of sin. Don’t stop here in disbelief because later I will show you exactly how this works.

If you understand this so far, then we can better understand how Satan has perverted the meaning of sin.

Please read my Blog post "So Who Owns What?" before continuing.

Romans 14:11 (KJV)
11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

Philippians 2:10 (KJV)
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So what does it mean to be Lord? From the beginning of time and through the Middle Ages, all the land and everything on the land belonged to the lords of the kingdom; everyone was considered to be the subject of that lord. The lords considered themselves to be the owners of everything including the people on their land. The people were considered as no more than chattel, or possessions to be used in any way the lord desired, even unto death.

But God has given us one thing. That is free will. It is created by God for us. God has always had free will. So in effect, He has given to us a very real part of Himself. But why did God give us free will? God gave us free will so that we can choose to believe Him or disbelieve Him. He has given us that choice. And what does that mean? It means that we have the opportunity to AGREE with God or to DISAGREE with Him.

God has given us His heart in His word. We can read it and get a very real understanding of how God thinks. Therefore, we can get to know Him in very real and close relationship. He has given us His laws in order that we can better understand who and what He is. But there is one thing in the entire universe that God does not own and He wants it to make His creation perfect.

God does not own our agreement. If we give Him our agreement, then He will own absolutely everything in the entire universe and then His creation will be complete. Our agreement with Him can only come from the free will that He has given to us. So if He wants our agreement, then why did He give us free will to choose? If he had not given us free will, then He would already have our agreement.

God could have made us automatons. Then we would not have free will and all would be well. But would it? Since He created everything including us and He created the earth for us to live on, then He alone is worthy and deserving of all praise, glory, and honor, and He has every right to demand it. He simply wants what is His just as we want what is ours. Still, why did He give us free will?

I have an opinion about this. There are some who agree with this and it makes a great deal of sense to me, even though it is not necessarily spelled out in His word, but may be alluded to. This could be a little controversial, but not doctrinally divisive. After all, the only beliefs that should be divisive in my opinion are the doctrinal foundations of our faith. Some of which are; the Lordship of Jesus, that He was born of a virgin, that He died for our sins, and that He resurrected Himself by His own will, etc. Of course there is more to this foundation but that can be found elsewhere. That is not the point of this paper and as a Christian; you should have full knowledge of all this anyway. If you don’t, then you need to learn it. If not, your faith is incomplete. Still the point is, that some things should not be divisive just because we can’t agree on them. Having said that, here we go.

God tells us that a great cloud of witnesses surrounds us.

Hebrews 12:1 (KJV)
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

He does not say who these witnesses are, but some think they are the saints that have gone ahead. But there are more than that. There are all the angels and other created beings in Heaven as well. God has given us a small and possibly incomplete list of all the different types of creatures there, such as cherubim, seraphim, and angels. If there are more types of created beings, then God is not obligated to tell us about them. There may be tens, hundreds, even thousands of different types/species of created beings of which we know nothing. This is all possible, but not so important just now.

Now we know that Satan is the accuser of the saints, as well as the accuser of God Himself. So God may wish to prove Satan wrong even though He doesn’t have to. Why you may say. Because God wants glory, honor, and worship which is His rightful due. What better way to obtain this than to give people free will and than allow them to worship or not worship Him at there own choice? I need to mention here that God gave not only man free will, but all of the angels as well. After all, they had the free will to rebel along with Satan and a third of them did.

Since He gave them free will, then He probably gave all of the other created living beings free will as well. It is a possibility.

Now then, if we give God all honor, glory, and worship, of our own free will, then how much more would that glorify Him than if we were mere automatons worshipping Him with no other choice? As well as this, all of the rest of creation, of which we may have no idea, will see and give Him all of the same. There is nothing as gratifying as people who love you for what you are. This is something we all desire. Since we are created, and God loves the same thing. That is one of the things He desires most from us.

I have another theory that fits in with this. We know that God is going to judge mankind at the end of time. He is going to give some of us a home with Him in Heaven but many, many more are going to be judged as unworthy and be sent to Hell for eternity. Now here is the theory. God in no way is required to justify whatever He does. He is God and as such is already justified in whatever He does. But let us tie this back in to receiving glory from us by our free will.

Since God has those who do judge Him and accuse Him of unrighteousness, then why not prove to the entire universe that these judgments and accusations are all false? By doing this, He would receive more honor, glory, and worship from the remaining creation that does not make its way into Hell. Since all of creation has free will, it would also disprove any and all doubt that God is righteous. All of creation would then know without a shadow of doubt that God is righteous and fair when He dispatches all sin into Hell for eternity, thus bringing even more glory, honor, and worship to Himself for which he is so deserving.

So back to the original question. How do we become righteous with God? We simply agree with Him in all that He has ever said. This means that we agree with all of His statutes, laws, and judgments that are recorded. If we agree with Him, then we will exhibit our agreement by keeping all of His laws and statutes. Jesus said,

John 14:15 (KJV)
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

(A little caution to understanding here. We already know that it is impossible to keep all of Gods laws, which is why we have Jesus and His grace. The law is not so important as is the concept in this discussion.)

So then righteousness is declared to us by our being in agreement with God, just as it was to Abraham. So then sin has to be being in disagreement with God. How do we disagree with God? If we do not keep His statutes and laws, then we have declared them as false and therefore God is judged by us as being wrong as well. We in effect judge His law as unnecessary, which invalidates God Himself as being unnecessary. It is a slap in the very face of God.

How bad is it to disagree with God?

Satan committed the first sin in the Bible. He disagreed with God that God is God and no other can be God. Satan decided he wanted to be god and sit on the throne of the universe. That is how he disagreed with God.

The second sin that we know about is when Satan tempted Eve. Satan asker her if God said you will die on eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She said yes, but Satan countered that she would not die. Here comes the rats nest of problems. Eve agreed with Satan, and now disagreed with God. Satan called God a liar and Eve agreed and so ate the forbidden fruit. If that isn’t bad enough, calling God a liar is tantamount to calling God an underling of Satan. After all, we know that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. Since Satan and Eve declared God a liar, then He would be working under the father of lies.

If that weren’t bad enough, that would put God in line with Satan on the trip to Hell, since hell was prepared for the devil and his angels and liars. It is plain to see just how bad disagreeing with God is. Sin is no longer an act covered by grace. It is the biggest slap in the face to God Himself. It is a direct attack on His character, and that is done right in front of the “cloud of witness’. Hebrews 12:1 (KJV)

1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Ah ha you say. But we have Christ Jesus now. He has been made sin for us. We are no longer under the law, and you would be right in saying this. But I have to ask a few questions. If we are no longer under the law, then that must mean we can murder, lust, covet, dishonor, and do every other thing that makes this worldly life so appealing. If you hold to this belief that we are no longer under the law, then the list of things that would be righteous for us would be limited only by the very imagination of man, along with the help of the devil. Paul said that where sin abounds grace abounds much more. In order for sin to abound there has to be a law, and the law has to be broken. The people he was talking to asked then if they should sin more so that grace may abound even more. Paul quickly exclaimed “Heaven forbid!”

So what law are we no longer under then? It is the law of sacrifices, cleansing, and ceremonies. Jesus has become the FINAL sacrifice and the worship of Him has replaced the laws of ceremonies and His blood has provided all of the cleansing that we need. Therefore, all of the ceremonial laws have become useless, having been replaced by the laws of love in Christ Jesus. Not only that but the laws of the sacrifice could only cover our sins, not cleanse us from them. But the Holy blood of Jesus washes us totally clean of our sins, which is perfect when compared to merely covering them.

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Just as God in the Old Testament gave many commandments as laws, so did Jesus in the new covenant. Being God in the flesh, His commandments are just as much laws as were God’s commandments in the Old Testament. If we were not under any laws, then Jesus could not have said, “Keep my commandments.” And elsewhere in the New Testament, He said “A new commandment I give you.”

Romans 6:16-19 (GNT)
16Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey—either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God. 17But thanks be to God! For though at one time you were slaves to sin, you have obeyed with all your heart the truths found in the teaching you received. 18You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness. 19(I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.

So when you obey the temptations of Satan and enter into a sinful act, you absolutely walk back into the ownership of Satan as a slave unto him. It doesn’t matter whether you did it accidentally or willfully. Jesus said that when you sin you have an advocate with the Father. Jesus did NOT say IF you sin, He said WHEN you sin. He knows that you will sin either accidentally or willingly and when you do, you need to move back into servitude of God. The entire thread through this letter is agreement with God or Satan. It is imperative that you understand that to give in to temptation is coming into agreement with Satan and therefore out of agreement with God. And in so doing, you walk right back into being the slave of sin.

To be in agreement with God is to be in disagreement with Satan. To be in agreement with Satan, is to be in disagreement with God. The two are diametrically opposed. Therefore, if you disagree with God by judging that a commandment is unnecessary, that is breaking it such as fornication, lying, or taking even the smallest thing that does not belong to you such as a pen or pencil, then you are absolutely in agreement with Satan who says that Gods laws are unimportant. Many of you like to commit a little “sin” knowing that you can get forgiveness by Gods great and powerful grace and the Holy Christ Jesus. Just remember. When you give in to even the slightest temptation, you become in agreement with Satan and out of agreement with God. You become the slave to the one you serve. And you slap God in the face and call Him a liar just like Satan.

That doesn’t even consider what this does to the heart of Jesus. I can imagine him sitting back, looking at your sin, and wondering why you reject Him. Why did He go through what He did in order to give you freedom from sin, delivering you from the clutches of Satan, only to have you go back to serving Satan? Jesus said, “Any man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the kingdom of God.” I did not understand this until 25 years later. Jesus was talking about entering into the Kingdom and working for Jesus, and then looking back at his sinful life and thinking about things he had done in the past, which might have been very enjoyable. Notice it does not say that the man went back to his past; he merely LOOKED back on his past. God also said to Lot and his family, “Do not look back!”

Genesis 19:24-26 (KJV)
24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. 26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Lots wife looked back and lost her soul/life. I doubt that she was turned into a pillar of salt just because she wanted to see what was going on. There is no doubt in my mind that she was lamenting the loss of her life style and the friends she had enjoyed sin with. Do you sometimes look back to a time when you were in sin and remember a particular moment you really enjoyed? Many of you during sex with your wife fantasize about a previous time that you really enjoyed. Or you think about something you never did but always wanted to do. I speak here of undone sin. It helps to heighten your pleasure. This is exactly what Jesus was talking about “looking back.”

So to recap my original opening statement, there is really only one sin. That sin is getting into disagreement with God by flaunting his commandments (accidentally or willfully) and in so doing come into agreement with Satan, Gods and your mortal enemy. Thank God (literally) that He has provided a way out of Satan’s clutches and back into His grace. That way is called Christ Jesus, the Son of God, The Way, The Light, The Path.

All Praise and Glory to the King of the universe, Owner and Lover of all.