on 10 June 2021
Q. 14. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God
At first this answer seems too sanitised in describing sin. The brevity of language doesn’t express the horrific pictures of sin that we see described in the bible and yet it is a magnificent summary of biblical teaching. In many ways it’s a description of sin in shorthand.
Sin is a not living in line with God’s perfect law and a deliberate rebellion against God and his law. It is a refusal to stay within the boundaries that God has set which we see most clearly with Adam and Eve.
The catechism speaks of the things we’ve not done ‘any want of conformity‘ and the things we have done ‘transgression of‘.
God has written his law in the heart of every human being (Romans 2:15), he has made it explicit in the 10 Commandments. Jesus summarises the whole of the law in saying “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew22:37). God’s law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (Romans 7:12).
This means that fundamentally our sin is not living according to and rebelling against God’s law.