What Is “Sin”? The Image of God

The word sin means literally “missing the mark.” It means the failure to be what one should be and to do what one should do.

According to Orthodox Handbook Series Vol 1 by Thomas Hopko, posted at the Orthodox Church of America website,

Originally man was made to be the created image of God, to live in union with God’s divine life, and to rule over all creation. Man’s failure in this task is his sin which has also been called his fall.

Notice the subtle distinction. In Western theology, Adam and Eve sinned because they broke a law. The Orthodox, however, say they sinned because they failed to be like God. All agree that sin is to miss the mark. It’s just a question of what the mark is.

Of course, there is much common ground here if the law is that we should be like God. However, if we see sin as being about obedience to arbitrary commands issued to test our willingness to obey, we are very far apart indeed.

What does the Bible say?

(Rom 8:29-30 ESV) 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God cosmic purpose in Creation and redemption, Paul says, is that Christians “be conformed to the image of his Son.” “Image” translates eikon, the same word used in Genesis 1 of God’s image, and it’s unmistakable that Paul is referring to Genesis in this passage.

Indeed, God, through his Spirit, works to transform us into his image –

(2Co 3:18 ESV) 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

(Col 3:9-10 ESV) 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

The same theme is sometimes expressed in terms of union with God –

(John 17:20-23 ESV) 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

(1Co 6:17 NAS) 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

(2Pe 1:2-4 NAS) 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

(1Jo 3:2-3 ESV) 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

There is a sense in which Christians are to become united with God.

However, we have to also consider such verses as –

(1Jo 3:4 ESV) Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

The verse has a bit more punch in the KJV –

(1Jo 3:4 KJV) Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

(The ESV is truer to the Greek.) In the KJV, John seems to be defining “sin” as violating “the law.” The translators of the NET Bible explain the Greek well –

The Greek word (anomia) is often translated “iniquity” or “lawlessness” and in the LXX refers particularly to transgression of the law of Moses. In Jewish thought the ideas of sin (hamartia) and lawlessness or iniquity (anomia) were often equated because sin involved a violation of the Mosaic law and hence lawlessness. For example, Psa 51:5 LXX sets the two in parallel, and Paul in Rom 4:7 (quoting Psa 32:1) does the same. For the author, it is not violation of the Mosaic law that results in lawlessness, since he is writing to Christians. The ‘law’ for the author is the law of love, as given by Jesus in the new commandment of John 13:34-35. This is the command to love one’s brother, a major theme of 1 John and the one specific sin in the entire letter which the opponents are charged with (1Jo 3:17). Since the author has already labeled the opponents “antichrists” in 1Jo 2:18, it may well be that he sees in their iniquitous behavior of withdrawing from the community and refusing to love the brethren a foreshadowing of the apocalyptic iniquity of the end times (cf. 2Th 2:3-8). In Mat 24:11-12 Jesus foretold that false prophets would arise in the end times (cf. 1Jo 4:1), that lawlessness (anomia) would increase, and that “the love of many will grow cold” (which would certainly fit the author’s portrait of the opponents here).

Hence, John is not saying that sin is violating a set of arbitrary rules or an elaborately constructed ecclesiology. Rather, he is saying that sin is a failure to love as we should, and he later explains that we should love as Jesus loves. We see John’s theology clearly in such verses as –

(1Jo 3:2-3 ESV) 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

This hits the theme exactly. We are called to become more and more like God, and we’ll become very much like him in the afterlife because “we shall see him as he is.” But the process begins long before the Second Coming because we are to purify ourselves as we commit to become like God.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that we are to love as Jesus loved –

(1Jo 3:16 ESV) 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Jesus is our example and hence the exemplar of the “law” that defines what is and isn’t sin. And this conclusion is well supported by such passages as –

(1Jo 4:16-17 ESV) 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

If God is love, then to become like God is to love as God loves — which is to love as Jesus loves. It all fits together.

(Rom 13:8-10 ESV) 8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

(Gal 5:6 ESV) 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

(Gal 5:14 ESV) 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

We refuse to accept these simple truths because, well, we want Christianity to be complicated. We want lots and lots of rules that we can master and that will separate us from other Christians. We want to feel superior thanks to our superior knowledge of and obedience to rules.

You see, no one can feel justified by a standard that says “imitate God” or “love as Jesus loves.” It’s too high and too hard. Such rules force us to rely on grace and prevent us from feeling holier than thou — and we love to feel holier than thou.

In fact, one reason Christianity so struggles to be attractive to the lost is our legalism — arising both from those who seek to impose arbitrary rules as tests of salvation and those who seek to do acts of righteousness to be lauded for their holiness. Both are forms of Pharisaism and both are extraordinarily unattractive — proving how very un-Christlike both attitudes can be.

But to seek to imitate God by following the example of Jesus, well, that would change the world.