What is a sinner?

[MoreCoffee]

What is a sinner? Is it one who does wicked things? Is it one who loves wickedness? What do you say?

 

[psalms 91]

Very simply it is anyone who transgresses the Laws of God

 

[Lamb]

As Bill said, those who sin are transgressing against God's Law. Some people might define sinner as being equal with unbeliever but that is not the case since even as believers we break God's Laws. The Christian is saint and sinner at the same time.

 

[Josiah]

"Sin" is a spiritual disease. It is a twisted, bent, broken aspect of our being, deep in our soul.

"Sin" can have symptoms (often called "sinS"). Thoughts, words and deeds. Attitudes, passions. Stuff done/thought/felt/said that should not be so.... stuff not done/felt/thought/said that should have been so. Let's say I have a cold (I don't; I almost never do - but run with me here)..... It's a disease (for which there is no cure). Now, I MAY be coughing, sneezing... I may have a runny nose and a sore throat. I may not. But with or without noticeable symptoms, I have a cold.... a disease.... something is WRONG with ME. In the same way, ALL of us have a disease: sin. Most of us have quite profound symptoms.

"Sin" is much, much more than just some outward, technical, observable violation of the Ten Big Ones... If I shoot my neighbor (and the thought has crossed my mind) the "sin" is not that a finger that just so happens is attached to a body part technically belonging to me caused a gun to fire - and now my neighbor is dead. Nope. The sin happened LONG, LONG before that.... in my heart, my soul, my being.... that meant I do not LOVE my neighbor as myself.... I do NOT do all to help and defend and promote and aid my neighbor.... I do NOT honor life preciously.... I HATE this dude, I want him DEAD. So I thought up my plan.... I got my gun... I waited my opportunity..... Ah..... The Pharisees considered sin just an outward TECHNICALITY and considered themselves quite goody-goody (and thus in no need of God or grace or mercy or forgiveness or the Savior). Jesus reminded them: sin comes from the INSIDE, it's INSIDE of us.... some bent, twisted, broken sickness.


Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

"I am the CHIEF of sinners" - St. Paul



- Josiah

 

[visionary]

If a believer sins, is it their faith that is weak ? or are they lacking in faith? or does sin reveal their unbelief?
A weak faith is one who doesn't believe God will support him in their walk of His righteousness in keeping the commandments of God.
Those who lack faith are like those who have some of God's laws that they keep and others that they say are impossible to keep.
Those sins committed are evidence that they are either weak or lack faith to do God's Will in keeping the commandments.

 

[MoreCoffee]

A sinner is one who loves evil not merely one who does evil things. It is the intention in the acts that makes them truly sin is it not? Whatsoever is done without faith it is sin says the holy scripture. Wicked acts are wicked but the person performing them is a sinner when that person loves the evil he/she does. Saint Paul proclaimed himself a wretched man because he did what he did not desire to do and then he explained that it was the flesh acting in wickedness not himself and that in his mind he desired to do what was good even though his flesh was incapable of performing it. What was saint Paul teaching his readers? He was explaining why we die in this world - "For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were under the law, operated within our bodies, so as to bear fruit unto death." [Romans 7:5] - and he goes on to explain why we have hope of eternal life in Christ - "But now we have been released from the law of death, by which we were being held, so that now we may serve with a renewed spirit, and not in the old way, by the letter." [Romans 7:6]

Saint Paul says it this way (be patient with me, read the quote and consider that it is the love of evil that makes us enemies of God not the mere fact that we do evil things)

And so, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law, through the body of Christ, so that you may be another one who has risen from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were under the law, operated within our bodies, so as to bear fruit unto death.

But now we have been released from the law of death, by which we were being held, so that now we may serve with a renewed spirit, and not in the old way, by the letter.​

What should we say next? Is the law sin? Let it not be so! But I do not know sin, except through the law. For example, I would not have known about coveting, unless the law said: "You shall not covet." But sin, receiving an opportunity through the commandment, wrought in me all manner of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Now I lived for some time apart from the law. But when the commandment had arrived, sin was revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was unto life, was itself found to be unto death for me. For sin, receiving an opportunity through the commandment, seduced me, and, through the law, sin killed me. And so, the law itself is indeed holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Then was what is good made into death for me? Let it not be so! But rather sin, in order that it might be known as sin by what is good, wrought death in me; so that sin, through the commandment, might become sinful beyond measure.

For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, having been sold under sin. For I do things that I do not understand. For I do not do the good that I want to do. But the evil that I hate is what I do. So, when I do what I do not want to do, I am in agreement with the law, that the law is good. But I am then acting not according to the law, but according to the sin which lives within me. For I know that what is good does not live within me, that is, within my flesh. For the willingness to do good lies close to me, but the carrying out of that good, I cannot reach. For I do not do the good that I want to do. But instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I am not willing to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but the sin which lives within me. And so, I discover the law, by wanting to do good within myself, though evil lies close beside me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inner man. But I perceive another law within my body, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me with the law of sin which is in my body. Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from this body of death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, I serve the law of God with my own mind; but with the flesh, the law of sin. [Romans 7:4-25]​

What we do can be wicked yet the deepest wickedness in us is loving the wicked things that we do. The struggle is first to renew the mind in the image of Christ. This is why a sinner is one who loves evil and not one who merely does evil things.

 

[visionary]

There is a difference between a sinner and full out rebellion into wickedness. Sinners may reveal weakness of character in their choices of sins be they small in their own eyes. God sees these character flaws for what they really are, a cancer to the sinless life He wants them to live.