How should we fill in the blanks?
An individual becomes a Christian by ______________
I know I am a Christian because ______________
The distinctive teaching of Christianity is ______________
The core requirements to identify with Christ are ______________
One of the distinctive teachings of Christianity is the law of God from which we understand the concept of sin. Through the law of God we understand morality. Sin is rebellion against the law of God and the refusal by the human will to depend wholly upon God. Sin is defiance of God and a moral transgression.
If it would be possible, sin would lead us to dethrone God.
This may lead us to the question: What is the worst sin, or what was the first sin? The answer seems to be either pride or narcissism, although murder and hatred rank high as well. Listening to a talk given by Ben Witherington III, he proposed that narcissism is the worst sin. Narcissism is traditionally defined as an inflated sense of self-importance, exploitative, and lack of empathy. A component of narcissism is pride.
Three representative passages of Scripture on sin may be found in the following:
Isaiah 14:12-15: How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.
Ezekiel 28:11-18: Again the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God, ‘You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and diamond, the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald, and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; it has consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you.’’’
I Samuel 15:10-23: Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, ‘I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.’ And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night. Samuel arose early in the morning to meet Saul; and it was told Samuel, saying, ‘Saul came to Carmel, and behold he set up a monument for himself, then turned and proceeded on down to Gilgal.’ Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have carried out the command of the Lord.’ But Samuel said, ‘What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?’ [God’s command was utter destruction of everything, including sheep, cattle, and spoils of war.] Saul said, ‘They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.’ Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.’ And he said to him, ‘Speak!’ Samuel said, ‘Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?’ Then Saul said to Samuel, ‘I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.’ Samuel said, ‘Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry [some translations use witchcraft]. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.’
After narcissism and pride, self-righteousness is another deadly sin. We can see characteristics of all three sins in the above passages. The opposite of sin is fearing God, humility, and obedience of the law of God.
In Matthew 16:24, Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” In this one verse is wrapped up the opposite of all we see in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, and 1 Samuel 15. Self-denial is a distinctive teaching of Christianity because it is the opposite of sin.
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