hamartiology
- A theological treatment of the doctrine of sin.
- The study of sin; it’s origin, nature, extent, and consequences.
The “sin” word that is used most frequently in the Bible is hamartia, “missing the mark“. It is the most comprehensive term for explaining sin. The Apostle Paul used the verb hamartano when he wrote, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God has a high and holy standard of what is right, and so long as man follows the Divine standard he will see himself as he truly exists in God’s eyes. The flat statement of the Almighty is that all men have fallen far short of God’s required standard. It is the popular and common practice of men to create their own standards; however, God has established His standard of perfection for entry into Heaven, and all men have “missed the mark“.
God is not cruel and compassionless. He tells us that we “all have sinned,” all have missed the mark, and that if we confess to this fact, admitting that we have sinned, He will forgive and cleanse our sin and guarantee salvation in time and for eternity by accepting Jesus Christ as savior; and not by our “good works“.
Man’s original sin was disobedience to the command of God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17, 3:6). Sin brought shame and recognition of guilt (Genesis 3:10) and curses upon the man, woman, and the earth (Genesis 3:15-19).
Adam’s sin brought consequences upon all men, spiritual death and physical death (Genesis 2:17; Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:12-14), and an inherited sin nature (Romans 5:12-21; Ephesians 2:3). Man is also an individual sinner (Romans 3:9-12, 23, 5:12). Therefore man in his condition is unable to produce a righteousness that will give him merit in God’s eyes (total depravity) (Romans 3:23; John 3:19). This does not mean man is as evil as he could be for he can get worse (Matthew 7:11).
(From WordInfo.info)
Some would say that Soteriology (the study of salvation) along with Harmartiology are complementary studies… simply stemming from the realization that God saves us because there is something for us to be saved from. Thus, these 2 doctrines in the Christian faith are amongs the most fundamental in evangelicalism, if not all of Christianity. You may or may not know it, but these 2 areas of study in Christianity are of utmost important to you, the individual Christian. For to know what it means to be a Christian is to know what it means to be saved–and how you got to be. In essence, as we become more coherent in our understanding of these 2 very important doctrines, we will consequently have a much greater appreciation on how you and I, sinners, became saints.
Furthermore, the better we understand how sinful we are, the better we can understand how holy God is (anthropology, theology proper). To use more rhym-y modern words, David Crowder put it this way in his song “Wholly Yours”:
I am full of earth–You are heaven’s worth.
I am stained with dirt prone to depravity–
You are everything that is bright and clean.
The antonym of me: You are divinity.
To see the depths of our fall, we must turn back to Genesis chapter 3 to see where “original sin” originated (LOL that’s funny–putting the fun in fundamentalism!). In the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve only ONE commandment (2:15-17): “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
“Indeed, has God said!??” Satan is the craftiest beast of all, and tempted Eve, asking her if God really said they couldn’t eat from the Tree. Eve tried to object, saying that indeed God said she and Adam were not allowed to eat or touch the Tree…but the Serpent did what it always does throughout all of human history: he lies to us. He lied to Eve–that they wouldn’t die if they ate from It–and Eve believed him. Crapollo–bad move. Eve ate the lie, and gave to Adam, and He ate. And from then on, ”the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” –they knew that they had sinned. Mankind had fallen.
Some have asked, why did Satan tempt Eve and not Adam? I myself am a complimentarian–and agree with the Apostle Paul: Eve was not the head of the household. In tempting Eve, and as Eve accepted his lie–the order was kicked out of balance… authority was rejected. The created put the Creator under its own subjection. Before any sin was even committed by Eve or Adam, the tables were turned, and the stage was set–God’s original design was thwarted by the Serpent and His authority was outright objected to. The Serpent tempts Eve, Eve eats of the fruit, and her eyes were opened to good and evil…and she gives to Adam to eat, just as the Serpent knew she would, and Adam eats. Original sin.
As it says in Romans 5, that was the fall of mankind:
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Now how far did we actually fall? What exactly did we inherit from original sin through Adam & Eve? Cause God forbid, I’m really not that sinful in nature, or am I?
The answer, coming soon, in part 3…
