Sin

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” — Romans 3:23

Sin is not merely a human failing or social dysfunction. It is rebellion against the holy God — a fracture in the relationship between Creator and creature that lies at the root of every form of human misery, injustice, and death. Understanding sin rightly is the prerequisite for understanding the gospel: only those who grasp the depth of the disease can appreciate the power of the cure.

Biblical Vocabulary for Sin

Scripture uses a rich vocabulary to describe sin’s many dimensions:

Old Testament Hebrew terms:

Chata (חָטָא) — “to miss the mark, to fall short.” The most common Hebrew word for sin, describing failure to meet God’s standard of righteousness. The noun form chattat (חַטָּאת) also denotes the sin offering in Leviticus, linking the problem to its remedy.
Avon (עָוֹן) — “iniquity, crookedness, guilt.” From a root meaning “to bend or twist,” it describes sin as moral distortion and encompasses the guilt that results from it. Notably, the same word can refer to the sin itself, the guilt it produces, and the punishment it deserves (Genesis 4:13).
Pesha (פֶּשַׁע) — “transgression, rebellion, revolt.” The strongest Hebrew term for sin, drawn from the political sphere where it describes the breaking of a treaty or revolt against a king. Sin as willful defiance of God’s rightful authority.
Ra (רַע) — “evil, wickedness.” Describes the fundamental moral quality of sin — that which is opposed to tov (טוֹב, “good”) in God’s sight.

New Testament Greek terms:

Hamartia (ἁμαρτία) — “sin, failure, missing the mark.” The primary New Testament term, encompassing both the act of sinning and the indwelling condition of being a sinner. Paul personifies hamartia as a ruling power in Romans 5-7.
Parabasis (παράβασις) — “transgression, overstepping.” Literally “a stepping across” a known boundary; sin as violation of an explicit command (Romans 4:15).
Anomia (ἀνομία) — “lawlessness.” Sin defined as living without or against the law of God; John equates sin with anomia (1 John 3:4).
Adikia (ἀδικία) — “unrighteousness, injustice.” The opposite of dikaiosyne (δικαιοσύνη, “righteousness”); sin viewed as a failure of justice and right relationship.

Together these terms show that sin is not one thing but many — it is missing God’s mark, twisting what is straight, rebelling against rightful authority, overstepping His commands, and falling short of His glory.

Original Sin and Inherited Corruption

The fall of Adam did not affect him alone. His sin brought consequences for all his descendants:

“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.” — Romans 5:12

The church has understood this reality in different ways:

Augustinian / Western view — All humanity was “in Adam” and shares in his guilt and corruption. We inherit both a sinful nature and the guilt of the original transgression. This view was developed by Augustine and is held across much of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.
Eastern Orthodox view — Humanity inherits the consequences of Adam’s sin (mortality, a tendency toward sin) but not his personal guilt. Each person becomes guilty through their own sinful acts. The emphasis falls on death as the root problem from which sin flows.
Federal / Covenantal view — Adam acted as the covenant representative (federal head) of all humanity. His disobedience is imputed to his descendants, just as Christ’s obedience is imputed to believers (Romans 5:18–19).

What all orthodox traditions affirm is that humanity is born into a fallen condition — no one enters the world in a state of original righteousness.

Total Depravity

The Reformed tradition speaks of “total depravity,” which does not mean:

That every person is as sinful as they could possibly be
That human beings are incapable of any outward good
That the image of God is erased

It does mean:

Every part of human nature is affected by sin — mind, will, affections, body
No one is able to save themselves or merit God’s favor
Apart from God’s grace, the human heart is inclined away from God (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 8:7–8)

The doctrine affirms the radical depth of the human problem and the corresponding necessity of divine grace. As the Synod of Dort (1618–1619) expressed it, humans retain “glimmerings of natural light” but are unable to use them rightly in matters of salvation — a position that echoes Augustine’s anti-Pelagian writings and was reaffirmed by the Council of Orange (529).

Universal Sinfulness

Scripture is unambiguous that sin is universal:

“There is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46)
“None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10)
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8)

This universal diagnosis makes the gospel necessary. If even one person could stand righteous before God on their own merit, the cross would be unnecessary.

The Wages of Sin

Sin carries a penalty that corresponds to its seriousness as an offense against an infinitely holy God:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 6:23

The Greek opsonia (ὀψώνια) — “wages, soldier’s pay” — depicts sin as a master paying out what is earned. Death in Scripture is not merely physical cessation but separation — separation from God, the source of all life and goodness. Yet the same verse that pronounces the sentence also declares the remedy: the charisma (χάρισμα) — “free gift, grace-gift” — of eternal life through Jesus Christ. The contrast is stark: wages earned versus a gift freely given. Sin is the problem the entire biblical narrative exists to solve — from the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 through the sacrificial system of the law to the atoning death of Christ, who “bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” — 1 John 1:9