Putting the Spotlight on Sin – Uses of the Law: The Law Defines Sin (1)

Putting the Spotlight on Sin

Uses of the Law: The Law Defines Sin (1)

1 John 3:4

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

It’s not surprising that, in many churches today, we don’t hear much talk about sin. After all, if we have no use for the Law, then we have no basis to determine what is or is not sin.

John says that sin is lawlessness. This can be taken both as a descriptor and as a warning. How can we know sin? By looking at the Law of God (Rom. 7:7). We can know when our behavior has begun to run afoul of the favor of the Lord by comparing it with the Law of God.

This presupposes, of course, that we have some knowledge of the Law of God, which if we are indeed followers of Christ and seekers of righteousness (cf. 1 John 2:1-6; Ps. 1) shall certainly be the case. As we seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, we cannot do so apart from the holy and righteous and good Law of God (Rom. 7:12). We would be great in that Kingdom; therefore, obeying and teaching others the Law of God is a primary concern (Matt. 5:17-19).

The warning implicit in John’s statement is that if we ignore the Law, if for any reason we conclude that the Law of God is for us a “dead and a useless thing,” then we shall surely, soon enough, find ourselves languishing in sin, if only out of ignorance.

The Law of God is useful, therefore, to define sin. We shall have to look a bit more deeply into this matter in order to understand how this can be so, and what we must do in order to make it so.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Bookstore, then Church Issues.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.