Righteousness and Sin

Read, watch, or listen, then join the conversation below.

We’re making our way through what we’re calling the Kingdom Story—one way of looking at the biblical story told in Scripture—allowing Jesus, the cornerstone of the story, to lead the way and reinterpret it for us. Let’s take stock of where we are so far. The last four episodes, we’ve been fully immersed in the Hebrew creation story told in Genesis 1 and 2. We’ve spent so much time here because, if we will accept the inspiration of Scripture—the idea that the Spirit of our Creator God somehow had a creative hand in what was written through the biblical authors—then this story sets the stage for everything else that is to come. It gives us a symbolic picture of the intent, design, and purpose of our Creator God for his creation from the start. But, as those of you who are familiar with the biblical story have no doubt noted, we have not yet addressed the elephant in the room. Up until now, we have not discussed two of the most loaded and frequently misunderstood religious words, “sin” and its contrasting word, “righteousness”. 

This postponement was intentional, precisely because the significance of both these words relies heavily on our understanding of the concepts we’ve been discussing the last few weeks. Their meanings are dependent not only on our perception of God’s image—who our Creator is, what he’s like, and thus, what he wants—all of which is seen in creation at the beginning, and ultimately fully revealed in Jesus; but also, on our understanding of who humanity was created to be—our identity—which is intimately tied to why we were created—our purpose. Without first gaining a foundational awareness of these concepts, our interpretation of the words “sin” and “righteousness” can go horribly wrong. Let’s take a look at how this might happen.

First, some definitions. According to Dictionary.com the word for “sin” in English, means “a transgression of divine law” or “a violation of some religious or moral principle”, while the word for “righteous” means the quality of being “morally right or justifiable”. In the Old and New Testaments, the meanings of the words are a bit more specific. For example, the word for “righteous” in Hebrew—“tsaddiq”—and in Greek—“dikaios”—means “what is right, just, or approved in God’s eyes”. The word for “sin” in Hebrew is “chata”, which means “to miss the mark or the way”. In Greek, the word is “hamartia”, and it means “no share or no part of”, a loss or inability to receive one’s share “due to missing the mark or missing the way”. So, we might say, “sin” is the loss experienced when we “miss the way” of “righteousness”—when we miss what is “right in God’s eyes”.

Today, we hear these words used in religious circles to describe all kinds of people and actions. The problem is that people have different interpretations of what actions “miss the mark or miss the way” and therefore are “a transgression of divine law”. Consequently, they differ on what they consider to be “morally right”. They all claim to be basing their judgments on their sacred scriptural writings, but the interpretations across and even within different religions can be vastly different. Non-religious people get in on the act as well, using their own personal standards of “right” and “wrong” based on their upbringing, culture, or experiences, to determine who measures up and who doesn’t. As a result, religious systems, and people in general judge, label, and classify others as being either “righteous” or “sinners” (even if they don’t use those exact words), based on their interpretations of what those terms mean and their own lists of “right” and “wrong” actions.

Since the Hebrew creation story plays a significant role in some of the most prominent religions of the day, let’s see how these definitions might play out in the biblical story we’ve been following. Remember, the symbolism of Genesis 1 and 2, viewed through the lens of Jesus, showed us the intent and purpose the Creator God had for his image-bearers and for his “very good” creation at the beginning. So, if we accept the Hebrew definition of “righteousness”, then we’ve already seen what God wants—what is “right in God’s eyes”: A creation that flourishes in abundance, blessing, diversity, wholeness, and harmony; stewarded and cared for in the Creator’s power and authority, through his beloved image-bearing children who uniquely reflect his image—his light, his love, and his life—to one another, and into his creation; intimately connected to him in loving, trusting, relational “oneness”.  If that is indeed what is “right” in our Creator’s eyes—if that is “the mark” to hit or “the way” to go, then we can define “sin” as the loss we experience or cause others to experience when we “miss that mark” and so, miss out on what our Creator wants for us—our share or part in the abundant life of his creation kingdom. We “sin” and experience this loss when we fail to remember who our Creator is—we mistrust him, dishonor him, reject him, or misrepresent him and distort his image. We “miss the way” when we forget or refuse to be the image-bearers we were created to be—when we fail to walk in our identity and purpose—and instead, we allow darkness to obscure his light; we reflect anger, self-centeredness, violence, and hatred instead of love and compassion; and we devalue, dishonor, abuse, dominate, and destroy our fellow image-bearers and God’s good creation, instead of caring for and cultivating love and life, and helping it to grow and flourish.

Now, let’s take this idea a bit further. In Genesis 2 we were told that the Creator God placed the image-bearers in the garden along with two unique trees—symbols of humanity’s free will and choice—one called the Tree of Life and the other the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:8-9). The image-bearers were invited to eat freely from any tree in the garden including the Tree of Life, but they were warned not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because if they did, they would die (Genesis 2:16-17). In other words, because a loving relationship always involves free will, humanity has a choice to either remain connected to the life-giving Spirit of our Creator—the Tree of Life—in loving, trusting relationship; or to reject his relationship and the abundant life he offers; to mistrust him, to go our own way, and to define what is “right” and “good” in our own eyes. Eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil brings death—the loss of our relational connection to the Life of our Creator and the “oneness” we are invited into—and it unleashes the creeping contamination of darkness that had originally been separated from the light. 

This brings us to the next chapter of the Genesis creation story, infamously called by some, the “Fall of Mankind”. As was the case with Genesis 1 and 2, if we will step out of a purely literal reading of the story, Genesis 3 is also filled with symbolic meaning. In the story, a serpent—a symbol of that dark, adversarial, spiritual power or force Jesus talked about in the Gospels—entered the garden and spoke to humanity. The serpent’s intent was to deceive the image-bearers into mistrusting their Creator, severing their relationship, and choosing their own way instead of his, thereby ushering in darkness and death (Genesis 3:1-5). The story tells us that the serpent achieved his goal, humanity was indeed deceived. They chose to mistrust their Creator and put their trust in someone or something else, to forego the Tree of Life and instead, to eat from the tree of death (Genesis 3:6). 

The image-bearers had chosen to “sin”—to “miss the way” of life and love and trust—and to reject the intimate relationship their Creator offered. They lost sight of who he is and who they were created to be. As a result, their hearts, minds, and spirits became blinded by darkness and so, they became unable to see the image of their Creator God clearly—they no longer knew him. Love and trust quickly turned to fear and shame, and the image-bearing children hid from their Father (Genesis 3:8). With their image of God obscured and distorted, their identity as image-bearers also became corrupted and so, the image they reflected became distorted as well. Where there was once value, blessing, harmony, and light, there was now conflict, division, selfishness, and blame (Genesis 3:12-19). Disconnected from the light, love, life, and authority of the Creator, the image-bearers were overcome by darkness, rendering them unable to fulfill their intended purpose. And as the continuation of the biblical story attests, instead of stewarding and cultivating creation with love, value, and care, humanity’s rule and reign over creation would degenerate into a downward spiral of darkness, abusive power, violence, domination, destruction, and death.

No longer whole, the image-bearers would have to leave the garden—the place of blessing, wholeness, “shalom”—but they were sent out with a promise… One day, the Creator God would act to separate the light from the darkness again, to heal and restore wholeness to the image-bearers, and to put all creation “right” once more (Genesis 3:15, 24).

The symbolism is powerful here. Humanity had “sinned”—they had “missed the way” of love and trust in their Creator, they had lost sight of who he is, who they were created to be, and what they were created for, and as a result, creation was not “right in God’s eyes” anymore—it was no longer the place of blessing and “shalom” he intended it to be. Many people today want to interpret this symbolic story in a way that portrays the loving, light-filled, life-giving Creator Spirit as a punitive, perfectionistic God, angry at his human creatures for their disobedience of his commands and requiring payment or punishment to earn his forgiveness.

Indeed, that is how many of Jesus’ listeners interpreted it as well. To them, “righteousness” and “sin” were determined based on people’s perception of how closely one obeyed “Torah”—the first five books of the Hebrew bible which included the instructions, laws, and commands given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Obedience to the Law was viewed as “righteousness”—“what was right in God’s eyes”, disobedience—"missing the way”—was “sin”, and “sin” was met with anger and punishment. But, as we’ve seen before, Jesus didn’t accept that interpretation of the image of his Father, nor did he accept the prevailing interpretation of “sin” and “righteousness”. Instead, he totally reinterpreted the concepts.

Jesus said that the “righteousness” of God—what is “right” in his eyes—is not about mere rule-following obedience. In fact, he had words with those who wanted to define “righteousness” and “sin” that way (Matthew 23:13-32). He said what is “right in God’s eyes” is faith, love, and a compassionate heart. It is trusting in the loving, forgiving, compassionate Father he reveals and in how he views his beloved image-bearing children (Luke 15:11-32). It is trusting in what he shows us about his kingdom—what it looks like to walk in humanity’s intended identity and purpose—to walk in the way of love and trust (Matthew 22:36-40). Instead of the Law setting “the mark”, Jesus insisted that he was “the mark”, that he was “the way”, that he was God’s “righteousness” in action (John 14:6). 

In addition to revealing the true image of God and his “righteousness”—Jesus said he had also come to rescue, heal, and bring light to the darkened hearts, minds, and spirits of the image-bearers; to begin to separate light from darkness within them and make them whole again; and to restore them to their true identity and purpose. He said he had come for “sinners” (Mark 2:17)—those who had “missed the way” and were lost in the darkness (Luke 19:10), those who did not know who his Father is, who could not see who they were, or what they were created for. He said he had come to seek them out, to forgive them, to release them, to restore them, to redeem them, and to overturn that fateful, Genesis 3 choice to “miss the way”. 

Jesus reinterprets the concepts of “righteousness” and “sin” by showing us they have less to do with obedience to religious rules or lists of “right” and “wrong” actions, and much more to do with a heart of love and trust. Just as in the Genesis story, Jesus offers us a two-tree choice. Will we choose to trust what he reveals about the loving, light-filled, life-giving image of our Creator God? Will we choose to trust in his life and his love, and in who he says we were created to be? Will we choose to trust in what he shows us about his new creation kingdom and our purpose in it? 

Or, will we choose to “miss the way”—to reject the way of love and light and instead, to continue in the way of violence, conflict, division, “self-righteousness”, and judgment—to remain lost in the dark?

Jesus’ reinterpretation of these terms should give us pause today. It should cause us to think differently about the labels we apply to people and the laundry list of “sins” we use as weapons against each other. Perhaps, we may find that by devaluing, dishonoring, condemning, and excluding others, and labeling them as “sinners”, it is actually we who are “missing the way”.