THE BASIC SIN

Idolatry is the basic sin. This may be clearly seen from the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic law. For the first two commandments are about the sin of idolatry (Exodus 20:3-6). This is because a false god usurps the place of the true God in a man's life. In a sense all sins are against God (Compare II Sam. 12:13; Job 7:20; Psa. 41:4; 51:4), but the sin of idolatry is very clearly directed against God Himself. It is a direct repudiation of the Creator for the creature; it is a direct insult to the true God and an affront to His divine majesty. No more serious sin could be imagined than this one. Since it is the most serious sin, it is also the most basic.

The basic sin is not only not to trust in the true God but to trust in something other than the true God. This is the sin of sins. Rebellion against, unbelief in, and disobedience to the Creator, bad as they are, are only negative sins -- rebellion is the rejection of God's authority; unbelief is not to trust in God's love; and disobedience is not to obey God's commands. But idolatry is a positive sin which turns to an alternate and replacement for the true God. It is to give one's allegiance, trust and obedience to something other than the One who should have that allegiance, trust and obedience. It is the more serious sin. As Samuel said to Saul: "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry." (I Sam. 15:23). Samuel compares rebellion and insubordination with the more serious sin of idolatry. (Divination in the Old Testament times was almost always associated with idolatry [Deut. 4:19; 17:3; 18:9-14; II Kings 17:16-17; Isa. 41:21-24; Ezek. 13:17-23; 21:21-22]. The parallelism in I Sam. 15:23 shows that idolatry and divination are nearly synonymous.) Rebellion and insubordination are only the negative side of the sin of idolatry; that is, the act of turning against the true God is only negative part of the act of turning to a false god. Idolatry is the more serious sin and hence the more basic sin.

But idolatry is also the basic sin because this sin leads to other sins. It leads to other sins because a person's god, being his ultimate criterion of decision, ultimately controls the direction and character of a man's decisions. The wrong choice of a false god will lead to other wrong choices. That is, the god to which a person commits and devotes himself will determine the quality of his whole life. It furnishes him with an entire set of values and these values will in turn govern his every specific decision, intellectual and practical. Thus every god stamps its worshippers with its own trademark. In fact the worshipper becomes like the god he worships. As the Psalmist says concerning the idolater,

"⁴ Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands.
⁵ They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
⁶ They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
⁷ They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
⁸ Those who make them are like them;
so are all who trust in them."
(Psa. 115:4-8; see also Psa. 135:15-18.)

"²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come
evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery,
²² coveting, wickedness, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
²³ All these evil things come from within,
and they defile a man."
(Mark 7:21-23; compare Matt. 15:15-20.)

From the discussion of idolatry as the basic sin it should be clear that sin in general must be defined in terms of the true God. Accordingly, sin should be defined as any free, uncoerced act of the will (decision, choice) that is contrary to ultimate personal allegiance to the true God. That is, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23 KJV). In other words, sin is any choice that is contrary to faith and trust in the true God (John 16:9; compare John 3:18). According to this definition, unbelief (infidelity, not incredulity) is sin. But so are disobedience and rebellion sins. It is not just any unbelief that is sin but unbelief in God. Unbelief as such is not sin. Unbelief is sin only in reference to God; it is sin only when it is God who is not trusted. Similarly with respect to disobedience and rebellion. Disobedience as such is not sin, neither is rebellion. They are sin only in reference to God. Disobedience is sin only when it is God who is disobeyed; and rebellion is sin only when it is God who is rebelled against. Sin in all cases must be defined in terms of true God.

But because man must have a god, sin is more than not trusting in the true God; it is trusting in a false god. A man must make his decisions with reference to the true God or some false one. No middle ground exists. To be is to choose, and to choose is to have a god. To be, therefore, is to have a god. By the structure of his freedom, the being of man is necessarily linked to some god. Therefore, if a man does not trust in the true God, he will trust in a false god. In fact, a man does not trust in the true God because he has put his trust in a false god. In general, the rejection of one god can only be done in the name of another. Accordingly, sin is more than unbelief, not trusting in God; it is trusting in a false god. Similarly, sin is more disobedience, not obeying God; it is obedience to a false god. Likewise, sin is more than rebellion against God; it is allegiance to a false god. Sin, in general, is not only any choice contrary to faith and trust in true God, but it is also any choice that implies faith and trust in a false god.

Pride is not the basic sin; it is a by-product of idolatry. Pride as a sin is that attitude of heart that trusts and boasts in a false god. "Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those go astray after false gods!" (Psa. 40:4) Not all pride is wrong. Pride and boasting in the Lord is good and is commanded in the Scriptures.

"Therefore, as it is written,
'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'"
(I Cor. 1:31; II Cor. 10:17)

"But let him who glories glory in this,
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the Lord who practice steadfast love, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth;
for in these things I delight, says the Lord." (Jer. 9:23 ERS)

"² Because your heart is proud, and you have said,
'I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the
heart of the seas,' yet you are but a man, and no god,
though you consider yourself as wise a god - ...
⁶ therefore thus says the Lord God,
'Because you consider yourself as wise as a god,
⁷ therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon you,
the most terrible of the nations;
and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of
your wisdom and defile your splendor.
⁸ They shall thrust you down into the Pit,
and you shall die the death of the slain in the heart of the seas.'"
(Ezek. 28:2, 6-8; see also Isa. 14:12-14.)}

Idolatry of the self makes pride of self appear to be the basic sin, but this is because idolatry is not recognized as the basic sin and pride (in the negative sense) as the by-product of idolatry. Pride in itself cannot be the basic sin because it is not prohibited in the Ten Commandments. Since by the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20), the Ten Commandments of the law surely must prohibit the most basic sin. The first two commandments are directly concerned with idolatry, and the third warns against taking God's name lightly. But pride is not even mentioned, either in the Ten Commandments or in Christ's summary of the law. Rather He says the first (and therefore most basic) commandment is to love God with one's whole being. In fact, He adds that the love of God and of one's neighbor is the foundation of the whole law and of the teaching of the prophets (Matt. 22:37-40). Idolatry which is the love of a false god, not pride, is the basic sin.

THE BONDAGE OF SIN

The choice of a false god leads to bondage, the bondage of sin. Idolatry results in the bondage of sin in two senses.

1. Since idolatry is the basic sin, it leads to other sins. Because a person's god, being his ultimate criterion of all his decisions, ultimately controls the direction and character of his decisions, the wrong choice of a false god will lead to other wrong choices, sins. A person committed to a false god does not necessarily always have to commit sins. Happily, he is often inconsistent in following his false god. But since his god furnishes him with an entire set of values and motives for his choices, the sin of idolatry will usually invariably result in other sins. This invariableness of sin is one aspect of the bondage of sin. As Jesus said, "...every one who commits sin is a slave of sin." (John 8:34)

2. The second sense in which idolatry results in the bondage of sin is that idolatry reduces and ultimately will destroy one's freedom of choice. A false god, having become the repository of a man's trust and allegiance, proceeds immediately to reduce and ultimately to destroy his freedom. It becomes a straight-jacket and a limitation on his freedom. Thus it reduces his freedom of choice by limiting his options as well as his reasons for his choice. Some false gods totally eliminate some areas of life from its followers consideration. Thus a false god circumscribes and restricts the freedom of choice of the person who chooses it as his god; it acts as a frustrating limitation, a ball and chain upon the exercise of the freedom of its worshipper. But a false god also destroys the freedom of its worshipper by denying his freedom. Since a false god is a being that has limited or no freedom or power of choice (it is determined and not self-determining) such a god by implication denies the reality of followers freedom of choice. Thus having used his freedom to give this god his ultimate allegiance, the worshipper finds his freedom denied to the point of extinction and himself bound in a miserable slavery. This means that as long as the false god remains his ultimate criterion of decision, he will not have the grounds for rejecting that god, since that god has not allowed him to have freedom of choice to do so. His power of choice having been taken away from him, he unable to reject the false god and free himself from its bondage. This is the bondage of sin (John 8:34; Prov. 5:22). Man becomes a slave of sin when he gives his ultimate allegiance and devotion to a false god. In fact, the false god is sin personified as a slavemaster (Rom. 6:16).

The true God, on the other hand, preserves and fulfills the freedom of the one who chooses and worships Him. Since the true God is a living God (Jer. 10:5-15; I Thess. 1:9), that is, a being that has the power of self-determination, with unlimited freedom, He can and does affirm His worshipper's freedom. He gave them such a freedom of choice when he made them. When this Being who has such freedom is made the ultimate criterion of one's decisions, one's freedom of choice may be exercised without frustrating limitation. His freedom is not denied or taken away from him. But more importantly, the true God not only affirms the freedom of the one who chooses and worships Him but also fulfills the freedom of the one who commits and devotes himself to Him. He gives back to those who choose Him the freedom of choice. This He does by loving him, that is, by acting toward him for his highest good. Now man's highest good is the true God; He alone does not deny but affirms the freedom of the one who chooses Him. For when a man chooses the true God as his God, he has found his highest good and has obtained true happiness (Prov. 16:20; Psa. 40:4; 84:12; 144:15; Jer. 17:7, etc.). Since the true God is love (I John 4:8,16), He acts toward man in such a way as to bring man to the choice of man's highest good, that is, to the true God, and hence the fulfillment of his freedom. He sets him free from the bondage of sin, the slavery to a false god, and brings him into the freedom of righteousness, the righteousness of faith. Just as sin is basically trusting in a false god, righteousness is basically trusting in the true God. Righteousness is not a quality that we possess, nor merit that we have earned, but it is a right relationship to God; faith in the true God relates us rightly to Him. (Rom. 4:3-5) In this right relationship to the true God, man's freedom is fulfilled and man is truly free. "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)

THE EXTENT OF SIN

The universal extent of sin is clearly taught in the Scriptures. In the days of Noah, the Scriptures say that

"The Lord saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth,
and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
(Gen. 6:5; compare Gen. 8:21.)

"¹ The fool says in his heart 'There is no God.'
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none that does good.
² The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men
to see if there are any that act wisely, that seek after God.
³ They have all gone astray,
they are all alike corrupt,
there is none that goes good, no, not one."
(Psa. 14:1-3; see also Psa. 143:2.)

"Many a man proclaims his own loyalty,
but a faithful man, who can find?" (Prov. 20:6)

"Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean;
I am pure from my sin'?" (Prov. 20:9)

"Surely there is not a righteous man on earth
who does good and never sins." (Eccl. 7:20)

"Behold, this alone I found, that God made man upright,
but they have sought out many devices."
(Eccl. 7:29; see also I Kings 8:46; II Chron. 6:36.)

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way." (Isa. 53:6)}

"⁹ What then? Are we Jews any better off?
No, not at all; For I have already charged that all men,
both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,
¹⁰ as it is written;
None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹ No one understands, no one seeks for God.
¹² All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong;
no one does good, not even one."
(Romans 3:9-12; Paul's quotation is from Psa. 14.)}

In Romans 3:23 Paul succinctly expresses the teaching of the Scriptures that the extent of sin is universal. "For all have sinned and are in want of the glory of God." (ERS) [1] This universality of sin is presupposed through all Scripture but particularly in the teachings of Jesus: "...if you, then, who are evil..." (Matt. 7:11). And the universality of sin is not just a universal statement about man but is a fact known by all men about themselves as shown in the incident when the Pharisees brought an adulterous woman ("caught in the very act") to Jesus and he met their question with the very revealing answer: "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7). Their actions show their own participation in the universal fact of sin. [2] "But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him" (John 8:9). The knowledge of the universal extent of the sin of man is not the conclusion to an investigation concerning sin as a fact of human experience, but rather it is the revelation from God concerning the human race. The Scriptures make only one exception to this universality of sin. Of our Lord Jesus alone is it said that he "knew no sin" (II Cor. 5:21) and "no guile was found on his lips" (I Pet. 2:22; compare John 8:46). He as our high priest is "holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners" (Heb. 7:26). He alone is the lamb "without blemish or spot" (I Pet. 1:19) [3]

ENDNOTES

[1] C. K. Barrett, The Epistle to the Romans
(New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1957), p. 74.

[2] G. C. Berkouwer, Sin
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971), pp. 485-487.]

[3]Ibid., p. 487.