"Go. And sin...just a little." Part 3

Part one is here. Part two is here.

So, now that we have established, in part, what sin is and why God would have created us with the capacity to sin we have almost laid the whole foundation. The next bit is probably the most important part because it unlocks the capacity that we have to relate to God. The Bible is clear that God is love and God created us with the capacity to love. It is important to catch that because our relationship to God (creature to creator), our nature (being made in his image), and our ability (to love) are all connected and form the crux of the issue of why there is sin at all.

We were created for a singular purpose: to subdue the earth and rule over it. Now there are all kinds of ideas that we can float to try to understand what that means, but the Bible is clear on one thing in particular. We were called to obey God and, through our obedience, we were love him and advance his righteous rule on the earth. We are made in his image in that we can participate in certain aspects of his divine nature (we explored that in the post before this) and that is our singular purpose: not merely to represent God, but to bear his image. In essence, to be the idols of God. Not that we are to be worshiped as an idol, we are to be his idol, his image. When we are not that, when we have abandoned our rational position as creature and disobeyed him, when we have not participated in his divine nature and, thus, mischaracterized him to his creation, we have violated our purpose. We have become evil. We have sinned.

Now Jesus himself said that our love for him is predicated upon our obedience to him (John 14:15) solidifying our position before God, namely, himself. So it goes something like this:

• God commands me to love my neighbor. God loves my neighbor and I am to reflect his image by showing love to them; to show an accurate picture of God. That is my purpose.
• As a creature I am obligated to be (I "must be") obedient to God.This is my singular position before him.
• Instead of loving my neighbor I gossip about them.
• Now, God has commanded me not to gossip because that is not loving and, in so doing, I have acted on my own to determine what is right for me to do and to set my own purpose.
• I have violated God's purpose for me in my disobedience. I have sinned.

So I have the capacity to love God and to love my neighbor. When I gossip I don't do any of that and I sin. Sin has everything to do with our purpose - the "why" we were created. Our purpose has everything to do with our position before God, our role as God's image bearers, and our capacity and obligation to love. But more on that later.