_1_Definition of Sin

According to Scripture, sin is nonconformity to the divine Law (), which is given to man as a norm; and this norm pertains both to man’s condition (status, habitus) and to his individual internal or external actions (actiones internae et externae), as Scripture states, 1 John 3:4: “Sin is the transgression of the Law,” [R. V.: “Sin is lawlessness”], (lawlessness) is, etymologically considered, a negative concept, expressing a lack of conformity to the divine Law (carentia conformitatis cum lege). But according to Scripture usage is also a positive concept and denotes opposition to the Law, a breaking and violating of the Law. Scripture clearly states that he that doeth sin “doeth also lawlessness,” 1 John 3:4 (R. V.), and: “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (). That this lack of conformity to the divine Law is a positive evil is also evident from the following truths set down in Scripture: 1) Man as a moral being, endowed with intellect and will, is in duty bound to conform to the divine will in every moment of his life. The answer to the question as to the foremost commandment in the Law (Matt. 22:37-40) admits no restrictions or qualifications: “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind… . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Where this full agreement with the divine Law is lacking, there is opposition to the Law, or wickedness. To use an analogy: The servant who fails to carry out the duties incumbent on him would be condemned by his own conscience if he pleaded that he had done no wrong, but simply had taken a neutral position over against his duties. 2) It is psychologically impossible for man, endowed with intellect and will, to remain neutral even for a moment. If his mind and will are not attached to God, they are attached to some creature, and that is apostasy from God, as Christ expressly states Matt. 6:24: “No man can serve two masters.”

It is a grave error to say that only conscious and deliberate action against God’s will constitutes sin. According to Scripture, the evil condition in which man is born and which he cannot change is sin, as is clearly shown in Eph. 2:3: “And were by nature the children of wrath.” And Scripture further bears witness that this evil condition does not lose its sinful character even when the Christian detests it. The Apostle declares: “The evil which I would not, that I do… . O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:19, 24.) Over against this prevalent error the Lutheran Church adheres strictly to Scripture. The Apology designates the teaching that consciousness, deliberation, voluntariness, belong to the essence of sin as a pagan error. “In the schools they transferred hither from philosophy notions entirely different, that, because of passions [inborn evil inclinations] we are neither good nor evil, we are neither deserving of praise or blame. Likewise, that nothing is sin, unless it be voluntary. (Inner desires and thoughts are not sins, if I do not altogether consent thereto.) These notions were expressed among philosophers with respect to civil righteousness, and not with respect to God’s judgment.” (Trigl. 117, 43.) These papistical views have been taken over by modern theologians like Hofmann, who says: “As long as the Ego is still in a stage of development, one cannot say in like manner as later that it is the subject committing the sin; it becomes such a subject in the measure in which it becomes a true Ego, beginning to determine itself consciously or rather permitting itself to be determined by the innate sin.”16