DELIVERANCE FROM DELIBERATE SINS

 Insight from a Greek Word in Ephesians 1:7

The apostle Paul informs us of a sad reality in his theological treatise to the Romans: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Jeremiah says: The heart is deceitful above all, and desperately sick; who shall know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Our human nature invariably and inevitably fails to measure up to the flawless holiness of the nature of our God and Father Yehovah and His son Jesus, and this failure is evidenced daily in our lives. We were once: “…dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air [Satan], the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience [mankind]; among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." (Ephesians 2:1-3).

The phrase "by nature," which Paul used in this passage, is the Greek word "phusis," which signifies one's "essence, nature; one's native instinct" [The Analytical Greek Lexicon, p. 432]. Thus, our natural condition, due to our human nature, is that we live lives that fall short of the nature of God - Yehovah. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).

The primary Greek word used in the New Testament writings for this condition is "hamartia," which is typically translated by the English word "sin." That word simply means, "to miss the mark; to fall short of the target."

Our goal (target, mark) is to be like our heavenly Father, to be holy as He is holy: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14-16), yet we know only too well that such a goal is, because of our human nature not possible. However, we should strive to be holy enabled by the power of God’s indwelling Spirit. But even with God’s indwelling power to assist us, we will still fall short of God’s holy nature.

Paul bemoaned this reality in his own life in a powerful self-evaluation found in Romans 7; referring to his life in bondage to sin before his conversion and regeneration: "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:18-19).

Now notice what Paul says in Romans 7:24-25: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus the Messiah our lord! So then, I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

When Jesus became a sin-offering sacrifice on the cross he reconciled us to his God and Father Yehovah. When we die to self, totally committing ourselves to God and are baptised, we became new creations in His son Jesus and were freed from the bondage of sin! Notice Galatians 5:1: “For freedom the Messiah has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

So, we humans - you and I - have a serious problem on our hands! SIN (our condition of falling short of His holiness) separates us from our God (Isaiah 59:2: ”your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”). In some way this great gulf had to be bridged so that we could come into His presence and enjoy fellowship with Him. Yet not one of us had the ability to bridge that gulf. HE had to initiate that act of bridging, and He did so through the redemptive sin-offering sacrifice of Jesus, the only sinless perfect man who has ever lived, who perfectly represented both parties, and thereby brought the two together. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and mankind, THE MAN, the Messiah Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5)

By means of the Father's love and grace, and through the sin-offering atoning sacrifice of the lord Jesus, SIN was dealt with "once for all." The state of separation was removed when God through the Messiah took away the bondage of SIN that afflicted us. It was now gone! Does that mean you and I are now perfect and flawless? Of course not. We still fall short, but that "state of fallenness" is no longer held against those who are new creations in the lord Messiah Jesus. By faith they embrace the gift of God’s – Yehovah’s amazing grace. We are redeemed, and the blood of Jesus continually cleanses those who are in him of all their daily missteps and misdeeds that "by nature" plague and trouble them as they seek to walk in the light as he is in the light.

Notice: 1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in the Messiah Jesus" (Romans 8:1). While dead in trespasses and sin, and thus powerless to alter our condition, Jesus acting as his Father's agent was commissioned by Him to redeemed us (Ephesians 2:5). It was a GIFT of GOD’S GRACE; we did nothing to bring it about, or to merit it. It is freely offered to all, and those who receive it BY FAITH are thereby transferred from a condition of death to a condition of life!

The gulf is bridged, "so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in the Messiah Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:7-8). "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified [declared not guilty] as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in the Messiah Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith" (Romans 3:23-25a).

 Propitiation = satifaction: the Messiah, in His perfect sinless life and atoning substitutionary death satisfied the wrath of God - Yehovah against our sin and against us. Propitiation is God focused and concerns reconciliation. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in the Messiah Jesus our lord" (Romans 6:23).

Yes, our sinful state (condition) has been dealt with by our God and Father Yehovah through His son Jesus. For those in him - Jesus, that condition no longer exists. We are now abiding in a state of grace. "Therefore, having been justified [declared not guilty] by faith, we have peace with God through our lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand" (Romans 5:1-2).

However, we continue to stumble in our daily walk with him, making multiple missteps as we attempt to grow, within that state of grace, to become more like him in our attitudes and actions. As we become more like the lord Jesus, we become more perfect in every way. Now many of our actions that fall short of the mark are unintentional, and at times even unknown to us, and occur simply because we by nature are less than the nature of the lord Jesus, who was the outshining of God’s – Yehovah’s glory: “And he is the radiance of His – God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:3). “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15).

Although the sinful condition has been forever dealt with that in no way removes the fact of our daily failings. The good news is that these individual misdeeds, whether known or unknown, are continuously covered by the blood of the Messiah for those who have received that gift by faith. Yes, if we are aware of those times when our attitudes and actions are short of the mark, then we repent and acknowledge them before our God: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). To deny such failings, or to try and cover them up, is to be self-deluded. We are what we are, but God loves us and accepts us anyway and has made provision for the shortcomings of our human nature. So, rejoice in grace, yet don't presume upon it: seek to grow ever more like Him and His son Jesus with the aid of His indwelling Spirit (Romans 8:26f).

In Scripture there are several differing ways the individual failings of our human nature are identified. We read of "lawlessness" and "lawless deeds." We find such words as "iniquity" and "transgression," we read of "crimes" and "offenses." In fact, Dr. John F. Walvoord, who served many years as president of Dallas Theological Seminary, and who was one of the most prominent evangelical scholars of his generation, wrote an article in 2008 titled "Thirty-Three Words for Sin in the New Testament," with these thirty-three coming from ten root words, illustrating the diversity of meaning when it comes to our "sinful" attitudes and actions.

The apostle John even speaks of sin leading to death and sin not leading to death (1 John 5:16-17), and elsewhere we hear of sins of omission as well as sins of commission, as well as the "unforgivable sin." It can all get rather confusing for those unfamiliar with the original language of Scripture, as well as those who don't yet grasp God's love and grace as it applies to the sinful state/condition and to sinful acts/deeds.

In this present study, however, I want to focus on a distinction we find in Ephesians 1:7. In this text, Paul uses a lesser-known Greek word for "sin," one that appears only 23 times in the NT writings (16 of which are used by Paul; as for the other seven: 6 are used by Jesus, 1 is used by James).

Ephesians 1:7 reads as follows: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (King James Version). Other translations use various other English words: "trespasses" ... "offenses" ... "failures" ... "transgressions" ... "wrongdoings" ... "sinful ways" ... "wrong ways."

The Greek word in question in this text is "paraptoma," and it appears in plural form. Thus, it is not speaking of a state or condition of sin (which would be singular), but of "sins" (more than one; a series of "sinful" acts or deeds). The word literally signifies "a fall; a false step; a stumbling aside; trespass; transgression" [The Analytical Greek Lexicon, p. 305]. We also know that Paul intended something different in this term than the meaning of the more common word "hamartia," for in Ephesians 2:1 he uses both: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins." Thus, prior to coming by faith to Jesus, our "deadness" was due to both the state of sin in which all men existed, as well as individual deeds in which we engaged. It was a double whammy. But, returning to the text, what did Paul have in mind when he used this particular word? Why was it specifically chosen?

Dr. Marvin Vincent, in his classic "Word Studies in the NT," says that the various words for "sin" in the NT writings "are expressive of different aspects of wrongdoing" [vol. 1, p. 44]. This particular word in classical Greek, he states, "is often used of intentional falling" (i.e., to throw oneself down on purpose), "and this is the prevailing sense in biblical Greek, indicating reckless and willful sin; ... it is a conscious violation of right" [ibid]. In other words, it is a deliberate falling short of God's expectation; it is knowing right from wrong, and willfully choosing the latter. Dr. W. E. Vine, in his "Expository Dictionary of NT Words," says it "denotes a deviation from uprightness and truth." This word in Ephesians 1:7 is translated "deliberate offenses" in the "Kingdom of God Version."

"Here in Ephesians 1:7, however, the reference is not to sin (hamartia) as in Colossians 1:14, but to sins (paraptoma) or deviations from the right path. The first term denotes a sinful condition; the second, sinful acts. Forgiveness deals with both" [The Expositor's Bible Commentary, vol. 11, p. 25], thus displaying the rich abundance of God's grace in our redemption and in the removal of the sin-state and the remission of individual deliberate acts of disobedience due to our fallen nature. Dr. Heinrich Meyer, in his "Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the NT," stated that this Greek word used by Paul in Ephesians 1:7 "denotes always the actual individual sins; hence Paul has not mentally included a forgiveness of inborn sinfulness." In other words, Paul's emphasis is on our deliberate acts of disobedience, rather than the universal condition of sin that mankind collectively shared by virtue of Adam and Eve's fall.

Dr. Charles Ellicott distinguishes the two words translated 'trespasses' and 'sins,' by taking the former as pointing more to sins on the side of commission - sinful acts: the latter to sins as the result of a state - sinful condition" [A Popular Commentary on the NT, e-Sword]. Paul, therefore, is speaking of our individual acts which we have chosen to commit, "as distinguished from 'hamartia', which is applied to sin as a condition" [The Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. 3, p. 255].

"Through one man, sin (hamartia - as a state/condition) entered into the world" (Romans 5:12), and the "wages of sin (hamartia) is death" (Romans 6:23). This state of sin that existed between God and man resulted in mankind's separation from God. In Romans 5:15, though, Paul shifts to a different word for "sin," using the same word he used in Ephesians 1:7, thus informing us that the state/condition of sin was the result of a singular deliberate act on the part of man (i.e., Adam - and, of course, also Eve). Paul wrote, "But the free gift is not like the transgression (paraptoma). For if by the transgression (paraptoma) of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus the Messiah, abound to the many." "For if by the transgression (paraptoma) of the one, death reigned through the one (man), much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus the Messiah. So then as through one transgression (paraptoma) there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners (hamartolos - those in a state of sin, in bondage to sin), even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:17-19).

By a willful deliberate act mankind entered a state of sin resulting in death, a condition that all men thereafter experienced. But by another willful deliberate act of loving self-sacrifice by Jesus offered himself as a sin-offering sacrifice on behalf of all those cursed by this condition of sin, so that all men now have access by faith to the gift of life. Thus, Jesus dealt with both the deliberate act, as well as the resultant state that resulted from that act. Paul's point is that both are forever dealt with by God through Jesus the Messiah.

We are redeemed by Jesus; therefore, we are now reconciled to our God. The state of separation resulting from the state of sin is gone, and all our individual acts that fall short of His glory, whether known or unknown, whether willful or out of weakness, are coved by the blood of Jesus. Further, we are now ambassadors of this ministry of reconciliation, sharing this Good News with all around us who need this gift of grace. "God reconciled us to Himself through the Messiah and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God - Yehovah was in the Messiah reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses (paraptoma) against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). Thus, we as redeemed ones are called to "restore anyone caught in any trespass (paraptoma), doing so in a spirit of gentleness" (Galatians 6:1). James writes, "Confess your sins (paraptoma) to one another, and pray for one another" (James 5:16). Jesus taught, "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions (paraptoma)" (Mark 11:25). In the Sermon on the Mount, we find this same statement by Jesus following the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:14). All of which makes the statement in Ephesians 1:7 even more meaningful to us: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses (paraptoma), according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7).

Let us rejoice in the Good News that "God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions (paraptoma), made us alive together with the Messiah (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in the Messiah Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in the Messiah Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not because of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:4-9). "The degree of this forgiveness was controlled by the riches, wealth, abundance, plenitude of God's grace. This forgiveness is therefore a complete, an unqualified, an unchanging one, since it is controlled by the plenitude of God's grace, and that plenitude is infinite in proportion. The freeness of this divine favor in the form of grace, the unmerited nature of God's goodness, is what Paul most frequently magnifies with praise and wonder. This magnificent conception of the wealth of the grace that is bestowed on us by God, and that which is in the Messiah for us, is a peculiarly Pauline idea" [Dr. Kenneth S. Wuest, Word Studies from the Greek NT, vol. 1 - Ephesians, p. 41].