THE IMPACTS OF SIN IN OUR HEARTS

*THE IMPACTS OF SIN IN OUR HEARTS*

Sin is simply defined as "any action, words, or thoughts" that is against the majestic and glorious power of God. We cannot assume the holiness of God in sin, that's why the scripture says, "nothing impure will enter the kingdom of God" (Rev. 21:27). Sin has great negative impact on our spiritual soul. Prophet Isaiah captures this very well "No, the arm of Yahweh is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear, but your guilty deeds have made a gulf between you and your God. Your sins have made him hide his face from you so as not to hear you. (Isaiah 59:1-2).

This seminar will not only lay claim to the negative impacts of sins to our souls, but will move on to discuss on how much a Christian can transcend sin, especially through thoughts, words, action.

We have two kinds of sin,  Original sin and actual sin. Original, because it owes from our first parents Adam and Eve. Their sins had a great impact to his offspring. We were tainted by sin. We received concupiscence (tendency to sin) from them. Humanity learnt disobedience, faithlessness, mistrust, impurity. But thanks be to Jesus, who restored man to righteousness. Jesus reversed what Adam did, because He obeyed even to death, faithful, trusted God and pure. With Baptism, we deal a mortal blow to Original sin. A Christian, even though has been cleansed of original sin has learnt something which is disastrous to his faith. This is why a Christian is encouraged to make effort to unlearn the impacts of original sin. He has the freedom to say "no" to sins. He has a befitting intelligence to deal with sin. As such "actual sin" is the sin committed after baptism of which he had the full knowledge of it, but went on to do it. (freedom and Intelligence).

In Actual sin, the Church further classified them into two; mortal and venial sin. Mortal sin is regarded as a grave sin and it kills the soul and would definitely lead the sinner to hell fire. One mortal sin is enough to lead one into hell. A sin is considered to be "mortal" when its quality is such that it leads to a separation of that person from God's saving grace.   The lists of mortal sin are found in transgressions against the decalogue (10 commandment), The sin against the Holy Ghost and the sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance, 7 capital sins etc. Venial sin does not kill the soul because it does not create strong aversion from God, but when not managed, will lead one to mortal sin.

Some Pentecostals so much repel the idea of sin classified. For them, there is nothing like mortal or venial sin, sin is sin. They quote James 2:10-11 which says "You see, anyone who keeps the whole of the Law but trips up on a single point, is still guilty of breaking it all."

On this we would all agree that every sin is evil before God whether mortal or venial, but this classification would help us to understand stages of spiritual growth. A person who is still struggling with mortal sin is really far away from God's love than the one who is only struggling with venial sins. In fact, St. James was not trying to talk about this distinction but to emphasize more of the deadly nature of mortal sin and how mortal sins are united. Take a look at the example he gave in verse 11, " He who said, 'You must not commit adultery' said also, 'You must not kill.' Now if you commit murder, you need not commit adultery as well to become a breaker of the Law." We can find this distinction well in 1 John 5:17 "Every kind of wickedness is sin, but not all sin leads to death."