by Darren Meade

Created on: July 01, 2009   Last Updated: July 07, 2009

What is sin? A literal translation from the greek { Hamartia, a verb # 266 in the Strongs Concordance} is "a missing of the mark." Read that again, sin literally translated is "a missing of the mark." In other word you have not been aware of something, of what? Righteousness! What is righteousness? It is not some "goody-goody" way of acting or something that can be attained. Righteousness is a free gift from God, through His grace, provided by Jesus at Calvary. Now I am not referring to our own righteousness - the Bible says that in the eyes of God "all our righteousness are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). However, we have been given the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Through are traditional thinking, we have confused righteousness with holiness. We think righteousness is the way you act, but this is not true. Holiness is your conduct, Righteousness is what you are - the nature of God.

Let me make this clearer. The word translated righteousness literally means "in right-standing." We have been put in right standing with God. Sin, is a missing of the mark, between staying in 'sin consciousness vs. the righteousness of God. May I share with you more of a foundation, before delving into 'sin tags and sin consciousness? Or you can simply skip down to the heading of Sin Consciousness.

We have heard that God will not forgive a sinner until he confesses his sin, but that is not true. God has already provided forgiveness and is not holding our trespasses against us. This teaching about confession stems from 1 John 1:9. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us ..." However, this letter was written to Christians to teach them how to maintain their fellowship with God.

In 1 John 2:1 the Apostle John wrote, "My little children, there things I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation of our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." John was referring to the sins of a Christian, instructing his fellow believers to partake of Jesus' advocate ministry. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son..." God loved us and Jesus gave himself for us while we were in sin. God is not holding our trespasses against us. He is calling us to make Jesus our Lord, accepting us on the basis of Jesus' right standing with Him and, in turn, putting us in right standing with Him. The only sin then,

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