Me: We have to wait a while.
Prodigal: That is fine, we can do something else while we wait.
Me: Let me share the latest in what I have been reading.
This is from the Cross of Christ by John R. W. Stott
The New Testament uses five main Greek words for sin, which together portray its various aspects, both passive and active. The commonest is hamartia, which depicts sin as a missing of the target, the failure to attain a goal. Adikia is “unrighteousness” or “iniquity”, and poneria is evil of a vicious or degenerate kind. Both these terms seem to speak of an inward corruption or perversion of character. The more active words are parabasis (with which we may associate the similar paraptoma), a “trespass” or “transgression”, the stepping over a known boundary, and anomia, “lawlessness”, the disregard or violation of a known law. In each case an objective criterion is implied, either a standard we fail to reach or a line we deliberately cross.
It is assumed throughout Scripture that this criterion or ideal has been established by God. It is, in fact, his moral law, which expresses his righteous character. It is not the law of his own being only, however; it is also the law of ours, since he has made us in his image and in so doing has written the requirements of his law in our hearts (Rom 2:15). There is, thus, a vital correspondence between God’s law and ourselves, and to commit sin is to commit “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4), offending against our own highest welfare as well as against the authority and love of God.
He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat Psalm 127:14
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
