I have had a lot of opportunity recently to consider the difference between original SIN and sins/sinning, as well as a distinction between God's Righteousness and our righteousness.
Original Sin came into the world when Adam (and Eve) disobeyed God after Satan deceived Eve into rationalizing and questioning if God meant exactly what she was told He said, opening the door to her choice to disobey God and second-guess what God really intended when He instructed Adam that he could eat of any fruit in the Garden of Eden, except the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. She wasn't even created yet when Adam received that instruction. She got that info from her husband, and something I had not paid attention to prior to reading a book titled "Who Told You That You Were Naked?" written and soon to be released by my friend William Combs, was that it was not God who stated the added directive Adam must have tacked on when he told Eve: that even touching it would bring death. Eve touched - - didn't "die" on the spot - - and took the delectable fruit to Adam.... The woman God gave him tempted him to also disobey, and he did. It was only after He disobeyed that the effect of their action became apparent.
Through that event - - disobedience - - Sin entered the world. Us thinking we can go it alone, thinking our way is better than God's way, choosing our own path without consulting Him: all of this is the root of the evil that man has brought upon himself. Those evils are sins....with those sins being the result of Sin. One is cause. One is effect.
Jesus came to take away the Sin of the world, and pay the price by His death on the cross for original Sin (separation from the perfect relationship with God that Adam and Eve enjoyed prior to the introduction of Sin) as well as all of the resulting sins committed from then until this world ends and we stand before God to either hear: "well done" or "depart from me".
That brings us conveniently to the discussion of God's Righteousness and our righteousness. Righteousness with a capital R is my distinction for the Righteousness that comes from God. It certainly includes 'right living by God's standard' - - but we can't even be Righteous without accepting Jesus as our personal Savior. Righteous with a capital R comes when we ask Jesus to come into our lives. He imputes Righteousness to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. From that point on God no longer calls us 'sinners' but 'Saints'. He sees us as perfect through the filter of His Son because he sees us with Jesus' shed blood as our covering. We appear to Him as perfect because Jesus is "in" us, and His blood was shed to bring us back into right relationship with His Father. That's good, good news! But we still have to contend with that other issue of sinning. Just because we have Righteousness credited to us, it does not mean all our actions and thoughts are righteous. Far from it. But, instead of being "Sinners-separated-from-God" those who have accepted Jesus are Saints who occasionally (or more than occasionally) sin. There is a huge difference in our identity in that.
The thing is, Salvation is all about what Jesus did - - not what we do. We cannot do anything to make God love us more. Love is an action verb and He demonstrated His complete sold-out love for us when He became man and then became the Lamb who was sacrificed for the Sin Adam committed in the act that brought separation between God and man as well as for all the sins of the world since the beginning of time. He gives us His Salvation as a gift He paid the price for - - but then He continues to work with us to work out salvation in us as a daily process.
If our righteousness (right living) could save us, some people might even succeed at being good enough to come close - - but I'm convinced there would be a fatal flaw somewhere, even though they came close. Even the sin of pride at how well they were doing.... "Right living"in and of itself - - being self righteous - - is what makes people compare themselves to others and, aways being able to find someone who is 'worse', easily rationalize they aren't so bad.... At least they're better than "that guy or gal". That's one of the big problems with sin with a little s.... observation, comparison, rationalization - - which leads either to a sense of comparative success or comparative failure. Original Sin made man aware of good and evil and led to sinning as a result.
So - - the bottom line is: Sin came into the world by one man, and one Man (God-in-the-flesh, fully God and fully human) paid the price for that Sin as well as the sins that result from it. Jesus alone makes us right with God, imputing His Righteousness to us because he paid the price we should have to pay. Then we begin the growth process of shedding sins and gaining righteousness - - right living by God's standard.
Big S, little s; Big R, little r.
I am a Saint who occasionally sins. I am not a Sinner separated from God. He gives me His Righteousness through the power of the Holy Spirit. I become righteous by applying what His Word, the Bible teaches me. That part is an ongoing work, which won't be completed until I stand before Him. There is nothing I can do to earn His love or to make Him love me more. But, because He has demonstrated His love so clearly, I want to please Him, honor Him, obey Him.... Big R generates little r in me!
And, for anyone who wants to read the book I referenced, It is
Who Told You That You Were Naked? by William Combs. It will be released April 1, 2017. It is a thorough, thought provoking review that begins with what was initiated in the Garden of Eden and how God responded....
