The Mechanism of Sin

Sin means doing something contrary to God’s will. Sin is one of the biggest problems we all face, and it is the great enemy of the Christian life. Sin destroys lives, separates from God, causes decay and destruction, and ultimately kills.

Jesus is the solution for all sin. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and then rose up from the dead throwing off all our sins. He conquered sin and gave us the free gift of eternal life. Now the Bible says that sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace (Romans 6:14).

God wants us to walk in victory over sin because Jesus died to set us free. Although we will only experience full victory over sin when we get our glorified bodies, it is possible to experience increasing victory over sin in this life. This is sanctification.

The Progression Towards Sin

How does sin originate and progress within us?

“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15).

Sin progresses in the following way:

We desire something.

We are tempted when we see some way to fulfill this desire contrary to God’s will.

We sin when we grab onto that bait and try to fuifill our desire in a wrong way.

Sin starts with desire.

The New Testament was originally written in Greek. The word for desire in the original New Testament is epithumia. Epithumia refers to desire in general, whether good or bad.

Some desires are good, as in Luke 22:15, Philippians 1:23, and 1 Thessalonians 2:17 and other places. 

Some desires are bad, as in Romans 6:12, Ephesians 4:22, and Jude 18, and other places. Context will tell us whether a use of epithumia is positive or negative, and whether the desire is a godly desire or a lust.

We need to rid our lives of bad desires and cultivate good desires.

The Bible says sin begins with desire (James 1:14). We desire something, and Satan tempts us to fulfill that desire in a wrong way. Temptation is like a bait put in front of us. 

Sin is conceived when we satisfy our desires with the bait offered by Satan. The union between our desires and Satan’s bait (temptation) conceives sin. When we take the bait, we are like a fish caught on a hook, caught in sin.

Not all bait is effective, because the bait doesn’t match up with our desires. For example, not everyone will be tempted to use drugs because not everyone desires drugs. But when we have a desire that joins with Satan’s bait, sin is the inevitable result.

Jesus Was Tempted

Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). The fact that Jesus was tempted meant that Jesus had desires. All of Jesus’ desires were godly, because he was sinless.

Satan offered illicit bait to meet Jesus’ godly desires, but Jesus never took this bait. Therefore he never had sin.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was tempted 3 times (Matthew 4:1-11).

First, Jesus was hungry. He had not eaten for many days, so he desired food. This was not a bad desire, because God would not allow his Son to starve to death. Jesus needed to exercise patience to fulfill this desire in the right way. Jesus did have patience.

Satan came and tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. This bait was to fulfill his desire for food in a way contrary to God’s will. Jesus refused to take this bait, and he did not sin.

Second, Satan took Jesus to Jerusalem and put him on a high part of the temple. He tempted him to throw himself down and be caught by angels. If Jesus had floated around in the sky in front of all the priests, leaders, and people in Jerusalem, they would probably have said he was the Messiah and worshiped him.

This temptation probably played on Jesus’ desire to be worshiped and recognized as Messiah. This was a godly desire because this was Jesus’ destiny. But this desire had to be fulfilled according to the plan of his Father. Jesus knew floating around the temple in the sky was not his Father’s will, so he rejected this temptation and did not take the bait.

Third, Satan told Jesus that he would give him all political power over the world if he would just worship the devil. Jesus refused this, because it’s dumb to worship Satan. However, this was a temptation for Jesus because he desired to rule the world and manifest the kingdom of God everywhere. Satan tried to play on this godly desire and tempted Jesus to sin. Christ refused and got the victory.

What We Should Do

Let’s filter our desires through the lens of God’s word. Ungodly desires are lusts, and they should be crucified with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Our godly desires should be fulfilled in God’s way. Satan may tempt us to fulfill our godly desires in ways contrary to God, and we must not take the bait. We need patience to do things in God’s time.

Finally, we can get the victory over temptation when we do not take the bait from the devil to fulfill our desires contrary to God. When we refuse to take the bait, sin will not be conceived within us, and we will be increasingly sanctified.