What does sin mean in the Bible?
In the Bible, sin is presented not merely as breaking a rule but as the breakdown of the relationship between God and humanity. One of the Hebrew words used in the Old Testament means "to miss the mark": sin is a swerving away from what humans were made for. At the start of the…
In the Bible, sin is presented not merely as breaking a rule but as the breakdown of the relationship between God and humanity. One of the Hebrew words used in the Old Testament means "to miss the mark": sin is a swerving away from what humans were made for. At the start of the narrative, in Genesis 3, the first humans eating from the forbidden tree is portrayed as a rupture that ends in distrust, hiding and blame. That chapter grounds the idea that sin is not only an individual mistake but a fracture affecting the human condition. In the New Testament, Paul sums up the picture: "all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." In the same letter, the outcome of sin and the gift of God are set side by side: "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The Bible does not reduce sin to a checklist of offenses; in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extends the command against murder to anger and the prohibition of adultery to the look of the eye, stressing that the matter begins in the heart before it shows in behavior. Even so, the narrative's center of gravity is not guilt but remedy: 1 John states that whoever confesses sin will be forgiven and cleansed, and the parable of the lost son in Luke shows that return is always possible. Understood this way, sin is interwoven with the Bible's themes of salvation, grace and repentance; the related chapters can be read on this site, and the references below go straight to the text.