1. Sin

2. Definition of Sin
Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right
conscience
It is an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to
the eternal law
It is an offense against God; saying NO to God,
to love, to personal growth, and to others
It is evil intentionally committed. It is a bad free
human decision

3. Concept of Sin in the Old Testament
Sin is a transgression of God’s law and will and
rejection of His love.
It is “missing the mark” (failure to keep the
covenant.
Sin is a disobedience against the Decalogue of
God (Dt. 28:15-68).
Sin is considered as forgetfulness of God, a
turning away from Him, and as ingratitude
(Num 1-3, Ex. 16:5a, Is1:2-4)

4. Sin is a breaking of personal relationship with
God (Adam and Eve)
Story of Cain shows separation from God
ultimately leads to separation from other
human beings (Gen 4:16)
The sin of arrogance results in a catastrophe
that leads to confusion and alienation (Tower
of Babel)

5. 3 Main Conceptions of Sin
1. Sin is a defilement or stain, the sense of
being unclean before the face of God
2. Sin is a crime, an internal violation of
Yahweh’s covenant relationship (Is 59:2-8)
3. Sin is a personal rejection of a love
relationship
Sin is basically a free, responsible malice of the
sinner and the harm inflicted on other
persons

6. Sin is truly interpersonal: the personal
malice of the sinner offending the
persons of God and neighbour
By committing a sin, sinners alienate
themselves from their neighbours, all
creation, God and their own true selves

7. Concept of Sin in the New Testament
Sin is an ungrateful desertion of the Lord (Lk.
15:11-32)
Sin is an antithesis of charity, an offense against
love (Lk. 7:47)
Sin is a desecration of a person’s own body
because his/her body which is the temple of
the Holy Spirit is destroyed by immorality

8. Lack of belief is the most radical sin: “Ëvery
sin will be forgiven, but the blasphemy
against the Spirit will not be forgiven
(Mt. 12:31)
Sin is lawlessness and unrighteousness
Sin is to love oneself inordinately, not open
to God and to one’s fellowmen

9. Sin can be reduced to 2 factors:
1. Pride – refusing to be subject to God
and not desiring to receive one’s
perfection from Him
2. Sensuality – not trying to permeate
one’s body by the Spirit

10. Social Aspect of Sin
A person’s sin affects his/her fellow human
beings more or less directly by causing harm
to them, which is a deprivation of graces or
friendship with God.
Social sin is committed when sin’s power affects
others and directly attack human rights and
basic freedoms, human dignity, justice and
common good

11. We are still responsible for sins
committed by others:
1. when we cooperate in them by participating
directly and voluntarily with them;
2. ordering, advising, praising, or approving
them;
3. not disclosing or not hindering them when we
have an obligation to do so;
4. protecting evildoers

12. Sins give rise to social situations and institutions
that are contrary to the divine goodness.
“Structures of sin” are the expression and effect
of personal sins. Personal sins constitute a
“social sin”
By committing “personal or private sins” we
dirty & stain the society which should be clean

13. The Proliferation of Sin
Sin creates a proclivity to commit sin
Sin tends to produce itself and reinforce itself
7 Capital Sins engender other sins and other vices:
Pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, sloth or
acedia
inordinate

14. Internal Sins
Internal sins are: Mental Complacency, Evil Desire,
Sinful Joy and Sinful Regret
• delectatio morosa, i.e. the pleasure taken in
a sinful thought or imagination even without
desiring it;
• gaudium, i.e. dwelling with complacency on sins
already committed; and
• desiderium, i.e. the desire for what is sinful.

15. Gradations of Sin
“All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not
mortal” (1 Jn. 5:17).
Mortal and venial sin are gradations in view of the
subjective condition of the sinner, namely,
whether he has separated himself from God in a
sinful act and lost the divine life of grace or
whether he has only diminished the force of
divine life in himself without causing its loss.
Grave and light sin are gradations taken more in
view of the detriment caused in the objective
order to the realization of the ultimate goal.

16. Mortal sin is a deliberate reversal of our option to
be for God and for others. It exists when a
person knowingly and willingly, for whatever
reason, chooses something gravely disordered.
One commits a mortal sin when:
1. there is full knowledge or awareness of the
wrong choice,
2. the gravity or seriousness of the object of the act
(grave matter),
3. there is full and deliberate consent of the free
will to choose a morally wrong decision that is so
intense that it gives a wrong orientation to a
person’s entire life.

17. 4. total conversion to values of limited nature such
as possessions, fame, power or pleasure. This act
implies a contempt for God insofar as temporal
values are preferred to Him.

18. Existential Choice
• the comprehensive and basic orientation of a
person’s life.
• There is a difference between a person’s
fundamental or existential choice and his
particular choices (concrete daily acts).
• Scripture teaches that God looks not only at
man’s deeds but also at his heart and that he
will recreate man by giving him a new heart.
(Prov. 21:2, Ezek. 11:19; 36:26; Joel 2:13)

19. Grave Sin
• a serious offense resulting from a certain
weakness, be it a deficient sense of value or a
lack of moral strength.

20. Venial Sin
Venial sin is a morally wrong option aggravated
by lack of clear insight or insufficient
awareness of the consequence involved in a
“sinful” act, or by the imperfect consent of the
will
One commits sin in a less serious matter and
without full knowledge and consent

21. Conversion and Reconciliation
Metanoia is a change of heart which implies
total reconciliation, both personal and
communitarian
“God sent His only Son into the world, so that
we might live through Him. In this love, not
that we loved God but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the expiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to
love one another (1 Jn. 4:9-11)

22. Conversion: An Ongoing Process of
Transformation
Conversion calls us to the “right” path and to
correct numerous shortcomings and
imperfections (Rom 6:12)
Conversion needs sacrifice and laborious effort
for the salvation of humanity

23. Conversion presupposes the following
conditions:
1. Humble admission of sin and guilt
2. Readiness for the efforts of more
renewal
3. Openness for the gift of grace
4. The sacramental enactment and
realization of conversion

24. Mercy and Sin
“God created us without us: but He did not will
to save us without us” – St. Augustine
To receive God’s mercy we must admit our
faults
1 Jn 1:8-9- We have to admit and confess our
sins