Yes.steve7150 wrote:Didn't Paul say that if not for the law we would not know what sin is and James said if we break one law it's the equivalent of breaking the entierty of the law.
The Roman church contained both Jewish and Gentile believers. In his letter to them, Paul sometimes addressed Jews and sometimes Gentiles. But he wrote as a Jew, and he was brought up to think of sin as any failure to follow the Mosaic law. But let's be clear about this in our own lives. Do you think that people who know nothing about the Mosaic law don't know when they have done wrong? If a man have takes monetary advantage of a poor person, does he have no idea that he has done wrong? Does he think there's nothing wrong with killing someone, since he is unfamiliar with the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill"? Does he think it fine to torture his enemies? And so with thousands of other evil acts.Paul wrote:What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” (Romans 7:7)
Nikki Cruz, a street gang leader, killed many of his enemies. He put on a big front before his gang members, but he went to bed every night under deep conviction for his wrong doing. He knew nothing of the Mosaic law. But thankfully, he repented (had a change of heart and mind), because David Wilkerson wouldn't give up on him, even when Nikki threatened to kill David. Nikki then became a disciple of Messiah Jesus, and then became a spiritually-powerful evangelist. I heard him once at Bemidji, Minnesota. Hundreds of people came forward to give their lives to Messiah.
I'm not sure what you're asking here. Are you asking what word(s) should be used to describe breaking the Mosaic law, if the word "sin" does not apply? Or are you asking what "sin" is, if it's not the breaking of the Mosaic law?If breaking the law is not sin then what is it?
Sabbath keeping was but a ritual law of the Jews? It's one of the ten commandments. All of the others are clearly moral laws.RE your example , my understanding of the law is that there are ritual laws which you gave an example of and there are moral laws which if broken constitute sin.
There are actually EIGHT different Greek words in the New Testament for "sin." One of them, "ἁμαρτια" ORIGINALLY meant "missing the mark." But at the time the New Testament was written, the meaning was broadened to include any kind of wrongdoing.My understanding of sin biblically speaking is that it means "missing the mark" , the mark being God's law.