Is Sin What We Think Sin Is?

The Bible’s little-known metaphors for sin

What comes to mind when you hear the word sin?

Something bad you did?

• An immoral act?
• A selfish act?
• Succumbing to a temptation?
• An action you didn’t think was wrong at the time?
• A frowned-upon behavior, like gossiping or violating your church’s taboo against drinking alcohol?

Something bad you are?

• A character flaw like pride or anger?
• A difficult temperament?
• An internalized shame or guilt?
• A tendency toward unhealthy thinking or behavior?
• A mental health issue you can’t “pray away”?

If you’re a Christian, you probably conceive of sin in one or more of these ways. You likely beat yourself up for your failures, shortcomings, and mistakes.

But two of the Bible’s most common metaphors for sin present a different viewpoint, one that places Jesus’ death on the cross in a very different light.

Sin as a weight

There are many images and metaphors of sin in the Bible, but two of the most common escape our English translations: sin as weight and sin as a debt.

According to Old Testament scholar Gary Anderson

“Readers will say, well I don’t see the image of sin as a weight that often in the Bible or the Old Testament. Well, … the metaphor, to bear the weight of sin, is just rendered “sin” in English, so you don’t see it, but if you were looking at the Hebrew, it’s everywhere.”

The omission is striking. Describing sin as weight is the most common idiom, or expression, in the entire Old Testament, but it’s missing from our English Bibles.

The best, most vivid example of “sin as weight,” Anderson adds, is the scapegoat of the Day of Atonement, as described in Leviticus 16

. The people’s sins are off-loaded onto the goat, who then carries these sins into the wilderness.

Sin as a debt

Starting in the period of Second Temple Judaism

— the centuries between Israel’s return from Babylonian exile and Jesus’ birth — the idiom of “sin as debt” became the standard way Jews referred to sin.

Here’s Gary Anderson again:

“When we look at the Hebrew and, especially, the Aramaic of the Second Temple period, … all of a sudden, the word for debt becomes the standard idioms.”

The “sin as debt” metaphor features prominently in Jesus’ teaching.

In the Lord’s Prayer, the Greek word often translated as “trespasses” actually means “debt.” The word translated as forgiveness means, more literally, “to remit a debt.” Native Greek-speakers would have thought this word an unusual choice for expressing forgiveness.

The parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:23–35 illustrates Jesus’ frequent “sin as debt” language.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. … a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything. ‘The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.” (Matthew, 18:23–35, NIV).

The servant, of course, did not cancel his debtor’s debt as the master canceled his; he did not live out the Lord’s Prayer. For that choice, Jesus’ parable goes, the master described him as “wicked” and punished him.

Jesus relieves our burden

Most Christians describe Jesus’ atoning sacrifice as accepting the punishment for our sins (i.e., penal substitutionary atonement). Because we sinned, we’re unrighteous. God’s justice demands our punishment. But Jesus takes that punishment on our behalf.

Many people find a punitive God tough to love. Some argue that a punitive God is illogical. God allowed Himself to be killed by humanity to save humanity from Himself? And what kind of God would require the torture and murder of His own son for someone else’s actions? Few parents would do that to their child. Are we more loving than God? Is God’s demand for justice greater than His love?

But if we conceive of sin as a burden — either a literal weight on our souls or a debt hanging over us — then Jesus’ death and resurrection can be viewed as freeing us from that burden. Sin and death do not get the final say. God’s mercy, love, and resurrection get it.

Now we can follow the Lord’s Prayer and relieve others of their debts to us instead of keeping score. In Jesus, in the cross, we are free.