Sin

In  March of 320 A.D., the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, Licinius, issued an order that all Roman soldiers under his authority were to offer a sacrifice to their emperor. 

At that time, the Roman 12^th Legion was encamped at Sebaste in present-day Turkey.  Among that legion were 40 Christians who refused to sacrifice to Licinius.  They had been exemplary soldiers, well liked by all.  The Roman officers tried to persuade them to sacrifice but they refused.  They were first offered reward then tortured over several days.  The 40 men stood firm. Finally, the command came to execute them.   The forty brave men were stripped and marched onto a frozen pond nearby.  They were promised if any of them chose to sacrifice, that soldier would be spared.

Guards were stationed around the pond.  Tempting warm bathes were placed at the perimeter.  Throughout the night, the 40 freezing Christian soldiers could be heard praying for God to give them strength and singing His praises, but their voices faded.  One soldier was finally seen crawling to the edge of the pond and climbing into one of the baths.  The shock of the warm water was such that he fell into convulsions and died.  The soft prayers for strength continued now by the 39 remaining.

Suddenly, one of the guards, convicted and in awe of the valor of the Christians, his brothers in arms, shed his clothes and ran onto the ice to restore the count to 40 brave soldiers for Christ.  He died with the others after first receiving Christ.

When the bodies were collected for burning the following morning, a young man among them was found to be alive.  He was a local village boy, and his mother had stood all night and now wept as they piled the bodies into wagons.  One soldier motioned to the mother to come.  He told her she should take her son home and revive him.  Startled, she cried “Can I deny my son the joy of entering glory with his comrades?”  She then picked up her son proudly and placed him on the cart with the others.

There are hundreds of stories like this recorded throughout church history.  But, this post is about sin and what it is.

In English, we place an “a” at the beginning of some words to make them mean the opposite: “atheist” instead of “theist,” for example, or “amoral” rather than “moral.”  Greek has the same rule.

The Greek word for “witness” is “martyria” (John 1:7) from which we get the word, “martyr.”  You and I think of martyrs as those who gave their lives for their faith, people like the 40 soldiers.

One Greek word for “sin” is “armatia” (Matt. 12:31)   The “a” is added to the beginning of the word to create a negative.  So, actually, the word for sin means “not martyria:” “not a witness,” “not a martyr.”  So sin, then, is when we’re not martyrs.

When a person joins the military, he or she raises their hand and recites an oath which is understood as a commitment, a willingness to sacrifice everything up to and including their life to protect this country and its constitution.  We as Christians take a similar oath when we ask Jesus to take charge of our lives, when we make Him our Lord.  We pledge all we have up to and including our lives. 

While we may never be called upon to sacrifice as the soldiers did, we have taken the oath.  The willingness should still be there.  We’ve signed the bottom line.  Our lives are not ours but Christ’s to spend as He wishes. Anything less than that on our part is sin.