Hamartiology

Christians understand that suffering is used as a tool for God’s punishments. Also, Christians comprehend evil as wicked, hurtful, painful, and deathful; the opposite of God’s will allowing them to seek forgiveness (Rubin & Yasien-Esmael, 2004). Christians lived humbly because they depend on God by living life by the righteousness of his faith (Habakkuk 2:4). In addition,

The new covenant, therefore, leads to a desire to do what is right. Righteousness comes from an inner obligation, not an external set of laws. Guthrie points out that the Old Testament sacrifice had weaknesses, one of them being, that sacrifices atoned only sins of the past so new sacrifices had to be made for new sins. Jesus became the new and ultimate sacrifice able to redeem all sin- past present and future. The forgiveness of God allows us to have a clear conscience and prompts us to forgive others.

True obedience is also shown through the sacrifice of themselves for their beliefs. Rather than renouncing one’s beliefs, the religious would suffer persecution for their brethren. In addition, Francis also emphasizes that with obedience comes understanding. As the Lord tells us to serve, it is important to know that we are the givers. Francis reminds us that those who have obtained high authority are no more important than those who wash their feet.

A law is achieved by doing works which God decides if we are performing these tasks with the will of God from the heart. However, one will be punished by God for performing deeds when there is no heart because God is not satisfied by individuals who only do good works when others are watching or to get something in return. (Luther 76). Laws are meant to keep the sinful attributes of individuals under control through the fear of punishment. The law shows anyone that compares their life to Christ’s life who was without sin that he or she is sinful.

The Apostle Paul declares that "anything that is not based on faith is sin." (Romans 14:23) It seems that God wants man to live with his face continually turned toward him in love, devotion, and obedience. The Apostle James talks about how there are sins of commission and omission, for "the person ... ... middle of paper ... ... From mortal and venial sins to the seven deadly sins, the concept of sin can be a tough thing to nail down. Our predispositions about life and the temptations we experience while we are here can bog us down. This can keep us from the real message of good news.

He was the only one that was or is perfect and without sin. Our sins must be confessed before the Father to receive His forgiveness and redeeming Grace. Confession does more than clear one’s own conscience it is an act of submission to being obedient to God. The need for confession is seen in the Word as James 5:16, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” The wrongs we have committed and the wrongs we have suffered weigh us down like baggage that drags the heart, mind and body down. Guilt is a ready tool for the enemy to use against a Christian.

Dorothy Walters describes O’Connor’s strategy: Thus, because she perceives grace as the central need of human experience and redemption as the essential aim of life itself, she also insists on the reality of sin and the inevitability of judgment. Unlike many modernists who complain that God has turned His back on the world, she contends that it is man who now shuns God (35). The most troubling issue of these stories is the struggle to justify such grotesque atrocities as the will of the benevolent God Christians faithfully adore. Arthur Kinney grapples with the matter and wonders how Christians are supposed to believe: Joy/Hulga of "Good Country People," left helpless in a barnloft, robbed of her artificial leg some distance from her home and stranded, invalid, no longer whole, by a Bible salesman with pornographic playing cards and a box of contraceptives, is justly treated (Kinney 71). Perhaps, though, O’Connor used Hulga’s feeble attempts at nihilism to contrast sharply with Manley’s outright evilness.

The way we undergo these acts is by our own free will. Because we do not allow our minds to control the irrational parts of our souls and to perceive the eternal truths/ form/ being/ God, we sin; we allow our minds to be enslaved to inordinate desire. In other words, Augustine argues that we often turn away from the eternal truths, or the ethical truths, towards non-being which is evil because of temporal things. He says that evil lies in one’s intention, and not in their actions because one does evil as a result of their love for temporal goods; we misidentify the goods of the will (virtues) with temporal goods (wealth, honors, pleasures, physical pleasures and everything that a person cannot acquire of have simply by willing).

In John 3:19-20, Jesus speaks of how light has come into this world and been made available to us, but because of our sinful human nature we are ashamed to reach out and expose that part of ourselves.. According to him, we do not accept the light at first because we are scared it may show our true identity. Jesus explains this concept in a non-judgmental way. He is trying to convey that he accepts us no matter what state we are in as individuals and this passage is showing that humanity may possess darkness, but we all have the free will to come into the ‘light’ because he has given us that option to redeem ourselves. We no longer need to fear and hide from it, we can come out in the open and receive what Christ has given to us.

Sometimes it is buried within one’s heart and concealed from all, but the most discerning. The central idea of sin is failure. We sin when we fail to live up to God’s expectations and to the standards of this way of life that God