The Sin Cycle

Why do I do the things I know I shouldn’t do? Why do others fail when it comes to being obedient to God’s will in their life? Why is it so easy to end up at the wrong place, at the wrong time doing something that will only bring disaster in my life?

These have been valid questions through the ages as Christians and non-Christians alike struggle with sin. I believe even the mightiest among us struggle with sin and its consequences. Even the apostle Paul in the book of Romans laments this question. Romans 7:14-24 NLT, “So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So, I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?”

Thankfully in the next chapter, Romans 8, Paul gives us the answer and the essence of our new covenant in Christ Jesus. Understanding the sin cycle in our life is paramount to walking in victory. There are four stages of the sin cycle and at any point our forward motion toward sin, missing God’s perfect will in our lives, can be halted. Pride, rebellion, deception and perversion are the four stages.

• The origin of sin is pride. The Greek word for pride, is “huperephania –to appear over. It

  means haughtiness, arrogance, ostentatious pride bordering on insolence and a disdainful

  attitude toward others. It is used in Mark 7: 14-23 as Jesus challenges the Pharisees

  concerning the sin in their hearts.

• Rebellion follows pride in the sin cycle. The Greek words for rebellion are “antilogia - contradiction and apeithes – unbelieving or disobedient.” While we often see rebellion

  as a person’s outward appearance or outward actions, the scripture explains rebellion as a matter of the heart. When we walk in pride and appear to know more than God, we easily move into contradiction, unbelieving and disobedient behavior.

• Deception in the Greek “exapatao – to seduce wholly, deceive.” This stage in the sin

  cycle describes someone taken in, and enslaved by Satan, sin, and darkness. While we use the term “deception” lightly, the scripture assigns great force to it using terms like completely and wholly.

• Perversion is the final stage of the sin cycle. It is the Greek word, “diastrepho – opposite from the shape/form it should be, twisted. At this point in the sin cycle we have become someone we never intended to be. We are shaped by sin and twisted.

There are many individual examples in the Bible of this sin cycle but for this article I would

like to point you to the book of Judges and the sin cycle of an entire nation. Please take time

to read the whole book of Judges and note the cycle of apostasy, oppression, repentance, and

deliverance experienced by the nation of Israel. The key to the plight of the nation is found

in the repeated verses of Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19: 1, and 21:25 “In those days there was no king

in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

When we live, without making Jesus Christ our Lord and king – doing what is right in our

own eyes – we enter the sin cycle and live the defeated life. At any stage along the way we

can repent of our pride, humbly ask Jesus to become the “the boss, the king” and live a

victorious life led by the Holy Spirit.