Thomas Morris in his book, Our Idea of God, discusses how God's inability to sin does not mean that God is not omnipotent. Just because God cannot sin does not mean that God lacks some power. There is no discrete power to sin. Morris says, "There are many powers necessary for sinning in various ways, but there is no single, distinct power to sin exercised in addition to all other powers exercised on any and every occasion of the intentional doing of evil (p. 80)."

Do you have any thoughts concerning that idea?

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Curt Hayashida
member, Community Bible Church (Non-denominational)
Vallejo, CA

Is the ability to sin a "power" - as in potency? Does this not create the very absurdity that he tries to resolve by reference to "no distinct power to sin" ?

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Satch Chikhlia, Reformed Baptist, Surrey, England

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Colossians 3.1

http://www.book-academy.co.uk For FREE downloadable pdf commentaries recommended by C.H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon's works, and Great Puritan works.

exactly. The Bible describes sin in terms of a slave. "He who commits sin is a slave to sin". Sin must be described in terms of inability towards good.

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~Keon Garraway~ Brooklyn, NY

Love for God demonstrated by the love for our children in giving them a God centered education is the only hope for our country. by David Morrow
Pslam 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

I have always seen the argument as God's inability to sin is the same as God's inability not to be God.

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Mike
London City Presbyterian Church
London
England

"Surely, we wish to be orthodox, but we must first learn what real orthodoxy is. Surely, we wish to be progressive, but we must first have a basis to progress from."

Is this any different from the question "if God is omnipotent, can he create a rock so big he can't lift it?" "If God is omnipotent, can he sin?" IMO it revolves around a misunderstanding of the attribute of omnipotence. The hidden premise is that omnipotence means "the ability to bring about the reality of any situation linguistically describable, even logical contradictions." This is, of course, false.

The Law is an expression of God's mind/nature. He eternally thinks/wills that A is wrong, hence to sin would be for him to somehow think/will A and -A at the same time.

I don't believe that sin should be described as "the inability to do good," because Adam had the ability to do good when he sinned. Rather, as John writes, sin is merely "the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4, KJV). It is an act of the will used to break God's commands instead of follow them.

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Davidius
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics

And though the really inspired artist may complain that, with the majority, piano-playing is mere strumming, and painting little more than daubing, yet, the exuberant feeling of having a share in the privileges of art is so overwhelming, that the scorn of the artist is preferred to the abandonment of art training in education. To have laid a production of your own, however poor, upon the altar of art becomes more and more the characteristic of an accomplished civilization. - Abraham Kuyper

The most simple answer I have ever heard to this question is God cannot act outside His nature. Sinning has nothing to do with God's power, but His character. He is a holy and perfect in all His ways. To sin is to violate that character.

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J Baldwin
Keowee Presbyterian Church, PCA
Pickens, SC
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Check Out My Blog: http://reflectjoy.blogspot.com/

Exactly the old rock question, just absurd

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Bruce
PCUSA
Ocean City NJ

Perhaps another way of saying it is that God defines sin. Something is sin because God says it is. It was perfectly fine for Adam to marry his daughter or granddaughter. It was perfectly fine for Abram to marry his half sister. But the minute God said to Moses you can't marry your half sister it became sin. So whatever God does or says or thinks is automatically and intrinsically not sin. So how could He sin? He can do whatever He wants and it isn't sin.

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Tim Vaughan, 48 years old, member PCA church but currently attending EV Free church. San Luis Obispo County, California.

If God just decides something is sin, then His character would change, and he would not be immutable. This passage from Acts 17 pops into my mind:

29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

I may be wrong about this, but this scripture seems to teach that God didn't excuse the sin, but overlooked it because of ignorance.

I am open for correction on this one.

I've given the example of Abram and Sarah's marriage, and how it later became illegal. One can think of other examples as well.

God is unchanging; as it was explained to me years ago sin isn't metaphysical, but moral.

From that reasoning, then God could say tomorrow that it is ok to lie or steal. The reason it is wrong to lie and steal is because lying and stealing are against God's nature.

There are other things that are sinful only because God told us not to do them. For instance, He told Jonah to go to Ninevah, but Jonah went to Tarshish. Was it sinful to travel in the direction of Tarshish? No, but in this case, it was, because God commanded Jonah to do something different. The act was not sin, but the disobedience was sin.

Another example is God's command to Abraham that he sacrifice Isaac.

I would like to thank all of you for your input.

If God had the ability to sin, would that involve a logical contradiction?

What do you mean "if"? Do you doubt that God is unable to sin?

Hello cih1355,

Consider the following definition: Person A's doing action X is sin if and only if person A's doing action X violates one of God's commands.

The definition given above is one possible conception of what is meant by sin. (Note: I am not claiming this is a good definition. It is only being used for illustrative purposes.) In this case, sin is an act in violation of one of God's commands. If we apply this definition to the implication above we get the following...

If God had the ability to act in a manner that violates one of God's commands, would this involve a logical contradiction?

I would answer, 'yes'. Let's say that one of God's commands is that you should not lie. If God could lie, then this would contradict the Biblical claim that God cannot lie. Notice, this answer is based on how sin is defined. As such, before someone can answer the question, 'sin' must be defined.

Sincerely,

Brian
P.S. Zadok, the 'if' in an implication does not necessarily carry the connotation of doubt. It seems your question to cih1355 assumes that it does.

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Brian Bosse
Faith Community Church
Tucson, Arizona
Scientiam Dei

I do not doubt that God is unable to sin.