HEBREW WORD STUDY – SIN  – CHATA’ – חטא Cheth Teth Alelp

Psalms 51:4: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”

I once had a roommate in Bible College who greeted me on our first day as roommates by saying that he had not committed a sin in over five years.  You can pretty well guess who got the blame if we ever had a conflict. 

Actually, there is a school of thought somewhere in Christianity that once you are saved you will never sin again. After some thought and reading our study verse in the Hebrew, I am almost incline to believe that a Christian cannot sin. Now before I finish this next sentence I am sure you have an entire comment organized in your head to explain why Chaim Bentorah has finally snapped his cap.  But hear me out. I am not saying we cannot offend God, but is should we call that offense sin?  Jesus did die on a cross and all sins past, present and future are forgiven so it is as if we never sin, even when we offend God.  

What I am saying is that the first question you need to ask is not can a Christian sin, but just what is sin. Note in Psalms 51:4 David is saying that against God and only God has he sinned.  Most Bible scholars agree that David is referencing his sing of adultery and murder. I mean how can it be that he sinned only against God.  What about Bathsheba whose husband was murdered by David, what about her husband Uriah, I would think David sinned against him to have him murdered. Where does David get off by suggesting that it was only against God that he sinned?

Note that the word sin here is chata’ which is an archer’s term for missing the mark. Maybe in our Christian understanding of the English word sin, that may not be the right English word to use here.  The words “you only” is lebadeka which comes from the root word badad which means to be separate or apart from.  David is not saying that God is the only one he sinned against, but that the sin he committed against God was separate from the sin against the parties involved.  The sin David committed against Bathsheba  and Uriah were adultery and murder, but the sin against God was something entirely different.  David paid a consequence for his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah. If God forgave him for the sin why did he suffer a consequence?  God forgave David for that separate sin or chata’ against Him, the one that applies to God and not David and Bathsheba.

You see we only need forgiveness from God for the sin we commit against God. God cannot forgive us for the sins that involve our neighbors, only our neighbors can forgive us for those sins. For Bathsheba and Uriah’s family and loved ones only they can forgive David for murdering this husband, brother, relative or friend. God cannot forgive that.  God has His own personal offense that David committed that needs forgiveness. Thus, David is not saying that only God has been sinned against, but David is acknowledging that God has His personal offense for which David must seek forgiveness.

That offense against God was not adultery or murder it was something else. I remember as a child my father had a good friend. They prayed together, passed out tracts and witnessed together.  They volunteered together at an inner city rescue mission, they went fishing and hunting together. They were like brothers, actually they were spiritually brothers. They also went into the real estate business together where this good friend cheated my father out of $5,000 dollars which was a lot of money in those days and for our family as my father’s only other income was as a milkman.  When this man stole the money he purchased a mobile home and left the state and my father never heard from him again until ten years later. 

With a guilty conscious this man came back to our house, unannounced. His wife would not even leave the car but he came to our door to apologize and ask my father to forgive me.  I will never, ever forget what my father said: “Ray, it’s not the money, I don’t care about that at all, I never cared about that. What really hurt me was the loss of our friendship. Don’t ask forgiveness for the loss of the money, ask forgiveness of the loss of ten years of friendship.”

You see, Ray chata’ – missed the mark, the target of friendship, of a Christian relationship with my father. That chata’, however, was not stealing money, it was breaking my father’s heart. Would you say that Ray sinned against my father?  Then ok, a Christian can sin. We do miss the mark as David did in his relationship with God.  It wasn’t adultery or murder, that is clearly sinful. The chata’ was in breaking God’s heart. Why was God’s heart broken? It was because Bethsheba’s heart was broken in the loss of her husband. Her husband’s family, relatives and friends suffered a broken heart over his death. How does a parent feel when their child has a broken heart?  Their heart is also broken, maybe even more than that child’s broken heart.  If a bully bullies a child to the point where he runs home in tears with a broken heart and that bully comes to seek forgiveness from the child, he must also ask forgiveness from the parents because  he also caused them to suffer as well.  He broke their heart just as much as that child’s heart and yes he broke their heart directly just as if he bullied them.  So too, when we sin and that sin causes harm to another person God’s heart is broken for the pain we brought that other person.  If no one else was involved then God’s heart is broken over the consequence of our sin and how it will hurt and wound us and God will suffer a wounded heart because of our own suffering. A parent watching their child self-destruct through drugs or alcohol was die a thousands death over watching their child bring such harm to themselves.  Does not God suffer just as much or more when our behavior brings harm to our oneself?  Is that what we do to God’s heart, then Christians can sin. But maybe we need to redefine what sin is for a Christian. 

We can never say: “I am the only one suffering for my actions.”  Sorry, there is a Father God who will grieve over your suffering.  If you don’t care about what your sins do to you at least care what they do to Father who loves you and is heartbroken over your pain. 

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