1. Proof.
As it is readily admitted that the outward act of transgression is properly denominated sin, we here attempt to show only that lack of conformity to the law of God in disposition or state is also and equally to be so denominated.
A. From Scripture.
(a) The words ordinarily translated “sin,” or used as synonyms for it, are as applicable to dispositions and states as to acts (חטאה and ἁμαρτία = a missing, failure, coming short [sc. of God's will]).
See Num. 15:28—“sinneth unwittingly”; Ps. 51:2—“cleanse me from my sin”; 5—“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me”; Rom. 7:17—“sin which dwelleth in me”; compare Judges 20:16, where the literal meaning of the word appears: “sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss” (חטא). In a similar manner, משע [lxx ἀσέβεια] = separation from, rebellion against [sc. God]; see Lev. 16:16, 21; cf. Delitzsch on Ps. 32:1. עון [lxx ἀδικία] = bending, perversion [sc. of what is right], iniquity; see Lev. 5:17; cf. John 7:18. See also the Hebrew רע, רשע, [= ruin, confusion], and the Greek ἀποστασία, ἐπιθυμία, ἔχθρα, κακία, πονηρία, σάρξ. None of these designations of sin limits it to mere act,—most of them more naturally suggest disposition or state. Ἁμαρτία implies that man in sin does not reach what he seeks therein; sin is a state of delusion and deception (Julius Müller). On the words mentioned, see Girdlestone, O. T. Synonyms; Cremer, Lexicon N. T. Greek; Present Day Tracts, 5: no. 28, pp. 43-47; Trench, N. T. Synonyms, part 2:61, 73.
(b) The New Testament descriptions of sin bring more distinctly to view the states and dispositions than the outward acts of the soul (1 John 3:4—ἡ ἁμαρτία ἐστὶν ἡ ἀνομία, where ἀνομία =, not “transgression of the law,” but, as both context and etymology show, “lack of conformity to law” or “lawlessness”—Rev. Vers.).
See 1 John 5:17—“All unrighteousness is sin”; Rom. 14:23—“whatsoever is not of faith is sin”; James 4:17—“To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Where the sin is that of not doing, sin cannot be said to consist in act. It must then at least be a state.
(c) Moral evil is ascribed not only to the thoughts and affections, but to the heart from which they spring (we read of the “evil thoughts” and of the “evil heart”—Mat. 15:19 and Heb. 3:12).
See also Mat. 5:22—anger in the heart is murder; 28—impure desire is adultery. Luke 6:45—“the evil man out of the evil treasure [of his heart] bringeth forth that which is evil.” Heb. 3:12—“an evil heart of unbelief”; cf. Is. 1:5—“the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint”; Jer. 17:9—“The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?”—here the sin that cannot be known is not sin of act, but sin of the heart. “Below the surface stream, shallow and light, Of what we say we feel; below the stream, As light, of what we think we feel, there flows, With silent current, strong, obscure and deep, The central stream of what we feel indeed.”