Sin is Like a Game of Darts

When we bought our house recently, one of the things that was left from the previous owners was a dart board. I do enjoy playing darts, but I am not very good at it. I end up most of the time either missing the dart board all together or generally hit nowhere near I intended too.

I will take a look into the question, what is sin? I will break down the definition and then explain why it is important for us to grow in our understanding of what sin is. 

Sadly, there is a lot of preaching playing down the definition of what sin is. We cannot afford to water down definitions just because we are worried about how bad they may respond. We do not want to be harsh either and scare people away from the truth. In these videos I will show you through a game of darts what sin is and how God also plays his own game of darts which is much better than the games we will ever play.

When you watch the professionals play darts, they are all on another level. Yet, as good as they are, there will be times where they will miss a position that they need to win a game. That is the nature of humanity. We can never be 100% every time. We will have bad days no matter how good we are.

So, what has darts got to do with sin? And why is sin similar to a game of darts? What does darts and sin have in common? First, allow me the opportunity to explain what sin is before we delve into the comparison.

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What is Sin? 

Both the Hebrew in the Old Testament and the Greek in the New Testament, share a common word for sin which means to ‘miss a mark’. The target for all of us before God is God’s perfect and holy standards for living. A sinless person is one who does not miss the mark of God’s Holiness. Paul explains this well in Romans 3:23 where he states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” No human can ever nor will ever hit God’s perfection. Only one person ever did and that was Jesus.

In 2 Corinthians 5:21, yet again Paul explains that “He (Jesus) who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we may become the righteousness of God through Christ.” An important phrase here which we will address later is, ‘became sin for us. Jesus never sinned because He was Holy. But on the cross, He ‘became’ sin on our behalf. A transaction took place from that moment we believed in Jesus. We who knew sin, ‘became righteous.’

Another aspect of Sin we must keep in mind is this,

Romans 6:15–18 

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Here we see the word ‘became’ shows itself again. In our original pre-Christ life, we were slaves of sin. I'll dig into that a little later, but basically Paul was saying that before we received Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But the moment we received Christ as our Lord and Saviour, a transition took place that was outside of ourselves. We went from slaves to sin to slaves of righteousness. Now before we get all concerned with the word ‘slave’ as it does have a negative connotation to it; keep in mind that in biblical times, slavery was actually considered a really good career choice. Not all masters were cruel and ruthless. Some masters actually took very good care of his slaves, setting them up for life. When we were slaves to sin, the Devil was our ruthless master who cared not for our wellbeing. It did not concern him that we were dead in our trespasses and sin. He was happy for us to rot in hell with him. But the moment we received Christ, a transaction took place that freed us from slavery to the Devil and brought us into the best possible life choice we could ever make. 

So, sin is in essence a missing of the mark, which is God’s glorious standards. But how do we hit the mark? Can we hit the mark? Will we ever hit the mark? I will discuss my answers in the next point. 

There is another thing that Paul speaks about regarding sin that we should not miss. Our inability to hit the mark that God has set is inherent in all of us. Let us have a look at Romans 5:12-14, 

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

What we find in this passage is two important statements that Paul makes. The first is, “Through one man sin entered the world.” Through Adam, all of humanity is dead in sin. Because Adam sinned, we all bear the consequence of that sin. Sin is imputed (accredited into my account) to each of us by birth. We have already missed the mark and we haven’t even started playing darts yet. 

The second statement that Paul makes here is, “Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses and to all who had not sinned according to the transgression of Adam” No one has sinned Adam’s sin. We probably sinned like he did, but we did not sin the sin he committed. The consequences of Adam’s sin were physical and spiritual death. This consequence fell on all humanity.

This was the game changer for us. Let me however explain this with the dart board analogy so that we can understand its consequences on us physically and spiritually speaking.

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Sin is like a Dart Game

Take the dart board. On it you have all the numbers and the corresponding double and triple point sections for each number. Then of course you have the bullseye. The numbers represent all the attempts we make to try and hit the bullseye. It is like we get rewarded with points for trying to hit the bullseye. Now to give us a glimmer of hope, the bullseye is big enough that it is possible for us to hit it. Mind you, if you are like me, we probably have a one in two thousand shot of hitting it. 

What we try to do as humans is play this game in the hope that if we try hard enough, we might be able to hit the bullseye once in a white which puts us in good stead with God. So, we try, and we try and get discouraged because we just don’t hit the target enough to warrant a good life.

That is the dart game that we play. The game that God plays looks very different. Firstly, there are no numbers on the board. There is nothing we could do to earn any favor with God. All there is when you look close enough is a little speck on the board barely legible to our own eyes. That speck represents God’s glorious standard. It is impossible to see that target from any distance and yet for us to be right with God we have to hit it. 

So what hope is there for us then in this game? Enter Jesus!!

Jesus takes his dart and in one throw not only hits the target, he leaves it stuck on the board. All the requirements for God’s favor have been met by Jesus alone. There is no need for any of us who have believed in Jesus to throw the darts anymore. We can stop wasting our time trying to please God. His favor is met by the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Often preaching for some strange reason points us to the old dart game with all the numbers. And people are guilted into trying to throw enough darts for them to find favor with God. If we focus on the old dart game, then there is no need for the cross.

We all, in Christ, should be playing the game God is playing. The one where Jesus, who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.

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Conclusion

The scripture is pretty clear what sin is and what sin is not. Sin is definitely not breaking relationships. There are breaking of relationships that are necessary. When something like that is said, I am pretty certain that it is being said to nullify the definition of what sin is. We feel the need to make sin sound pleasant and less threatening. But by doing this what are we teaching people?

There is nothing nice about being dead in our trespasses and sins. There is nothing pleasant about Adam's sin being passed down on to us. There is nothing nice about us being spiritually dead. 

Those who persist with this kind of teaching are doing a huge disservice to their people they are entrusted with teaching. What preachers do not realize is that the moment they make sin about the old dart board game, they leave their people with no hope and ho chance. They fill them with unnecessary guilt and instead of producing godly fruit all they do is produce sad and hopeless individuals who know they cannot meet the mark God has set.

Instead, we need to teach the dart Game that God is playing. This is where there are no numbers on the board; no way we can find favor in God’s site, but rather we find a miniscule dot with a dart wedged into it. This dart is from Jesus Himself. What the church doesn't need is guilty, hopeless Christians who see no way to a better life. Instead, we need free Christians who recognize that the old game of darts is not for them, but rather embrace the game God is playing in that Jesus threw the dart, it hit the bullseye, and now when we Abide in Him, we bear much fruit for without Him we can do nothing (John 15:1-5).

Which game of darts will you be playing? The one that sees you failing time and time again because you could never hit the mark. Or the game in which God has established, forever, a pathway that leads to freedom and hope.