Does John 1:3 teach that God created sin?

[Bill The Baptist]

I saw a discussion on Facebook about whether or not God decrees everything that comes to pass, including sin (which I am not disagreeing with), but someone cited John 1:3 as evidence that God "created" sin since sin exists and everything that exists was made by him. I am just wondering if this is a proper application of this verse and whether or not this would contradict the reformed confessions that state God is not the author of sin. It struck me as a bit weird to use this verse in this way. What do you think?

 

[puritanpilgrim]

Sin is not something that is created. It is a deprivation of the creation. It's like vacuum. It's exists because of the absence of the air. Sin exists because of the absence of what should be, which is righteous perfection, which is the way God originally created the world. God did not create sin, and neither could he since that would be contrary to his nature, the scripturesa and the confessions. It is important that we understand this rightly, because God's righteous perfection is tied into the gospel. Apart from that we have no hope.

 

[Afterthought]

Adding to/repeating somewhat the previous post, I would say that sin is not an entity (a "thing") but a relation to the law. Evil is the judgment one pronounces on a sinful relation to the law or is a result of a sinful relation to the law. In either case, evil is not an entity but at best, the corruption of a good entity: the exaggeration or absence of that entity.

 

[Goodcheer68]

Sin is ethical, it is not a substance.

 

[puritanpilgrim]

Sin is ethical, it is not a substance.

That is well worded.

 

[Tom Hart]

Sin is ethical, it is not a substance.

That is well worded.

In fact, to suggest that sin is substance is quite Manichaean, is it not?