I hope that I can help clarify some of these issues.
First is the concept of Sin, and understanding how being a servant to Sin brings death as it's payment.
Romans 6:16-23
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Being a servant also can be interpreted as being a slave, in that according to the Law, freemen recieve their wages daily, but servants must be redeemed after a period of time, at which point they are no longer a slave. To be Redeemed, you or a near kinsman must pay the purchase price to your Master.
Leviticus 25:47-51
And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family:
After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:
Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.
And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.
If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
Remember that the price of Redemption from being a servant to Sin is Death. And Sin being your master is who the debt is owed to.
Isaiah 50:1
Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
Jesus paid the price of your redemption and freed you from being a servant of Sin through His willing Sacrifice on The Cross. He accepted the payment which was owed to you through your labors, and in doing so has made you a servant of Righteousness.
As for the nature of Sin it's really as simple as Black and White.
John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Genesis 1:3-5
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Scott, as I saw in your posting, you are familiar with concordances and seeking to define terms. This is good.
Let's look at the meaning of Day and Night.
Strong's Concordance
Light
'owr {ore} Strong's {0216}
Definitions:
from 215; illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every
sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.):--bright, clear, + day, light (-ning), morning, sun.
see HEBREW for 0215
Day
yowm {yome} Strong's {03117}
Definitions:
from an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one
sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb):--age, + always, + chronicals, continually(-ance), daily, ((birth-), each, to) day, (now a, two) days (agone), + elder, X end, + evening, + (for) ever(-lasting, -more), X full, life, as (so) long as (... live), (even) now, + old, + outlived, + perpetually, presently, + remaineth, X required, season, X since, space, then, (process of) time, + as at other times, + in trouble, weather, (as) when, (a, the, within a) while (that), X whole (+ age), (full) year(-ly), + younger.
Darkness
choshek {kho-shek'} Strong's {02822}
Definitions:
from 2821; the dark; hence (literally) darkness; figuratively, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness:--dark(-ness), night, obscurity.
see HEBREW for 02821
Night
layil {lah'-yil} Strong's {03915}
Definitions:
or (Isa. 21:11) leyl {lale}; also laylah {lah'- yel-aw}; from the same as 3883; properly, a twist (away of the light), i.e. night; figuratively, adversity:--((mid-))night (season).
see HEBREW for 03883
Proverbs 4:18-19
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
Sin can be described as darkness, and the night is defined as the turning or twisting away from the light.
That light is warm, pleasant, holds happiness, and can illuminate so that one can see clearly.
Note that the Day is a passage from that darkness into the light, that also can be equated as a passage of time.
Our carnal nature is a part of that darkness.
Carnal man rejects and turns from the righteousness of God, while the Servant of Righteousness (Redeemed Man) seeks the light and rejects the darkness.
God set this up from Day one, the light and darkness referred to in Genesis is God establishing His Law. He determined and separated that which he saw as acceptable behavior from that which He saw as unacceptable, and from that point onwards the Darkness was condemned.
When man fell under the dominion of that darkness in the garden he was placed under that same condemnation. And because he is in that darkness he is unable to see that he is sinful until he is exposed to the Light of Christ.
John 3:16-21
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Does this help?
I will be happy to go into more detail if needed or to answer any other questions you may have.