Sin in the Bible

Sin is everywhere. It involves both action and inaction. It’s contrary to God. But sin doesn’t have the last word.

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:54-57, NIV)

Sin Is Everywhere

Sin exists. We see the evidence of living in a fundamentally broken world every day. Disaster, disease, and death are realities we all must deal with.

As of this writing, I (Tim) am experiencing the world’s curse of disease. For days on end, I haven’t been able to talk at all. Although I am sick and confined to home, Bob the bloodhound seems to like the arrangement just fine.

I think he just likes the solidarity of being with somebody who can’t talk and has to lie around the house all day. What’s more, I believe Bob takes some sort of perverse pleasure in howling, knowing that I can’t bark back at him. Sheesh. It’s a dog’s life.

Sin is everywhere – in our hearts, in our world, in our institutions, and in our families. It’s on television, the internet, social media, and our electronic devices. And, apparently, it is even in our desserts (oh, the decadence of chocolate!). If it takes one to know one, we are all experts on being sinners.

Both Active and Passive

In the Bible, sin is serious business. Sin is things we do (1 John 3:4) as well as things we leave undone (James 4:17); it is both actively breaking of God’s commands, and passively avoiding them.

Christians throughout the ages have generally understood that The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and Christ’s law of love (Luke 10:27) constitute a brief summary of God’s holy and moral instruction for humanity.   These are based in the character of God as a holy and loving Being.

Sin, then, may be defined as anything in a person which does not express, or is contrary to, the basic character of God.

Contrary to God’s Character

All sin, whether active or passive, has as a root attitude of self-centeredness – the bent of thinking more about self than of God. And, oh my, the consequences that such an attitude results! Sinful attitudes bring:

This all means that we are guilty of transgressing basic morality. We fail to be ethically virtuous people on any on-going consistent basis.

I understand this sounds like a total Debbie-Downer. Actually, it’s total depravity. Being depraved people does not mean we are never capable of doing good; it just means that sin has profoundly touched everything in our lives, without exception.

Sin Is Not the Last Word

Paradoxically, experiencing true joy and comfort comes through knowing how great our guilt is. We live above sin by being set free from it by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

To be redeemed from sin, a provision is needed. In Christianity, sin has been dealt with once and for all through the person and work of Jesus. Christ is our representative, taking our place with the punishment we deserved (Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 2:9-15; Hebrews 2:17-18; 1 John 2:1).

Jesus Christ is our ultimate substitute (Romans 5:8)…

Which resulted in our redemption (Ephesians 1:7)…

Leading to a satisfaction of all justice (Romans 3:25)…

Bringing reconciliation with God (Romans 5:10)…

And putting sin to death, making us complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10).

So, then, gratitude is the appropriate response. Christians ought to be the most thankful and gracious people around because they are forgiven people. And they ought to be the last people on earth that walk around looking like they were baptized in pickle juice. A lack of joy and celebration betrays a lack of Christianity (Luke 15:25-32).

Sin is awful, destroying everything it touches and leaves terrible consequences in its wake. But grace always has the last word.

Sin is really bad. Jesus is supremely good. Christ has overcome the worst that sin can throw at him.

Thank you, Jesus.

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