"You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong..." (Hab. 1:13, ESV).
"... Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6, ESV).
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way..." (Isa. 53:6, ESV).
"[T]he only part of Christian theology that can really be proved [is original sin]."--G. K. Chesterton, Christian apologist
"What's wrong with the world?" "I am. Yours truly, G. K. Chesterton."
"We have done those things we ought not to have done and we have left undone those things we ought to have done."--The Book of Common Prayer (Anglican).
God doesn't just frown upon sin or disapprove of it, He cannot stand the sight of it and it has no place in His presence (much like matter versus antimatter)--He cannot even countenance evil per Hab. 1:13. Sin isn't a bad enough word to describe our virus of rebellion; it's the ultimate killjoy word that many preachers refuse to mention even in passing since it has offensive power, even to the elect. It's the job description of the Holy Spirit alone to convict of sin (cf. John 16:13), but we must resort to the power of the Word of God to do the work. We only need to be exposed to the light to see our darkness: "the law is given to convince us that we fail to keep it," according to D. James Kennedy.
Sin has been characterized many ways to bring the point home that it's our legacy and birthright that we cannot escape--in fact, we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin by virtue of already being in sin! Yes, we go astray and lie even from the womb according to Psalm 58:3. To illustrate the essence of sin, one should see it as man's ultimate Declaration of Independence from the authority and government or sovereignty of God over one's life--to be the "captain of your soul and master of your fate" like in the humanist poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley. It could be called an act of autonomy or self-rule over God-rule. In this sense, sin is rebellion and being volitionally defiant. We all miss achieving the perfect standard or "missing the mark" (hamartia in Greek) which was set by Jesus' perfect sin-free life of righteous obedience to the Mosaic law.
Many people feel that they don't commit many sins, but they don't realize that what we fail to accomplish or do in the Lord's name as we ought are sins of omission. "I coulda, woulda, shoulda!" The Westminster Catechism (ca. 1646) defines sin as "any want of conformity unto or transgression of, the Law of God." It has also been precisely defined as "any thought, word, action, omission, or desire contrary to the law of God" by Charlie Riggs of the BGEA. Clearly, all wrongdoing is sin! What is ironic is that the closer our walk with Christ, the more clearly we sense our sin and get convicted--Samuel Rutherford said to"pray for a lively sense of sin, the greater the sense, the less sin."
Jesus revolutionized the concept of sin, since the Pharisees had merely externalized it and portrayed it only as certain behavior that can be seen, but Jesus read their hearts and said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and evil proceeds in Mark 7. Proverbs 23:7 reiterates: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Dr. Karl Menninger, MD, said that sin is the "refusal of the love of others" [namely, God's]" in his landmark book Whatever Became of Sin? Even psychiatrists are putting it back into the equation as persons being responsible for their own choices and beginning to use the term again according to Billy Graham. Sin is self-defeating and destructive as God warned Cain in Gen. 4:7 (NKJV): "...And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it" ["sin wants to destroy you, but don't let it"].
There is no way to defeat sin apart from God's grace, we are slaves to it before salvation! The paradox is that God really wants what's best for us, and even the rules concerning sexual immorality are only for our good and to watch over our soul and it's purity and health. Sin is just not God's plan for man, but something He permits or allows, and will ultimately judge and do away with by sending it all to hell. The point is that if we couldn't sin we would be robots and couldn't obey God of our own free will or choice. We either choose for or against God with our behavior and thought life. After salvation, we don't have the right to live in sin, but have the power to defeat it, the power to live in the Spirit.
We cannot blame anyone else for our personal sins, and we certainly cannot judge Adam and Eve for the Fall and believe we would've done anything different--we all repeat their sin. Their sin was the prototype of all sin and if we analyze it we can see as they: spurned His grace; contradicted His truth; rejected His authority; disputed His wisdom; repudiated His justice; even resisted His grace (unknown source)! In short, they didn't take God's Word at face value or take Him at His Word, but were, in effect, unbelievers--Eve first doubted God's Word, then questioned it, she believed Satan's rationalization, then disbelieved God's Word, then finally disobeyed it outright of her own volition in rebellion--and Adam didn't intervene or help her, but was cowardly and irresponsible--both sins.
We all have eaten of the Proverbial Apple and have duplicated Adam's sin, and become defiled by a sin nature and stand in solidarity with Adam before our salvation! Note that the first couple didn't choose evil, they chose self over God--they didn't know what evil was yet. (Idolatry is always putting self or something in God's place or where it belongs in God's plan or order.) Adam and Eve thought God was holding out on them, with the help of the serpent's guile and deception. Note that many scientists blame man's problems on the environment and society, especially psychologists, but the first sin was completed in perfect surroundings--the garden of Eden. We are just like our first parents seeking our own good, delight, and wisdom--the essence of sin is selfishness. We must look inward and blame ourselves for our shortcomings and failures, not play the blame game and point fingers--we must assume responsibility for our own sins--"the soul that sinneth shall die" (cf. Ezek. 18:4).
You could say that we are great sinners and totally depraved--not utterly depraved, since God restrains evil--though we are not as bad as we possibly could be, we are as bad off as possible. Every element of our nature falls short and is tainted with sin, just like being a little pregnant, we cannot be a little sinful or depraved. If sin were yellow, we'd be all yellow! Our wills, hearts, bodies, and even intellect are stained by sin and only the blood of Jesus can cleanse us and make us clean enough to enter God's presence. It has been said by William Jay of Bath: "I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior." This is very humbling but also encouraging--no one is too far gone or too bad to be saved, but bad off enough to need salvation!
The catch-22 is, therefore, that we must see how bad we are to be good or repent, but we don't know how bad we are till we've tried to be good. The terrible double whammy of sin is that it not only estranges and alienates us from God and others, but it enslaves and traps us and has power over us and the only freedom is to be set by Christ (cf. John 8:36). Salvation is not only forgiveness of our sin but the power to overcome it and eventually deliverance from its presence. We are not basically or inherently good, period, nor are we ever good enough to be saved; we are bad enough to need salvation!
There's just no escaping our birthright which is really a virus or disease that devours us and destroys us in the end apart from grace. Sin becomes neutralized in effect for us when we make up pretty names for it and refuse to call a spade a spade--this is the mere escaping reality and not owning up to our sin as God sees it. It is by grace that we get convicted of our sin, as Paul called himself the "chief of sinners" (cf. 1 Tim. 1:15) and John Bunyan wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. This should be encouraging because this means there's hope for everyone and no one is beyond the reach of God's grace!
The real, cold reality of sin is that we don't break God's laws, they break us, but we break God's heart in our sinning. Just like you cannot get away with violating the laws of nature without consequence, it's likewise with God's divine laws of morality defining sin. We can praise God that Jesus is the Answer to the sin problem: as our Prophet, He frees us of our ignorance of it; as our Priest, He is the offering and releases us from the guilt of it; and as our King, He frees us from the power of it.
In closing, let me mention that Christians are still sinners in that they sin (cf. Gal. 2:17), but we are called "saints" because in God's eyes Christians are justified, as God is both just and the justifier of the unjust by virtue of His grace and mercy. In His mercy we don't get what we deserve; in His grace, we get what we don't deserve! It is a sad commentary on mankind that he grows callous to his sins and has the tendency to justify them whatever way possible to silence the conscience. Caveat: we must refrain from making up our own rules or standards of right and wrong as if we judge God; He judges us and is the sole moral center of the universe! Soli Deo Gloria!
"... Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6, ESV).
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way..." (Isa. 53:6, ESV).
"[T]he only part of Christian theology that can really be proved [is original sin]."--G. K. Chesterton, Christian apologist
"What's wrong with the world?" "I am. Yours truly, G. K. Chesterton."
"We have done those things we ought not to have done and we have left undone those things we ought to have done."--The Book of Common Prayer (Anglican).
God doesn't just frown upon sin or disapprove of it, He cannot stand the sight of it and it has no place in His presence (much like matter versus antimatter)--He cannot even countenance evil per Hab. 1:13. Sin isn't a bad enough word to describe our virus of rebellion; it's the ultimate killjoy word that many preachers refuse to mention even in passing since it has offensive power, even to the elect. It's the job description of the Holy Spirit alone to convict of sin (cf. John 16:13), but we must resort to the power of the Word of God to do the work. We only need to be exposed to the light to see our darkness: "the law is given to convince us that we fail to keep it," according to D. James Kennedy.
Sin has been characterized many ways to bring the point home that it's our legacy and birthright that we cannot escape--in fact, we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin by virtue of already being in sin! Yes, we go astray and lie even from the womb according to Psalm 58:3. To illustrate the essence of sin, one should see it as man's ultimate Declaration of Independence from the authority and government or sovereignty of God over one's life--to be the "captain of your soul and master of your fate" like in the humanist poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley. It could be called an act of autonomy or self-rule over God-rule. In this sense, sin is rebellion and being volitionally defiant. We all miss achieving the perfect standard or "missing the mark" (hamartia in Greek) which was set by Jesus' perfect sin-free life of righteous obedience to the Mosaic law.
Many people feel that they don't commit many sins, but they don't realize that what we fail to accomplish or do in the Lord's name as we ought are sins of omission. "I coulda, woulda, shoulda!" The Westminster Catechism (ca. 1646) defines sin as "any want of conformity unto or transgression of, the Law of God." It has also been precisely defined as "any thought, word, action, omission, or desire contrary to the law of God" by Charlie Riggs of the BGEA. Clearly, all wrongdoing is sin! What is ironic is that the closer our walk with Christ, the more clearly we sense our sin and get convicted--Samuel Rutherford said to"pray for a lively sense of sin, the greater the sense, the less sin."
Jesus revolutionized the concept of sin, since the Pharisees had merely externalized it and portrayed it only as certain behavior that can be seen, but Jesus read their hearts and said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and evil proceeds in Mark 7. Proverbs 23:7 reiterates: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Dr. Karl Menninger, MD, said that sin is the "refusal of the love of others" [namely, God's]" in his landmark book Whatever Became of Sin? Even psychiatrists are putting it back into the equation as persons being responsible for their own choices and beginning to use the term again according to Billy Graham. Sin is self-defeating and destructive as God warned Cain in Gen. 4:7 (NKJV): "...And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it" ["sin wants to destroy you, but don't let it"].
There is no way to defeat sin apart from God's grace, we are slaves to it before salvation! The paradox is that God really wants what's best for us, and even the rules concerning sexual immorality are only for our good and to watch over our soul and it's purity and health. Sin is just not God's plan for man, but something He permits or allows, and will ultimately judge and do away with by sending it all to hell. The point is that if we couldn't sin we would be robots and couldn't obey God of our own free will or choice. We either choose for or against God with our behavior and thought life. After salvation, we don't have the right to live in sin, but have the power to defeat it, the power to live in the Spirit.
We cannot blame anyone else for our personal sins, and we certainly cannot judge Adam and Eve for the Fall and believe we would've done anything different--we all repeat their sin. Their sin was the prototype of all sin and if we analyze it we can see as they: spurned His grace; contradicted His truth; rejected His authority; disputed His wisdom; repudiated His justice; even resisted His grace (unknown source)! In short, they didn't take God's Word at face value or take Him at His Word, but were, in effect, unbelievers--Eve first doubted God's Word, then questioned it, she believed Satan's rationalization, then disbelieved God's Word, then finally disobeyed it outright of her own volition in rebellion--and Adam didn't intervene or help her, but was cowardly and irresponsible--both sins.
We all have eaten of the Proverbial Apple and have duplicated Adam's sin, and become defiled by a sin nature and stand in solidarity with Adam before our salvation! Note that the first couple didn't choose evil, they chose self over God--they didn't know what evil was yet. (Idolatry is always putting self or something in God's place or where it belongs in God's plan or order.) Adam and Eve thought God was holding out on them, with the help of the serpent's guile and deception. Note that many scientists blame man's problems on the environment and society, especially psychologists, but the first sin was completed in perfect surroundings--the garden of Eden. We are just like our first parents seeking our own good, delight, and wisdom--the essence of sin is selfishness. We must look inward and blame ourselves for our shortcomings and failures, not play the blame game and point fingers--we must assume responsibility for our own sins--"the soul that sinneth shall die" (cf. Ezek. 18:4).
You could say that we are great sinners and totally depraved--not utterly depraved, since God restrains evil--though we are not as bad as we possibly could be, we are as bad off as possible. Every element of our nature falls short and is tainted with sin, just like being a little pregnant, we cannot be a little sinful or depraved. If sin were yellow, we'd be all yellow! Our wills, hearts, bodies, and even intellect are stained by sin and only the blood of Jesus can cleanse us and make us clean enough to enter God's presence. It has been said by William Jay of Bath: "I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior." This is very humbling but also encouraging--no one is too far gone or too bad to be saved, but bad off enough to need salvation!
The catch-22 is, therefore, that we must see how bad we are to be good or repent, but we don't know how bad we are till we've tried to be good. The terrible double whammy of sin is that it not only estranges and alienates us from God and others, but it enslaves and traps us and has power over us and the only freedom is to be set by Christ (cf. John 8:36). Salvation is not only forgiveness of our sin but the power to overcome it and eventually deliverance from its presence. We are not basically or inherently good, period, nor are we ever good enough to be saved; we are bad enough to need salvation!
There's just no escaping our birthright which is really a virus or disease that devours us and destroys us in the end apart from grace. Sin becomes neutralized in effect for us when we make up pretty names for it and refuse to call a spade a spade--this is the mere escaping reality and not owning up to our sin as God sees it. It is by grace that we get convicted of our sin, as Paul called himself the "chief of sinners" (cf. 1 Tim. 1:15) and John Bunyan wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. This should be encouraging because this means there's hope for everyone and no one is beyond the reach of God's grace!
The real, cold reality of sin is that we don't break God's laws, they break us, but we break God's heart in our sinning. Just like you cannot get away with violating the laws of nature without consequence, it's likewise with God's divine laws of morality defining sin. We can praise God that Jesus is the Answer to the sin problem: as our Prophet, He frees us of our ignorance of it; as our Priest, He is the offering and releases us from the guilt of it; and as our King, He frees us from the power of it.
In closing, let me mention that Christians are still sinners in that they sin (cf. Gal. 2:17), but we are called "saints" because in God's eyes Christians are justified, as God is both just and the justifier of the unjust by virtue of His grace and mercy. In His mercy we don't get what we deserve; in His grace, we get what we don't deserve! It is a sad commentary on mankind that he grows callous to his sins and has the tendency to justify them whatever way possible to silence the conscience. Caveat: we must refrain from making up our own rules or standards of right and wrong as if we judge God; He judges us and is the sole moral center of the universe! Soli Deo Gloria!
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