Preachers tell us not to sin, but what is Sin? People have all kinds of ideas.
"Pastor, is it a sin to play golf on Sunday?" "Son, I've seen you play, and it's a sin for you to play any day of the week."
Sin originated in the heart and mind of an angel, Lucifer, son of the morning. The sin was pride - a desire to be above God. The sin brought God's judgment.
EZE 28:15-18, "You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created, Until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you..."
ISA 14:12-15, "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit."
There was no sin before Lucifer. He became the devil, satan. This great deceiver used the form of a serpent to tempt the first human beings on earth. Sin entered the human race through deception. There is a need to understand the mind of God in reference to sin. This can only be found in the Scriptures. We live in a permissive society. It is no longer popular to use the words "sin, lost, eternally doomed, depraved" because these terms are too strong for "good people." In the church, the Bible class, the private study of God's Word, we can never change the terminology of God to fit the so-called moral standards of society.
God loves the Sinner and is willing to give him mercy, but God never loves Sin and never justifies it. When a Sinner repents he becomes a child of God, he is forgiven for having sinned and he is declared justified, which means he will be treated by God as if he had never sinned. However, the sin itself was never declared right. In our study of sin, the hardest thing to do is separate in our minds the sin from the sinner. One is to be hated and avoided - the other is to be loved and helped.
This may not be a popular study but a needed one in our time. The truth of God always helps, even though it man hurt.
Most, if not all, people recognize the conflict between conscience and conduct. Man has a natural tendency to go astray, to think and act in a debased way. There is a endless struggle to do good but evil is always present to distort, to lead astray. The conflict is real within the heart and mind. Why the conflict between conscience and conduct? Something happened to the nature of man. It happened in the "fall of man" in Genesis 3. Since then, sin has been inherited. To inherit means "to receive from progenitors." We are born with a sin nature. If you doubt this, then answer the question: "Do you have to teach a child to do wrong?" Quite the opposite - you have to teach the child to do right. Were this not true, the sacrifice for sin, paid by Jesus on the cross, was unnecessary. Jesus came and died to impart a "new nature" to all who believe.
People who do not understand the nature of sin are offended when someone speaks of them as sinners. Their defense is usually something like - "I'm a good person, pay my debts, attend church occasionally, am good to my family and friends, am a good moral person -" and on and on they go. The question is not "Goodness." The question is, have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb?" He gives a new nature, making all who come to Him realize that there is no goodness in man. He becomes the source of spiritual awareness and the good things done are done for Him and His glory.
This study is not about the "goodness" of "good people" but rather about the "sin of all humanity."
THE ORIGIN OF SIN
Sin originated with satan (Isa 14:12-14). It entered the world through Adam.
ROM 5:12-13, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so 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."
SIN IS UNIVERSAL
Sin was then, and is now, universal - Jesus alone excepted.
ROM 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
This statement covers both the past (have sinned) and the present (fall short).
GAL 3:22, "But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."
The Sunday School teacher had just concluded a review of the day's lesson. "And now, children," she inquired, "who can tell me what we must do before we can expect forgiveness of sin?" There was a pause, but finally one little boy spoke up, "Well," he mused, "first we've got to sin."
That story shows what may be one of man's biggest obstacles to becoming a Christian. We will never ask Jesus to forgive our sin until we have come to the realization that we have sinned and need His help. Thomas Carlyle said rightly that "the deadliest sin is the consciousness of no sin." Even nature proclaims the fact of sin. (ROM 8:20-22)
DEFINITION OF SIN
Some are fooled into thinking they never sin because they use too narrow a definition of sin. A Harvard psychiatry professor who surveyed 5,000 children was shocked to find that the moral standards of nearly 60% of them are motivated by self-gratification. Many of these kids, the professor says, have been reared without any sense of guilt or shame. Guilt and shame come from feeling we have done wrong, but if we don't know what wrong is, we will not feel guilty about doing it. The following shows the different kinds of sins the Bible describes:
1JO 3:4, "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness."
ROM 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
EPH 2:1-2, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience."
ROM 5:6, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."
JAM 4:17, "Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin."
1JO 5:17, "All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death."
ROM 14:23, "But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin."
In the same way faith connects us to God, unbelief destroys our relationship with God, robbing us of spiritual vitality. Unbelief attacks us in three areas:
1. It attacks our basic trust in Christ as Savior, causing us to try to work for our salvation.
2. It attacks our increasing victory over the power of sin in our lives, limiting our spiritual growth.
3. It attacks our ability to live out our calling to evangelize and minister to other people, making us ineffective in our service to God.
Unbelief gnaws at us from many different angles but the most basic source of it is our own pride, our natural tendency to rely on our own wisdom and strength rather than God's. It also arises from our inclination to try to please other people by fitting in with our culture. Our society's preoccupation with security and comfort also feeds unbelief. "The more we believe in providing for ourselves and trusting in what we have, the less we will believe in God's provision and trust in Him for our security." A culture's prevailing understanding of reality and values, its world view, determines to a large extent how its members think and act. As the western world view - with its focus on the temporal and on immediate gratification - has become increasingly secular, it is more and more at odds with the traditional Christian world view. Yet many believers are unaware of the discrepancies between the two. Mature, open-minded individuals are expected to tolerate or even welcome viewpoints that are, in fact, spiritually toxic. The materialism, humanism, faith in science, and moral relativism of the secular world view are having a very subtle effect. Modern Christians do not deny the existence of God but they tend to mentally disconnect Him from any actual involvement in human affairs. Yet Scripture speaks of our Father as active in our world and its events by sustaining and governing the creation and also as intervening personally in the lives of individuals. From His Word we know that God is absolutely faithful. That faithfulness, rather than our own trusting, is the basis for our faith. It is a simple, three-step process:
1. Trust God,
2. Do things,
3. Allow God to bless us.
By doing all that God enables us to do, we can overcome unbelief. Realizing that faith is not indestructible, we should do all we can to nurture and protect it. Instead of carelessly exposing ourselves to vain philosophies and people who do not share our beliefs, we ought to exercise prudence. Even Jesus was careful to remove Himself from the influence of unbelievers at times. We must see that this is a matter of spiritual warfare. The constant battle we face is not the problem. It is when we stop struggling with unbelief that we have a problem, because Christianity is not faith in a creed or a system of rules but in a living Person.
WHAT SIN DOES TO PEOPLE
JOH 9:39, "And Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind."
The story is told of an eagle perched on a block of ice just above Niagara Falls. The swift current carried the ice and its majestic passenger closer to the edge of the great precipice. The cries of other birds and animals warning the eagle of danger that lay ahead were to no avail. "I have great and powerful wings," he boasted. "I can fly from my perch at any time. I can handle it." Suddenly the edge of the falls was only a few feet away. The torrent of water rushed the block of ice over the great falls. The eagle spread his powerful wings to mount up over the impending doom only to discover too late that his claws had become frozen to the cake of ice. Do I have to say more? None of us is immune to the consequences of sin.
ROM 1:28-32, "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."
EPH 4:17-20, "This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way,"
2PE 2:18-19, "For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved."
THREE FORMS IN WHICH SIN APPEARS
1. In human nature - "out of the heart"
2. In the human mind - "evil thoughts"
3. In human action - "adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, etc.
MAR 7:21-23, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."
THE TOTALITY OF SIN
GAL 3:22, "But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."
PSA 51:5, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me."
1CO 5:8, "Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
GAL 5:9, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough."
PRO 5:22, "His own iniquities will capture the wicked, And he will be held with the cords of his sin."
ROM 6:16, "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?"
WAGES (PENALTY) OF SIN
The wages of sin is something we earn. The term "wages" means we work for an end result. In this life, for a paycheck, for fame, for worldly goods.
ROM 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
2TH 1:8-9, "dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,"
MAT 25:46, "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
JOH 3:18-19, "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil."
RESULTS OF SIN BY A CHRISTIAN
God chastens His own.
Eternal punishment is for the unbeliever. God deals with His own as a Father. A natural father only chastens his own children.
HEB 12:6, "For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives."
1CO 11:31-32, "But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world."
1JO 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
THE ONLY REMEDY FOR SIN
JOH 8:31, "Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You shall become free?" 34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin."
The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus paid the penalty for all sin.
ROM 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."
Have you believed?
JOHN 3:16, "For God so loved this world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
ROM 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
One day a young minister was being escorted through a coal mine. At the entrance of one of the dim passageways, he spied a beautiful white flower growing out of the black earth. "How can it blossom in such purity and radiance in this dirty mine?" the preacher asked. "Throw some coal dust on it and see for yourself," his guide replied. When he did, he was surprised that the fine, black particles slide right off the snowy petals, leaving the plant just as lovely and unstained as before. It's surface was so smooth that the grit and grime could not adhere to it. In commenting on this incident, an unknown author said, "Our hearts should have the same characteristic. Just as that flower could not control its habitat, so we cannot avoid living in a world filled with evil. But God's grace can keep us so clean and unspotted that though sin touches us on every side, it will not cling to us."
The crowning sin of all sins is to refuse the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. People are not lost because of sin, but because they will not surrender their hearts and lives to Christ. There is a difference between "sin" and "sins." Sin is that tendency or disposition to sin inherited from Adam. Sins are the specific acts of sin that one commits as a result of the sin nature.
Jesus came to provide an atonement for sin, not for sins. He came to change the hearts of all who would accept Him. He gives a new nature to everyone who accepts Him - a nature to turn from the old life to a new life. Paul said, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2CO 5:17).
Paul states in a few verses the difference between the two Adams - "So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven." (1CO 15:45-47).
1CO 15:22, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive."
TO GAIN VICTORY OVER TEMPTATION
The promise of 1 Cor. 10:13 is vital for any believer who wants to gain the victory over temptation.
1 Cor 10:13, "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it."
The first step is to be alert, realizing that temptation is inevitable, and the second is to not lose hope, knowing that God will be with us. Based on His faithfulness, we can be sure that the temptation will be within the limits of what we can stand. If God's sovereignty does not extend over the temptations we face, then all His promises are meaningless. We should then face temptation boldly with the assurance that by His grace we can overcome it. God's faithfulness is also demonstrated in His leading us through temptations and providing a way out. Scripture describes several possible escape routes:
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