How Deep Is Our Sin?

2016-08-07

Sin has been defined in various ways. It could be defined as rebellion against God. It also could be defined as “missing the mark” or coming short of God’s standard for us. These are 100% correct. Let us look how deep the issue of sin is. I see four possible levels of sin.

Sinful Actions

What we most think about when we hear about sin is the bad stuff we do. We use it as a verb. We sin. Take a look at this scripture as an example:

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21)

Notice how most of these terrible things have to do with things that we do. Things such as adultery, fornication, witchcraft and drunkenness are all related to bad things that we do. Some of these things are extremely evil. However, if we limit the definition to action, we are fooling ourselves.

Sinful Thoughts

Actions are conceived from the thoughts we think. Let us consider this famous scripture:

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)

This is from Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. He was teaching people the real issue about how sinful they really were, and we are no different from the original audience of that sermon. If you look at someone lustfully, you are guilty of already committing adultery. What you think makes you just as guilty before God as if you were to go out and do the action!

Potential Sin

Let us look at another level of sin:

“And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the LORD hath shewed me that he shall surely die. And he settled his countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.” (2 Kings 8:10-13)

Elisha the prophet was talking to Hazael the future king of Syria. The LORD showed Elisha the terrible things that this man was going to do, and the prophet told the future king. Hazael responded that only a dog would do such a thing! Such an evil thing never even entered his mind to do! But what does he do? He returned home to kill the king, and succeeded him on the throne, and waged war against Israel.

What does this mean for us? What might truly disgust us today as wicked sin might be something that we commit, and even enjoy, in times to come. I truly believe that any human being, you and me, could potentially commit any kind of sin apart from the grace of God. Adolf Hitler, ISIS, mass shooters, you name it, we all could be there. Which leads me to the last point...

We Are Sin

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners...” (Romans 5:19).

Who we are is the problem. Sin is not something we merely do, think, or potentially do or think. It is our very nature. The first human beings, who rebelled against God, passed that sinful nature on to the rest of us. From conception we were sinners and rebels before God, inherently wicked and evil, appointed to nothing but wrath.

The Remedy

But let us finish the verse:

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19)

The sinlessness of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, saved us by His obedience, namely, His death on the cross for our sin and His rising again. Because of our hopeless condition, Jesus Christ satisfied the wrath of God that we deserved. The innocent died for the guilty.

Jesus Christ is the only remedy of sin. When we believe that God’s wrath was satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ by His death and His subsequent resurrection, we are saved from the wrath of God that our sin deserves. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The wrath of and the enmity with God are gone, and we have a new nature. This takes care of the root problem we have.

The Warning

But lest we forget, the sin nature we were born with is alive and well in our flesh. We can sin in thought, word, and deed. The potential is still there to sin in a great way, which is where we must learn dependency and trust in Jesus Christ. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).