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 “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled.”

God created the world and humanity good. Yet, we find in our world the stubborn fact of sin. In one sense, our greatest dignity and identity is wrought through free will, but choice also makes possible our sinfulness and rebellion. The first truth concerning sin is that it is not ontologically sourced in God.

The Bible clearly depicts the perfection and goodness of our heavenly Father. “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:13-16). Moreover, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (I John 1: 5).

The Bible gives the story of the original fall which details temptation and the eternal existential consequences. The Apostle Paul reveals that something profound happened to humanity in the fall of Adam. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Sin entered the world through Adam and proliferated with the result of physical and spiritual death. “Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). The Apostle Paul relates, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary, sin means literally “missing the mark.”

(I John 3:4) “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” The word is related to an action or behavior which is contrary or deficient from the standard required, commanded, and expected by God. It also in some Biblical contexts carries the notion of power. Sin can exert hegemony and control over a person. Jesus relates, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” The Scriptures also say, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6: 12-14).

Sin spiritually estranges us from God which isolates us from life and being itself. (Isaiah 59: 1,2) “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you.” The Scriptures characterize humanity’s dilemma as spiritual death because of sin. “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Ephesians 2: 1-3). Salvation must come in terms of a new birth (John 3). “Those who are born once (physically) will die twice (physically and eternally); however, those who are born twice (physically and spiritually) will die only once (physically).” (Geisler 2004)

The holiness of God stands in contrast to our sinfulness. The Bible puts this into stark terms, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). Isaiah when confronted by an appearance of the Lord reacted, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). Peter similarly with Christ, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

We are sinful. (Romans 3:23) “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Our recalcitrance is rooted in our own inner being “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Our salvation must be found in God. The Apostle Paul details the magnificent grace and intervention of the Father through Jesus Christ, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14).