Sin and the Remedy

Biblically, the word sin refers to a couple of things that are related to each other. For one thing, it refers to any specific act or attitude of disobedience against God. His commands are revealed to us in the Scriptures. Therefore, any specific act of disobedience against His revelation, in Scripture, is a sin. This includes idolatry, irreverence, theft, murder, adultery, lying, and envy (Exodus 20:1-17). And it also includes homosexuality, because contrary to what some falsely claim; the truth is that both the Old and New Testament, and Jesus Christ Himself, address the issue (Leviticus 18:22, Mark 10:6-8, Romans 1:24-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). 

So, all specific acts/attitudes of disobedience against God are sins. The Greek word that is translated "sin" in the New Testament literally means "to miss the mark". In other words, it is a failure to meet God's standard of what is good. As the Scripture says; "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). No one can be good without God, because God Himself is the Absolute Decider of what is good. He sets and upholds the absolute standard. We can either obey, or disobey. It is evil to reject God's standard and substitute one's own. The problem is, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". None of us meets God's standard of goodness. 

And so this is another thing to which the word "sin" refers. It refers to the human condition. It refers to the fallen nature of the human race. When sin entered the world through one man, and death came by sin, (Romans 5:12) it affected the whole nature of the human being. As a result, we are all born with a sinful nature, inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Since that day in the Garden of Eden, humanity has been in a spiritual state of rebellion against God. Thus, every specific act of disobedience against God is symptomatic of the spiritual condition of the inward soul. This condition, this fallen nature, is referred to in Scripture as sin. Sin runs deeper than actions. Sin is a spiritual disease.

So all such things as faithlessness, kleptomania, malice, lust, gender confusion, every kind of sexual deviance, greed, inordinate anger, the state of being a sociopath or a compulsive liar; all tendencies and inclinations to disobey God, are sin (Matthew 5:21-30). The Bible says that "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Jesus Christ came into the world and died in our place, for our sin. He didn't just die for specific acts of disobedience which we have committed. He died for our sinful condition.

Those who place their trust in Him are saved by His grace. And having been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we receive His Holy Spirit who works in us to reform our inward nature. This is a life long process. An individual may have a particular type of sin that is a point of weakness for them. The individual may struggle with that point of weakness throughout their life in this world. But each believer, when he or she stands before God at the end of his or her life in this physical world, will be perfected in accordance with His holiness through Christ (see Romans 5:1-2, Philippians 1:6, and 1 John 3:2). So, as we think of sin as a spiritual sickness, Jesus came with the remedy; the cure. This is why Christians like myself sometimes refer to Him as the Great Physician.

You Can't Be Good Without God. And Here's Why.

The rally cry of the American Humanist Association is "Good Without a God". A big problem with the "Good Without God" mantra is that a person's definition of what is "good" is determined by what that person believes. A person who believes in the God of the Bible will have a different definition of "good" than a person who believes in a different god, or no god.

And if God is real, as I affirm that He is, than His definition of what is good is the only correct definition. And so if our definition of "good" is different from His; we may think that we're good, but we're not. And the heart of what God calls good is to be in a good relationship with Him - personally. He is concerned not only with our outward behavior, but our inward spiritual condition; which correlates directly with our relationship with Him. So being good requires that we obey God because we recognize Him as our Father. And that requires faith. As the Scriptures say:

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" Hebrews 11:6.

Some other specific passages that tell us what God considers to be good include:

• The Ten Commandments; Exodus 20:1-17

• The Sermon on the Mount; Matthew chapters 5-7, also see Luke 6:20-49

• The Last Supper Discourse; John chapters 13-17

• The Fruits of the Spirit; Galatians 5:22-23

Some specific passages describing what is not good in the eyes of God include:

• Galatians 5:19-21

• Romans 1:18-32

Now here is another big problem with the "Good Without God" mantra. According to God's definition, no one is good! This is a repeated statement in the Bible. 

• Ecclesiastes 7:20 says "For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin."

• Romans 3: 10-12 says "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

• Psalm 14:1-3 says "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one."

• Psalm 53:1-3 repeats this verbatim.

• In Matthew 7:11 and Luke 11:13, Jesus calls all the people listening to Him "evil"! He says "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

• In John 7:7, Jesus makes a similar remark when talking to His half-brothers. He told them "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil."

• And in Mark 10:18, Jesus gives a personal challenge to one man to admit that Jesus is God. When the man called Him "good teacher" Jesus answered "Why do you call me good? No one is good-except God alone."

• The same conversation is also recorded in Luke 18:19

• And finally, Romans 3:23-26 reads "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."