Theology Series 2: Sin
How Dreadful is Our Sin
Too many times in my saved life have I nearly vomited at the impulsive recollections of my past sins. Two in particular always seem to make their way from my repressed memories to the forefront to humble me of my standing. In those moments, I am greatly reminded of who I was without Christ, and in timeless awe of who I am because of Christ. To us Christians, how dreadful is our sin when we’ve finally come to know the Holy of holies–God. As Christ lives in us, we can almost have a micro sense of what it was like for Jesus to bear our sins in his body on the cross at calvary. Though it is a dreadful burden to remember the sins of my past, I find it to be a refreshing unintentional exercise that refreshes my spirit to take a deeper examination as to how I’ve progressed in my dying to sin.
In my examinations, I cannot help but consider how much sin has impacted our relationship to God and ourselves. Truly at the end of my examinations, it is without a doubt that I am brought to a deeper understanding of how I can serve God and love people greater.
Result of Sin in Our Relationship with God
Sin created an abrupt conversion of our relationship with God from good to tainted. Before Adam and Eve’s fall, we were to have a close fellowship with God as seen in Genesis 3:8. But because of the fall, our relationship with Him turned us away from our good fellowship to alienated enemies. The result of sin on our relationship with God casts four major effects on us:
Divine Disfavor in which God no longer favors us because of our sin. God hates the wicked (Psalm 5:5) and there is even an example of it in Hosea 9:15 where God removes His favor from Israel, Every evil of theirs is Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebel.” God does not tolerate sin, wickedness, evil, etc. When we are engaged in sinful acts, we move into the arena where God divinely disfavors us.
We are affected by guilt in our alienated relationship with God. This is the kind of guilt where we have “violated God’s intention for one and thus being liable to punishment” (Erickson, p553). God planned for us to be in charge of His creation (Genesis 1:28), appointed us as stewards, provided us opportunities and privileges, asked us to worship Him, yet we’ve failed to do the things God intended for us. Romans 1:21, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him…”—we are unappreciative for what He has done—thus magnifying our offense to a holy God and claiming for ourselves the guilt that we deserve.
The result of our sin includes punishment we deserve from God. There must be a corresponding penalty for the sin(s) we have committed. God is concerned in maintaining His justice over all His creation, in which He avenges for Himself and for others (Isaiah 1:24).
For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). God pointed out “for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17). This is a death that we deserve because of the original sin. There are three types of death we can associate ourselves with in our eternal journey. Physical death is death within the world where we are destined to die (Hebrews 9:27). Spiritual death which is the separation of mankind from God. There is a barrier that has been set to alienate us and the only way we can be raised from spiritual death to life is by Jesus Christ (Romans 6:4). Lastly, eternal death. This is the final judgment of our sin(s). It is an eternal separation from God, wherein one is judged for their unrighteousness—these people will be eternally punished in the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41-46).
Result of Sin in Ourselves
We have already been greatly impacted by sin in our relationship to God, yet we are able to find that sin has no boundaries on what and who it infects. Sin has caused mankind to turn to ungodliness for ages. It is an infection that cannot be escaped unless God sets us free. The results of sin in ourselves can fall into seven different types of negative effects.
We are enslaved to sin. Sin becomes a part of our everyday life, habit, and sometimes even an addiction. Paul acknowledges our enslavement in Romans 6:17, “…you who were once slaves to sin…” We wake up and our flesh seeks to be fed by the world. Even in the walk of a faithful Christian, we are chained so tightly that we can hear ourselves whispering, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:15).” We are undoubtedly enslaved by all avenues of sin until we are crucified with Christ and reborn to new life.
Sin causes us to take flight from reality, such as not accepting the consequences of sin. People tend to ignore that death, disease, wickedness is a reality though it surrounds us. Everyday the childbirth pains grow as we get closer to the coming of Christ, and yet everyday we walk by blindside to the realities of the gross decaying of this world, our culture, the environment, and the people around us.
There is a denial of sin where we will relabel things of sin to please our ears and eyes. A grave sin such as abortion simply becomes a human right; sexual affairs and immorality becomes a norm for the sex and body positive movement; the act of homosexuality and transgenderism becomes gender affirming therapy. I am sure we all, have in the past or presently, denied some sort of sin we’ve engaged in or blame/redirect the sin action to uphold our pride. We deny sin because we’ve (at some point) lived in denial that there is a Holy God in our constant presence.
Self-Deceit is an underlying issue when sin is denied. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it” (Jeremiah 17:9). We see the speck in our brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in our own (Matthew 7:3). We would rather look at the sins of others than our own to make us feel superior in our faulty holiness. We may say “we have no sin, [but] we deceive ourselves…(1 John 1:8)”.
Sin causes us to be insensitive as we practice sin and reject God. When this practice is consistent, we become numb to responding to God and His promptings for us. We pass every opportunity of hearing the Holy Spirit because, “through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared (1 Timothy 4:2).”
Self-Centeredness is also another effect that sin has on us. With our sin nature, the only person that we can think of first is ourselves. Everything we do, it is to our benefit before anyone else. This obviously rejects Scripture’s teaching, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4). Sin encourages us to become our own god, to idolize ourselves, and to say to ourselves that we deserve to sit on the throne–not with God, but without God.
Sin leaves us restless. We are never able to satisfy ourselves and are always searching for what can. In the process, the things that we think will satisfy us expands to the point where we can no longer haul all that temporarily fills the void. The human pursuit for rest apart from Christ is a savaging one because only Christ can bear the yoke and give rest to the weary sojourner (Matthew 11:27-29).
How dreadful is our sin? So dreadful to the point that God the Father would send down his own Son to bear our sins so we would not have to. So dreadful to the point that his Son would cry out to his Father to take the cup of wrath away, yet drink it anyway so we would not have to face the wrath of God. So dreadful, that the Holy Spirit himself would be promised to believers so we would have a helper to direct us from sin to holiness.
Every Christian should understand the weight of sin and its direct results—it should lay heavy in their hearts to know what sin has done and continues to do in a world that was meant to be good. I believe it is through the acknowledgement of our own sin and depravity, that we are able to truly behold how holy of a God we serve and how serious He is about His Kingdom coming. Though we should not focus on sin in our living worship to God, we should still be conscious of it so our hearts may remain sensitive to how we can better serve God and love people.
CY
Erickson, M.J. (2013) Christian Theology, Third Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.