SIN = BREAKING THE LAW OF GOD

We need to understand Genesis 3 if we are to understand the gospel.

Everything that follows in the Bible comes about as a consequence of the events that occur in the Garden of Eden.

And they were events, not myths.

Behind all the things that Jesus did, behind the entire New Testament, is the presence of human sin and the fall of mankind.

By ‘the fall’, we mean humanity’s loss of perfection which we were originally created with, and our fall into sin.

Our Responsibility

While it’s clear from Genesis 3 that Satan’s behind sin, it doesn’t excuse our part in it or remove our responsibility.

Wherever the Bible references sin, it is plain that we are responsible.

Sin means to fall short of God’s standards (perfection)

Transgression is to trespass outside the boundaries God has set

Iniquity means a crookedness, moral distortion and refers to the nature we now find ourselves in.

Read Psalm 32:1-2 in the King James Version and all three terms are used.

These three words tell us that we have gone against the will of God. Our crooked and twisted nature refuses to stay inside God’s boudarie and leaves us well short of God’s standards.

It is our sin that causes the problem and we are answerable for it.

It is not environment or upbringing or parents or lack of privileges that account for sin [though these do have profound impact on personal lives], it is our fault and God holds us responsible.

There is no escaping this.

God’s Anger

God’s wrath is his anger against those who sin and his determination to punish them.

It is divine holiness stirred into action. God, who is utterly and completely holy, cannot regard evil and good as being the same.

He cannot smile upon both, he cannot listen to both truth and lies.

As Peter Jeffery says, ‘God’s holiness makes hell as inevitable as his love makes heaven.’

He never excuses sin. This is proved most powerfully by the death of Jesus on the cross. There, sin is punished and God’s anger is carried out on the one who took our sin on himself.

No sin is excusable, and so we thank God for sending Jesus to us.

‘God is only angry when anger is called for.’

Sin’s Reality Today

In Romans 1, Paul exposes the sin of his day, but the words here could well be describing todays society:

• v.21 Almost a total rejection of God
• v22 Humanity is wise enough to put men on the moon but foolish enough for all the violence and wars and crime today
• v.23 God is openly dishonoured as God and belief in Jesus is mocked
•  v.24 Men and women degrade their bodies with sex, drugs and alcohol
•  v.26-27 Rampant homosexuality and lesbianism are as blatant today as they were in Sodom
• v. 28 In nations that were built upon the Christian ethic, the knowledge and law of God are no longer retained and all sorts of laws are passed to legalise what God forbids

Human sin as impacted society to the very core:

‘A promise is not enough, we need a contract. Doors are not enough, we have to lock and bolt them. The payment of fares is not enough; tickets have to be issued, inspected and collected. Law and order are not enough; we need the police to enforce them. All this is due to man’s sin. We cannot trust each other. We need protection against one another. It’s a terrible indictment of human nature.’ John Stott

Inspired by Peter Jeffery, ’Bitesize Theology’, Evangelical Press, 2000