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Please click on a question below.
# 1 What is the greatest pleasure?
# 2 What is sin?
# 3 Why does God hate sin?
# 4 At its core, what is sin?
# 5 How did sin damage our ability for consistent relationship and impact?
# 6 What is the answer to our problem with sin?
# 7 How can we conquer sin?
# 8 What happens as we break with sin?
# 9 Is it possible for a Christian to avoid sin?
# 10 How can we be acceptable to God in spite of our sins and our faults and failings?
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God made human beings in such a way that we would seek pleasure and avoid pain. That's because the greatest pleasure is being in a love relationship with God. The greatest pain is being alienated from God. Those things which seem good to us are attractive because they promise to give pleasure and minimize pain.
Sin is an offense against God. Sin rejects the good that God is; sin rejects the good that He wants for us. When I sin, in effect I'm saying, “I know better than God what is good for me.” The temptation is always toward something that I perceive as good.
God wants to show me what is really good: God's love, God's goodness, God's will. He loves me so much that whatever He wants for me is what is in my best interests over the long run.
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Sin is moral evil; sin is an offense against God. We are created as people who seek pleasure and avoid pain. God made us this way so that we will seek the pleasure of being in an intimate love relationship with God who is so good. Although we may be aiming at the good that God is, sometimes we miss the mark and hit upon a way that, at least at first, seems to be good. But it is an inferior good compared to the good that God is.
- Sin goes deeper than acts of omission or commission.
- Sin goes deeper than psychological analysis.
- Sin is anything that we place before God.
- Sin is anything that leads us away from God.
- Sin is rejection of God's love, God's goodness, God's will.
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Sin is a violation of love. Sin is the antithesis of love. God hates sin because sin damages relationships―our relationship with God and relationships with others. God has designed us to be in relationships. At the deepest core of our being, human beings long to love and be loved, to be cherished, respected and accepted as we are. That is the kind of love with which God loves us, as He invites us into love relationships with Him and with others.
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God made Adam and Eve with freedom to choose. He provided for their needs and allowed them to be tested. In their testing they misused their freedom. At its core, sin is a rejection of God and lack of trust in His goodness toward us. Instead, we decide:
“I know better than God what's good for me!”
Scripture tells us:
“And when he [the Holy Spirit] has come he will convince the world of its sin, and of the availability of God's goodness, and of deliverance from judgment. The world's sin is unbelief in me [Jesus]….” (John 16:8-9 TLB)
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to convict the world concerning sin by revealing the Truth, that is, by revealing Himself to us. At its core, sin is unbelief in Jesus.
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As children of Adam and Eve, we stepped out of the protection of God's truth being our chosen authority. We insisted on becoming our own authority and controller. We rejected God's care and provision for us. We chose to be on our own, separated from our Creator. In other words, because of sin we lost the ability for consistent relationship and impact.
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Sin permeates deeply into the fallen human nature. We cannot save ourselves. We need a Savior. God already knows that we cannot break the power of sin over us by our own will power. So God sends His solution to our problem of sin. Jesus is the answer!
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Ultimately, we need to face our inability to conquer sin by ourselves. We must avoid either of two extremes:
- a prideful over-confidence that believes that, if we just try hard enough, we can overcome sin
- a slothful apathy about sin that tolerates or excuses sin, saying in effect, That's just the way I am!
Either extreme lets us avoid facing:
- sin in our life
- our inability (apart from life in Christ) to win over sin
- the awesome truth that God has freed us to live in His goodness and holiness because of what Jesus has done for us
If we are honest with ourselves, each of us must face ways that we are not free. Eventually, we experience Paul's heart cry: When I want to do good, I don't and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway (Romans 7:19). To find freedom from the sin that traps and enslaves us, we must yield ourselves with humility to Jesus Christ. For He is the only one who can break the dominating power of sin in our life. By living without ever committing sin, already Jesus has proven Himself victor over sin. By rising from the dead, already Jesus has proven Himself victor over death, which is the end result of all sin.
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Jesus suffered for us in order to enable us to break with sin. When we break with sin, it feels like suffering. We suffer as we forfeit the pleasure we hoped to find in our sin. But the suffering of breaking with sin is necessary to lead us into holiness. Our being saved (salvation) is a free gift offered because of what Jesus has done for us. However, our holiness (sanctification) is dependent upon our cooperating with God's grace to us.
There is a part that God does for us. By His death for us, Jesus justifies us before God. In other words, He makes us new or just-as-if-we'd-never-sinned. The suffering we experience as we break with sin feels like withdrawal pains. It feels like crossing a desert; we can feel sweaty or chilly, hungry and thirsty, sick and tired. We can feel lonely and sad, bothered and bored. After they got over their initial excitement, that may be the way the Israelites felt when God led them out of slavery in Egypt and into the desert. Crossing the desert was a necessary part of their journey to the Promised Land. Wherever they were, there was a part God did that they couldn't do, and a part they did in response to Him.
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The normal condition for the Christian is to live a sinless life. On our own, this is impossible, of course. However, if we draw on God's strength so that we consistently live by the spirit, we can live a life free of deliberate, serious sin against God. This is what He calls us to — a sinless life, lived in the image of Jesus.
No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him. Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God. In this way, the children of God and the children of the devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:6-10 NAB)
This doesn't mean that it is impossible for a regenerated Christian to slip and fall, thereby committing deliberate, serious sin against God. However, committing serious sin is an abnormal state for the Christian. That's because we are no longer slaves to sin; we can resist sin.
So be careful. If you are thinking, “Oh, I would never behave like that” — let this be a warning to you. For you too may fall into sin. But remember this — the wrong desires that come into your life aren't anything new and different. Many others have faced exactly the same problems before you. And no temptation is irresistible. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it, for he has promised this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation's power so that you can bear up patiently against it. (1 Corinthians 10:12-13 TLB)
No doubt, we will continue to struggle with our many faults and failings, which are not the same thing as deliberate sin. Faults and failings are not deliberate choices to violate our conscience by sinning. They are evidences of our spiritual immaturity. As we progress in spiritual maturity, God will help us to overcome even these faults and failings. In the meantime, we can confidently ask God for assistance.
For we do not have a high priest who in unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help. (Hebrews 4:15-16 NAB)
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If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then you and I are among those who can claim a double reality in God's sight. God already sees us as perfected because of the fact that Jesus offered Himself for us. You don't have to do anything to be acceptable and to be loved by God. Scripture declares that we are wearing a Robe of Righteousness (Isaiah 61:10; Revelation 7:14). We are clothed in Jesus' righteousness, already acceptable to God.
On the other hand, God knows what is under that Robe of Righteousness! He knows about our sins and our faults and failings. So He is actively involved in the process of making us holy. For most of us, this process takes a lifetime.
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