Sin Is Deep
Our sin runs deeper than the cells in our bodies, touching the furthest recesses of our hearts.
If you think you’re a good person then, by all means, aim high. Live your life in freedom from bad thoughts, actions, or words. Go for years on end with uninterrupted communication with God, and go months without so much as even one evil thought. One barely understands how bad we are until we try to be good.
Our bad behavior, however, is not the result of external influences, but rather it’s the result of the essential nature of our humanity. As we mature in mind and stature, we develop a strong proclivity toward that which is adverse and a backwardness to that which is ethical.
The stronger our mental faculties become, the more we have a capacity for conjuring and plotting evil. There exists great evil in our world precisely because we are capable of such.
Sin Is Complex
There are sins of omission (not doing something that you should) and commission (doing something that you should not have done). Of course, we sin in our thoughts, actions, and words, but our sin is so grave that we sin in our motives and in our negligence of those who need us (Matt 25:40). All of our relationships possess the effects of sin, and even our sweetest relationships carry stains of regret.
In our best work, we are imperfect. We don’t love God as we wish with all of our heart, mind, and strength. We don’t fear God as we ought to. We don’t pray with our hearts entirely focused on God as we should.
We give, forgive, believe, live, and hope imperfectly.
We speak, think, and act imperfectly.
We fight our sin, the world, and the flesh imperfectly.
In an altercation, we tend to think of ourselves as a self-righteous victim, rendering judgment on the offender, but rarely is the case in any dispute where one party is utterly innocent of the charge.
Sin is the disease that permeates through every part of our moral constitution and every faculty of our minds- extending to every people group, rich and poor, in the entirety of humanity. The understandings, affections, sense of reasoning, are all infected.
Even our conscience is so blinded that it cannot be depended on as a sure guide, and is likely to lead us the wrong way while we may consider it to be the right way, so much so that a wrong path may look ripe with positive pursuit.
Sin Is Attractive
I fear that we have a considerable deficiency in realizing the subtlety of our sinfulness. We are apt to forget that temptation to sin will rarely present itself in a deadly way.
Rather, sin comes to us like Judas, with a kiss.
The forbidden fruit seemed good and desirable to Eve, and yet it cost her the most significant thing she had going.
Walking along his palace roof seemed harmless enough to David, yet it ended in adultery and murder.
Sin rarely seems evil in its first stages, and this is its most deadly, deceptive quality. Many people live without realizing the dangerous nature of their soul’s disease, and it’s for this very reason they continue in the same destructive patterns, unleashing a living hell on themselves and others.
We love to think that we’re healthy and in no need of a doctor, but this is a gross underestimation of how badly we need help. What’s worse, is that we must face the reality of moral accountability for where we have gone wrong, and no sin goes unpunished.
True justice is a perfect consequence for action.
Sin Is Defeated
The fullness of sin is so overwhelming that nothing short of the blood of the incarnate God can satisfy our payment. Yet, in his great love, God comes to provide the means to our helpless state, and when we recognize our great sin, we can then recognize our great Savior.
When we feel in danger of our disease is when we call for our Great Physician, and when we hunger and thirst we must have nothing less than the Bread of Life.
We will never come to Jesus, stay with Jesus, and live for Jesus unless we know why we are coming. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convicted of sin, and we all come to Christ because we recognize this great need.
“Our sin is far more evil, and far nearer to us, and strikes more closely to us than we realize. This should lead us to trust and believe, and to draw near to Christ. Once drawn nearer to Christ, we shall drink more deeply out of his fullness, and learn more thoroughly to “live our life of faith.” Once taught to live the life of faith in Jesus, and abiding in him, we shall bear more fruit, shall find ourselves more strong for service, more patient in our trials, more watchful over the poor, and more like Jesus in all of our little, daily ways.” – J.C. Ryle
Just in proportion as we realize how much Christ has done for us, shall we labor to do much for Christ.
A Prayer
Father,
I could never have loved You unless you had first loved me.
Your Spirit has urged me to seek You,
and has taught me to believe in Christ.
May Your Spirit grant me the knowledge and experience of Your love, and to live my life in Your will.
I thank You for giving me this desire.
In Jesus I have my new birth.
It is by Your Spirit that I believe in You and call You Father.
Give me strength to live for your purpose.
Let Your Spirit reveal to me the riches of Jesus,
and love Him daily.
Amen.
