The "S" Word

SIN! We don't like to talk about it. We like talking about the love of Jesus more than the presence of sin in our own hearts and lives. We as people do not like looking at our own sin. We avoid it and it makes us feel awkward and exposed. We don't like being exposed. Christian Science, a religion I grew up in, actually believes that sin is an illusion. Isn't that crazy?

I think it is, because sin is most definitely NOT an illusion. If you put a child in a room alone with a freshly painted wall with a sign next to it saying, "DO NOT TOUCH! WET PAINT!" I guarantee you that child will touch that wall.

Sin is real. It's in you, and it's in me. It's been in us ever since Adam and Eve deliberately disobeyed God by eating fruit from a tree. Some people call that a fairy tale, and I'm not going to lie, in a way it sounds like it. However the more I look at myself and my sin, the more I see the reality of what Adam did on that tree.

What's crazy about sin and how it affects us is that we not only do terrible things, but we encourage other people to do terrible things too. It's in our nature to make other people stumble. In Isaiah 53:6 it says, "We all like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way." Also in Romans 1:32, Paul says about us, "They know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." Remember though Paul says "they" in this verse, he is not discounting himself or looking at himself as being less sinful than them. The rest of his letter to the Romans makes that clear.

Now, you probably read in that Romans verse that "those who practice such things deserve to die." It sounds extreme, right? We deserve death? Why? What did we do?

It's funny because we say death is an extreme punishment for doing wrong against God, but have we ever wished death on someone who has done wrong to us? We love seeing justice and seeing people get what they deserve for the crimes they've committed. Someone does wrong against us and we demand that justice be served against them. We watch Law & Order, see the bad guy go down and we love it. However as soon as the justice card is flipped on us, we get defensive and say that it's too extreme. That is a flaw in our logic and it is a result of our sin.

So we're all sinners. It's in our nature and we're born right into it. God is perfect and despises sin, so by default God should despise us. Is there a solution? Are we just left to rot in the filth of our own immorality?

The second part of that verse in Isaiah 53:6 says this, "and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Who is this "Him"? It's Jesus Christ! God sent His only Son on a rescue mission to save our souls. So God should despise us, but in reality God loves us deeply and desires to restore us not only from our own sin, but also to Himself. The perfect God of the universe actually wants a relationship with us, the sinful people. So He sent Jesus to live a sinless life and then He died a brutal death on a cross, bearing not only the physical pain of His execution, but more importantly the spiritual pain of the wrath of God that we deserve.

So what should we do? I'll close with the chorus of a favorite hymn:

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace."

God bless,

Steve