Do you ever wonder about your sin? How bad is it? Will I ever overcome it? Is God going to punish me for it? While our world seeks to explain away sin or simply deny its existence, the Bible gives us the truth about it. Pretending that sin does not exist or that sin is what each person wants it to be does not make is so. The plain, simple, and clear truth about sin is found in scripture.

First of all, sin is each person’s choice (Gen 3; James 4:17; 1 John 3:4). Whether we know the good we ought to do and choose not to do it, or we know the wrong thing to do and do it anyway – we sin by our own choosing. God does not tempt us to sin; we on our own choose to follow the deception sin offer us, and the results of our own choosing brings spiritual death (James 1:13-15). Sin brings spiritual death, separation from God, and all of us old enough to choose have, at some point, chosen it (Isa 59:1-2; Rom 3:23). This is the bad news!

The good news of scripture concerning our sin is that our sin, all of it, can be forgiven! The devil has been the deceiver of mankind, leading them astray, since the beginning (Gen 3:1, 4-5; John 8:44; 2 Cor 11:3; Rev 12:9), but the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8). God loved mankind so much that He sent His Son so that we might be saved from sin’s result — death and condemnation (John 3:16; 1 John 3:16)! The good news of scripture is that even though we have chosen sin in the past (Rom 3:8–18, 23) we can now choose to be forgiven! God now offers us forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:7). God’s wrath against our sin was poured out on His Son at the cross in order that we might be made right with Him (Rom 5:6–10). We do not need to pretend sin does not exist or that we do not commit it (1 John 1:8, 10); we need to hear this good news believe it and obey it (John 3:16; Acts 2:36–41; Rom 6:3–7)!

 

Peace in Him (Eph 2:14),

Jay Don

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