(This is the big problem that separates us from God and a very important 10 minute read; 1870 words)
“Read the Truth. Ponder it deeply. Scroll for more. Live it and share it with others.”
Our big problem is this: We are all sinners, without exception, who have fallen short of God’s perfect standard of righteousness; His glory. There is an eternal price to be paid for that.
The First Sin
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, they brought sin and death into God’s perfect world. Adam passed on the curse of his sin nature to all of mankind.
It is sin that separates us from God.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” — (Romans 3:23)
We all fail miserably to live up to God’s holy standard. Everyone is a sinner, and everyone needs a Savior. If you don’t admit you are a sinner, you can never be saved.
What Is Sin?
- Breaking God’s law — an act of disobedience or rebellion against Him; lawlessness.
- Missing the mark — falling short of God’s holy standard of righteousness, His perfect measure of moral and ethical behavior that reflects His own nature.
- An offense to God’s holiness.
- Sin is not just simply wrongdoing, it is a chronic, fatal disease we all suffer from and there is only one cure…. genuine repentance and faith in Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for it. Without it, you remain lost and condemned.
“All unrighteousness (wrongdoing) is sin.”
The following scriptures present a catalog of sin, through not exhaustive, they represent the major types of moral sin that characterizes the unsaved:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” — (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind, to do those things which are not proper, having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” — (Romans 1:28-32)
Paul in Romans 1:28-32, is showing that sin itself is both the consequence of rejecting God and the evidence of His judgment. Humanity’s unrighteousness is proof that people have turned away from Him—and that no one is righteous apart from Christ. The wicked actions of all the depraved (reprobate) mind(s) so rampant in our culture, should only more urgently point us all to Jesus.
Sin involves your thoughts, attitudes and actions. Thoughts originate in the mind and attitudes originate in the heart, and actions are what you “choose” to say and do— acting and reacting to your thoughts and attitudes.
Here’s the new standard concerning your thoughts, attitudes and actions as a born again believer:
- Are they Christlike or are they not?
- Do they please God and bring Him glory or do they not?
So, thoughts and attitudes and the actions and reactions they produce, are either Christlike or they’re not and either please God and bring Him glory or they don’t— all three things. These are the choices you make.
If they are not and do not— simply dismiss the thoughts immediately and don’t act on them. And if you have already acted on them, stop them immediately and replace them with appropriate thoughts, attitudes and actions.
The Holy Spirit lives within you to help in these matters and will always convict you of your sin and help you overcome them. Do not quench (ignore) Him or grieve (disappoint) Him. The Holy Spirit is Christ in you — by His Spirit.
The fire of God’s spirit is not to be doused with sin (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Believers are also instructed to not grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), but to be controlled by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and to walk by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16). [from the MacArthur Bible Commentary]
And if you choose to say it and do it anyway—then you are indeed quenching and grieving the Spirit and must understand God’s wrath.
Repent on the spot, ask for forgiveness and forsake the sin— do a 180, turn away from it, abandon it, and leave it behind.
“He who sins is of the devil… (because God does not sin). For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” — (1 John 3:8; (emphasis added)
The Life of a True Believer
Genuine Christians strive to live according to God’s moral standards, loving others, and pursuing holiness.
- Occasional sin? Met with conviction, confession, and repentance (1 John 1:9). Believers still struggle with sinful thoughts, attitudes, habits and desires. Rely on the Holy Spirit for help.
- Unbroken pattern of sin? Indicates a heart not fully surrendered to God. (1 John 3:6) It is those who do not struggle with it- those who deliberately and eagerly revel in their sin who need to have their false sense of security shaken.
An “unbroken pattern of sin” means living in a continuous, habitual lifestyle of sin without genuine repentance or change.
It is not about someone occasionally stumbling (because all believers still sin at times), but rather about a person’s life being characterized by ongoing disobedience to God, showing no evidence of turning away from sin or being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
True believers cannot habitually practice sin.
“By this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.” — 1 John 3:10
No one can be both.
The Conscience
Everybody has a moral awareness called the conscience. You were born with it. It is a marvelous gift from God- a warning system that goes off when His law is violated that warns you about the danger of sin.
It bears witness to God’s moral law written on the heart of every human being, not just believers, but everyone, and thus everybody knows the difference between right and wrong even when they refuse to acknowledge it.
The conscience either accuses or defends a person’s thoughts, motives and actions. It accuses by condemning you of saying or doing wrong (Romans 2:15). It defends you by affirming your behavior as right.
It produces conviction, guilt or peace, depending on whether one acts in harmony with God’s truth (Romans 9:1; 1 Timothy 1:5). It must be trained by God’s Word and cleansed by Christ’s blood (Hebrews 9:14; 1 Timothy 1:19).
The World We Live In
Post-modernism is a philosophical and cultural movement that developed in the mid-20th century, reacting against modernism.
- Modernism (18th–early 20th century): put confidence in reason, science, and progress; believed truth was discoverable, objective, and universal.
- Post-modernism (mid-20th century onward): questions whether there is any absolute truth at all. You might ask others, “Is it absolutely true that there is no absolute truth?” Their theory falls apart with that question, but the belief still exists in most of the culture we live in.
Our post-modern, anti-belief culture is one where truth is considered relative, all claims to absolute truth are resisted, and belief in God or moral absolutes is often rejected or ridiculed. It is skeptical, relativistic, and feelings-driven. For Christians, this means our task is to clearly, lovingly, and courageously proclaim the objective truth of the gospel into a world that says “there is no truth.”
This is a violation of what people know as a moral law which is written in their hearts. It sets off the conscience, beleaguering them with guilt, doubt, fear, anxiety, shame and dread.
2 things have to happen in order for you to be successful sinner: 1) You must rewrite the moral system by getting rid of the one you were given by birth and replace it with one that aligns with your sins. 2) The culture tries to change the moral law.
Contemporary psychology has redefined man as good instead of as a sinner falling short of God’s perfect standard of righteousness. When he does wrong, he’s a victim; it’s not his fault. It’s somebody else’s fault. Nothing is right or wrong. It’s all gray… dark gray. Each individual gets to define what is right and wrong and good or bad. Anything and everything goes and you must not let anyone make you feel guilty, much less your own conscience. It’s whatever makes you happy. There is either no God, no Creator of the universe or it’s the god of your making… perhaps that god is even you.
There is not a happy ending here. There will be death, both spiritual and physical. There will be God’s rightful judgment. There will be justice for sin. And the penalty for sin is eternal punishment in hell. You can deny it all you want, but it will happen.
One thing’s for sure. Hell is real and it will be a place where there will be a fully informed conscience for every condemned person- relentlessly accusing the sinner- forever, with never ending torment characterized by the anguish of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. The conscience which was ignored in our culture will not be silenced there.
“The conscience which should have been the sinners curb on Earth, becomes the whip that will lash the soul in hell. That which was the seat and center of all guilt now becomes the seat and center of all torment that never ends.” (John Flavel, Puritan pastor, theologian, and writer in 17th-century England)
The Greatest Commandment
When asked which commandment was greatest, Jesus replied:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength… and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” — Mark 12:30–31
The first four of the Ten Commandments summarize loving God.
The last six summarize loving others.
We all have broken these greatest commandments over and over.
The Law’s Purpose — Revealing Our Guilt
The Law, given by Moses, was not a display of God’s Grace but God’s demand for holiness. Holiness refers to being set apart by God and for God — separated from sin, dedicated to His purposes, and reflecting His character. God designed the Law as a means to demonstrate the unrighteousness of man in order to show the need for a Savior, Jesus.
The reality or full truth toward which the Law pointed came through the person of Jesus Christ.
Have you kept the commandments? Can you stand before God uncondemned?
The honest answer to both: No. Thinking otherwise is self-righteousness—which is also a sin.
The Ten Commandments Test
Read Mark 10:17–22 (The Rich Young Ruler).
Jesus used God’s law to show man his sin.
- Have you ever lied? ✅
- Have you ever stolen? ✅
- Have you taken God’s name in vain? ✅
- Have you dishonored your parents? ✅
- Have you committed sexual immorality—even in your heart through lust? ✅
Those are rhetorical questions. A rhetorical question is a question that’s asked not to get an actual answer, but to make a point, emphasize something, or provoke thought.
The answer? ✅ We all have. Nobody’s perfect. It proves that you are guilty before God’s perfect standard. It only takes one sin to be sinner.
But the 10 commandments don’t get to the real issue which was articulated by Jesus who said, you’re gonna get condemned because you don’t believe in Me (paraphrasing John 3:18).
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)
Sooner or later you’ve got to get past the 10 commandments and get to the great sin of all sins, the ultimate sin, which is rejecting Jesus Christ. And you have to know the consequences of violating the law of God for which Jesus shed His blood. The wages of sin, the price that sin pays, is death!
Though all of us are wretched, vile sinners, cursed by our violation of God’s law and sinful by nature, Jesus emphasized that the fatal, unforgiveable, and eternal sin that ultimately damns people to hell is our unwillingness to believe in Him as the Messiah and Son of God. In truth, all other sins can be forgiven if this one is repented of. (from John 8:24 and 16:9)
What you ultimately must understand is that God is far more righteous than you think He is and that you are far less righteous than you think you are.
So, with these things in mind, there two things that are absolutely true:
You are a sinner and you need a Savior!
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Confession of sin characterizes genuine Christians (someone who has been truly born again—not merely in name, belief, or outward profession, but in heart and life), and God continually cleanses those who are confessing. Rather than focusing on confession for every single sin, John has especially in mind here a settled recognition and acknowledgment that one is a sinner and in need of ongoing cleansing and forgiveness. (Ephesians 4:23; Colossians 2:13)
Click on the link to learn about the consequences of sin:
theattituderules.com 