You may have noticed the television ad and billboard campaigns in the last few years designed to encourage people not to “text and drive.” Of course the danger is that in the two or three seconds a person takes their eyes off the road to send a text message they miss some danger on the road ahead and have an accident.
It’s tempting to text and drive. When someone sends me a text, I want to read it. I want to communicate back to them. I haven’t met anyone yet who argues that “texting and driving” is safe. Yet, knowing this, people still do it.
Sin is a lot like that; Tempting and dangerous, yet many commit it anyway. It’s for that reason that we need constant reminders of its danger!
We need to remember that sin is NOT a figment of the imagination. Although many people will trivialize it, mock the idea of “sinning,” as being something silly and make it out to be something that your grandmother believes in but isn’t relevant for today, sin is real.
We also need to be reminded of what sin is, and what it means to commit sin. Simply put, to “sin” is to “miss the mark.” The target of morality that we are aiming for has been put in place by God. When we don’t hit that target, i.e., meet God’s standards of conduct, we are said to have committed sin.
John gives us a Biblical definition in 1 John 3.4:
“4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4, NKJV)
“Sin is lawlessness” simply means that someone is sinning when they disregard God’s laws and standards. Someone sins when they go outside the bounds of God’s laws.
We’re never too spiritually mature or righteous to let our guard down against sin. Actually, if you are settling in to this lesson thinking that I’m about to tell you a bunch of things you already know, and don’t really need to hear... well, YOU might want to pay special attention (cf. Proverbs 16:18). It’s with this reality in mind that I’ve compiled a list of ten things that we need to make sure that we always understand and remind ourselves about sin.
1. Everyone has done it.
Each and every one of us has sinned at some point. Maybe it was as simple as a lie. Maybe you cursed. Maybe you cheated. Or maybe it was a “bad” sin, like fornication or getting drunk. No matter how “big” or “small” though, sin is sin, and everyone has done it.
Paul affirms this fact in Romans 3.23:
“... For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23, NKJV)
Paul’s point is clear. Everyone has sinned at some point. Because of this, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. Because of sin, we don’t measure up.
The origin of our sin helps us understand even more about the situation.
2. Sin comes from temptation.
I’m sure you are familiar with the idea of a “bait and switch.” A salesman promises one item for the “deal of the century,” but once you’ve paid for it, delivers something inferior instead. I remember one time trying to buy a camera that way, only to find out that if I wanted the batteries, the charger, and the instruction manual, I’d have to pay more!
Sin is like that, in that promises to give us what we want, but delivers something inferior. James writes about that very fact. Sin tempts us to give in to it, so that we’ll have what we want. But the real results of sin are far less enticing.
(14) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. (15) Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:14–15, NKJV)
3. Temptation comes from fleshly desires.
We’ve noticed what James wrote, that we are tempted when we are drawn away from God’s desires by our own worldly desires (cf. James 1.14). Simply put, these are the things our five senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing) pick up on. In 1 John 2.15-17, John gives us a little more information about those desires. It’s there that we read about the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.”
Rephrased, John is referring to the things that feel good (flesh), look good (eyes), and make life on this earth seem to be good (pride of life).
But here’s the ultimate deception in sin: All of those things that feel, look, and seem to make life good are passing away! Life on this earth will come to an end some day, and none of those things will matter. But sin is deceptive, and wants you to think they will.
4. Sin is deceptive.
You might remember back to Irene Cara’s powerful vocals in the theme song to the 1980 movie Fame:
Fame! I’m gonna live forever! Baby remember my name!
That’s what sin wants to deceive us into thinking; That we are never going to die (cf. Genesis 3.4). But sin is deceptive (Hebrews 3.13), and it fools us into thinking certain things about ourselves, others, and God. It fools us into thinking that we’re immune to it. It fools us into thinking that other people who don’t want us to sin and try to correct us are either jealous, prudish, are out to get us, or even don’t care about us.
Worst of all, it fools us into thinking that either God doesn’t mind, doesn’t care, or isn’t there. Likewise, because it offends God’s holiness and purity, it separates us from Him.
5. Sin separates us from God.
This is the ultimate “bait and switch” - We think we’ll be happy apart from what God wants us to do, until we realize (if we do realize) that if we are apart from God’s laws, we are apart from God (cf. 2 John 9).
In the Old Testament, Isaiah writes about the plight of God’s people. They weren’t headed for destruction because God couldn’t save them (Isaiah 59.1), but because of their sins God’s face was hidden from them (Isaiah 59.1). Even if a person covered in sin tries to worship and sacrifice to God, it’s a detestable thing to Him (cf. Proverbs 15.8).
When we have unforgiven sin, we are estranged from God.
What happens from there?
-Daniel
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