Let Go Of Sin Series

(Begin with clip from Frozen when Hans tells Ana he never loved her.)

Wow, that wasn’t where I thought that would go. Didn’t see that coming, through the movie Hans has been the dashing hero, wooing Princess Ana and exhibiting heartfelt concern for the Kingdom and people of Arendelle and now he is revealed as a cad. What isn’t the man capable of?

Today we would diagnose him as having antisocial tendencies, or perhaps it would be suggested that the fact that he was the youngest of 13 had left him with feelings of inadequacies . Even if folks agreed that what Hans did was wrong they would suggest that it wasn’t his fault. Maybe that was how he was brought up, or perhaps simply the way he was wired. Either nature or nurture, it was beyond his control.

Kind of summed up by American poet Phyllis McGinley who wrote ‘Sin has always been an ugly word, but it has been made so in a new sense over the last half-century. It has been made not only ugly but passe. People are no longer sinful, they are only immature or underprivileged or frightened or, more particularly, sick.” Same thing was said by Bill Maher in a more simplified way when he said “Everything that used to be a sin, is now a disease.”

How does sin affect us, how does sin control us? What makes us sin? And what is the result of our sin?

Let’s look at sin. The passage that was read earlier is one of the best known references to sin and it’s found in the book of Romans. So as we look at Sin the very first question has to be: What Is Sin? Good question, let’s start by going out on the street and seeing if we can find an answer. Video what is sin

Collins dictionary defines sin as “the breaking of religious or moral law, especially through a wilful act.”

And sin was defined by John Wesley as “A willful transgression against a known law of God.”

The word used throughout the New Testament for sin literally means “to miss the mark.” that is certainly testified to in Romans 3:23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Now I am sure that we could enter into all kinds of legal definitions of sin at this point, is this sin, how about this. And if we do that we end up like the preacher who declared that there were 748 sins and after the sermon people were lined up to get a copy of the list, just to make sure they hadn’t missed any. In its simplest definition sin is disappointing God through our disobedience. That’s sin.

The second question then has to be: Why Do We Sin? and that is a good question why do people sin? Well the most elementary answer is “because”. You see we sin because that is the nature of the beast. Adam was created in the perfect image of God, but when he chose to sin in Genesis 3 that image became distorted, not destroyed simply distorted.

When I was in college a friend of mine accidentally knocked a photograph of my sister onto the floor. In the fall the glass broke, and while the image of Dianne was still there it was distorted because of the cracks in the glass. The same thing happened at the dawn of time when the first man and first woman chose to wilfully disobey God’s commandment the perfect image was distorted not destroyed just distorted. The legacy that Adam and Eve have left us with is the legacy of sin.

I’ve mentioned it several times but it bears repeating, nowhere is original sin more clearly defined then in children. Have you noticed that you don’t have to teach children how to say no, won’t, don’t and other negative words, but you have to teach them how to say please, thank you and you’re welcome. Never had to teach a kid how to throw a tantrum, how to cry how to rebel. But kids have to be taught how to be polite, and pleasant, how to obey.

It was through Adam and eve that sin entered the world and it became their gift to us, along with the punishment for disobeying God’s will Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

When Paul gives us a list of specific moral sins in Galatians 5 he begins by saying these are the acts of the sinful nature. The human nature. But he tells us that they should not be the actions of someone who is a child of God because he says quite plainly in Galatians 5:19-21 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.