Our society’s, our culture's concept of sin is very closely related to their concept of holiness, God’s holiness. Our culture has a lack of a belief in God, or at very least, if there is a belief in a higher power, our culture’s has a low estimation of God’s holiness. Our single biggest obstacle to holiness is sin.
There are 3 general reasons for the lack of recognition of sin today, not only in our culture, but in the church as well. [1]
1. We have a diminished view of the Holiness of God. If God does not exist or regarded as high and holy, neither is our view on the seriousness of sin. If there is no God, or God is not high and holy, who sets the standards? If there are no standards, who are you to tell me what is right from wrong?
Whenever God’s holiness is encountered, the light of His presence, our sin is magnified. And we do not like that, so we consciously or unconsciously, lower our view of God’s holiness. In fact, many will avoid any contact with God to keep their sin from being exposed.
John 3:19–20 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
2. We have eliminated guilt. How? Because we shifted the blame. My wrong doing happens because I’m a product of my environment. Modern psychotherapy can explain sin away, blaming it on an early influence and attempt to cure sin by connecting with our inner innocent child deep within us that supposedly has remained untouched by the worst of our sins. They treat sin as an illness from which we can be cured through therapy. Our jails are full of people who claim to have Jesus and promise to get their lives together after they get out, but find themselves back in jail for the third and forth time, unable to cure their illness by themselves. They have, as many “so called Christians.” received the gospel, yet devoid of the power of God, which leave them well adjusted, but still dead in their sins. The power of God only comes with true repentance and personal ownership of our sins.
3. We have dumbed down and renamed sin. We have lowered the standards and haven given sin another name: Homosexuality is just an alternate lifestyle; Abortion is just a woman’s right to choose; Living together outside the bonds of marriage does not matter if the two really love each other; Pornography doesn’t hurt anybody; etc. After being loaded down with sin and evil, we start to become adjusted to it. Our way to righteousness and holiness becomes a pipe dream. We begin to rename much of our sins as error, and as we get further entrenched in sin, much of our errors become “normal.” So now we have sins, errors, and normal. And we excuse our sins by saying “God made me this way.” In fact god become responsible for our sins. No of it is my fault.
Romans 3:9–18; 23
There are about twenty words in the Bible for “sin” The most popular is the Greek word “hamartia,” meaning “to miss the mark.” But in the Greek, context is everything. “Missing the mark” is not merely an innocent blunder or a poor shot. It is something far worse. Sin is a problem of the will and desire. When we miss God’s mark for us, we miss what is righteous in God’s eyes by deliberate action. We are known by our actions, and defined by our nature. Jesus taught that people do sinful things because they are tainted.
Mark 7:21–23 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23 All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Paul is writing to the Romans, both to the Jew and Gentile Christian, explaining the doctrine of sin. The doctrine of sin is so important that Paul spends a good portion of the first 8 chapters of his letter to the Romans, just explaining sin.
Romans 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; Paul is summing up what he has said in the first 8 verses in chap 3.
"Are we better than they?" Are the Jews better off than the Gentiles? Jews have some advantages: They been God’s chosen people. God gave them the Law and many privileges. Paul explains in chapter 2 that God does not give them any preferential treatment, if anything, God will judge the Jew first and more severely because they do have the law. The Gentile, who did not have the law, will still be judged because of their conscience, they knew the difference between right and wrong.
Romans 2:14–15 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. The Jew had the Law, the Gentile had their conscience, and Paul charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
Under sin? What do we mean by saying they are under sin? Paul did not say they all committed sin, (which they had) but they were under sin. R.C. Sproul said it best: “We are not sinners because we sin, We sin because we are sinners.” Without Christ and the power of God to release us, we are all under sin, we are prisoners, or slaves to sin. We cannot help ourselves. It is in our nature to sin. You see we have inherited Adam’s nature.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
And the result of sin is death, spiritual death.
Ephesians 2:1a And you were dead in your trespasses and sins …
And sin separates us from God.
Now Paul quotes OT Scripture as his authority. In verses 10-18, Paul quotes from at least 9 different OT passages, mostly from the Psalms and some from Isaiah and the Proverbs. This was a common practice among rabbis in that day, stringing together like pearls similar verses. They indicate their authority by stating: “It is written”
Romans 3:10 as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Paul is quoting from Psalms 14:1-3/53:1-3. There has been no one who has ever lived, except Jesus, who was righteous in their own right. When we read of someone being righteous, righteous in God’s eyes that is, they were only righteous because God imparted His righteousness to them. No one has ever stood righteous before God by their own doings.
Isaiah 64:6a For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
Our absolute best fails to measure up before God. Unless God is in it, unless God commands it and empowers it, our best efforts and actions are just filthy rags before Him.
Romans 3:11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
None who understands – understand what? For one – we fail to understand the consequences of sin. “for the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a). We don’t fully comprehend the consequences of sin. Often it is a vicious cycle. The more sin, the less understanding. The less we understanding, the more we sin. Why is that?
1 Corinthians 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
The unsaved has a “natural mind” and does not and cannot think spiritually. Those who are saved, often fall back to their natural and worldly way of thinking.
Also, Paul further quotes from Psalm 14 saying: “THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD.” If left to himself, fallen man would never seek after God. Scripture teaches us over and over is that God is the one who took the initiative. It is God who seeks us out, not the other way around. If we seek him, it is only because His Holy Spirit is drawing us.
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
Herein is a basic problem, many do not answer the call of God. You see in these verses, Paul is quoting come from Psalms 14 and 53 verses 1-3. To put Paul’s quotes into context, these verse from Psalms 14 and 53 start in verse 1 with the phrase: The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” So Paul continues:
Romans 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
Are you catching the words used here? “All have;” “There is none;” “There is not even one.” This is all inclusive. It ropes in you and me. All of us, if left alone would turn away from God. Turning away from God makes us “USELESS”; other translations has “unprofitable. That word in the Greek have been use do describe the souring of milk. Without Jesus, our human nature is sour and useless before God.
“THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE” Do we realize, we do no good unless we are empowered by God to do it? Some say God will never send a good person to hell. And my answer would be “Good in whose eyes? Good in our eyes or in God's eyes?”
Romans 3:13–14 “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”;
Now quoting from Psalms 5, 10 and 140, Paul talks about our beings, parts of our body, our throat, tongue, lips, mouth, and in the next verse, our feet.
James talks about what comes out of our mouth, the tongue as something we cannot tame:
James 3:8–10 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
When He was rebuking the Pharisees, Jesus said:
Matthew 12:34 You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
Jesus also says that one day we will be held accountable for every idle (KJV) or careless word we speak, and we will be accountable for those things said in the day of judgement (Matthew 12:36). Those words we speak when we are not thinking or say in fits of anger, those words reveal what is in the deep recesses of our hearts.
Now Paul turns to the feet.
Romans 3:15–17 15 “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, 16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, 17 AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.”
Now Paul is quoting from the Proverbs and Isaiah 59. For those “under sin” (and that would be us), we often look for a way to “get over,” to cheat someone, to gain an unfair advantage at the expense of someone else. It is because it is all about me. We are by nature selfish. And no peace is found for those caught up in sin.
Isaiah 57:21 “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
There is no peace for those caught up in sin. Peace only come from knowing Jesus.
Romans 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
Peace will never be found in the ways of the flesh, the ways of sin, but is only found in Jesus.
Here we see the total depravity of man, by which we mean that sin has affected all of mankind and that it has affected every part of his being. Obviously every individual has not committed every sin, but everyone has a sin nature which is capable of committing them all.
If Paul had wanted to give a more complete catalog of sins, he could have mentioned the sins of immorality: adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, perversion, bestiality, prostitution, rape, lewdness, pornography, and smut.
He could have mentioned the sins associated with war: destruction of innocents, atrocities, gas chambers, ovens, concentration camps, torture devices, sadism.
He could have mentioned sins of the home: unfaithfulness, divorce, wife-beating, mental cruelty, child abuse.
Add to these the social sins of murder, mutilation, theft, burglary, libel, embezzlement, vandalism, graft, corruption.
Also the sins of speech: profanity, suggestive jokes, sensual language, cursing, blasphemy, lies, backbiting, gossip, character assassination, grumbling, and complaining.
Other personal sins are: drunkenness, drug addiction, pride, envy, covetousness, ingratitude, filthy thought-life, hatred, and bitterness.
The list is seemingly endless—pollution, littering, racism, exploitation, deceit, betrayal, broken promises, and on and on. What further proof of human depravity is needed? [2]
Romans 3:18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”
Herein lies the problem. Look around, if there was a fear of God in our culture and in our world, would many of the events in our culture and in our world be happening?
Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
With no fear of God, we see that God is being left out of all things; Out of our Government; Out of Schools; Out of our businesses; Out of our lives.
What standard shall we use? We are told that we can be moral outside of God? If that is true? By who’s standards are we then moral? If God is out of the equation, who are you to tell what is moral and what is not? But the fact remains, one day Jesus will return. Everyone will have to answer before Him. Paul summed up his discussion on sin:
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
"All" includes you and me. But there is hope. Paul tells us the consequences of sin and the cure for sin in one verse.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In Christ we can find forgiveness of our sins, we can find life instead of death, we can find freedom, instead of slavery - to sin, we can find peace, instead of turmoil.
Next week, I will further explained this remedy to sin, and an integral part of our salvation, and that is the act of repentance. It is not enough for us to be sorry for our sins. The message that Jesus had and the message that John the Baptist had, as recording in the gospel of Matthew, is clear:
Matthew 3:2 and 4:17b “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
We all of been tainted by sin. We all have fallen short of God’s glory. Our only hope is to throw ourselves on His mercy and to submit to His will in our lives.
[1] Much of this message is borrow from the book: Steve DeNeff, The Way of Holiness: Experience God’s Work in You (Indianapolis, IN: WPH, 2010), chapter 3.
[2] William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1686-1687.
