Webster’s Dictionary says:
1. an offense against religious or moral law
2. a. transgression of the law of God
b. a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God
God has many things to say about sin in the Bible. Sin started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. God commanded them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge (Genesis 2:17). But they disobeyed God (Genesis 3:6) and sin was born. This sinful nature is something that all of us inherit from that very first transgression by Adam and Eve:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” Romans 5:12
Some examples of sins identified in the Bible are:
Adultery
Bestiality
Blasphemy
Bribery
Cursing & Swearing
Coveting
Debauchery
Disobeying your parents
Divination
Drunkenness/debauchery
Envy
Fornication
Fortune telling
Greed
Hatred
Homosexual behavior
Hypocrisy
Idolatry
Incest
Jealousy
Lewdness
Licentiousness
Lying
Lust
Murder
Necromancy
Pride
Prostitution
Partiality
Rage
Rape
Rebellion
Selfishness
Sodomy
Sorcery
Stealing
Unforgiveness
Witchcraft
God is a ‘holy’ God, which means that He cannot have anything to do with sin. Unfortunately, sin, even when seemingly minor, incurs the death penalty for the perpetrator (!): “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
He detests sin and can not accept us in our sinful state. The Good News is that Jesus died to pay our death penalty so we, by faith in Him, can freely approach God, confident that He has forgiven our sins.
Slaves to Sin
Despite the Good News about Jesus, many people discover that sin is not easily overcome. All people seem to be pre-wired to sin, relating back to the sin nature that we all inherit from Adam and Eve. The most dangerous part about sin is that it can actually take control and rule a person’s life, making the person a slave to sin. God explained this quality of sin to Cain, who shortly after became the first murderer, about sin’s desire for him:
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Genesis 4:7
The Apostle Paul echoed this in Romans:
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. Romans 6: 12-13
We have the responsibility and power to resist our sinful tendencies. God said we “must master” it, or we will become slaves to it. By obeying sin’s evil desires, our body parts can become “instruments of wickedness.” Furthermore, obedience to sin leads to a “slavery to impurity,” enabling “ever-increasing wickedness.” Paul wrote:
Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. Romans 6:19
Like a fire growing out of control, sin will spread to every area of your life in this slavery condition. It opens the door for all kinds of perversions, especially sexual perversions:
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Romans 1:28-31
Jesus’ death not only paid the penalty for our sin, but also guaranteed us eternal life with God in Heaven:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Additionally, while on earth, we are freed to live a new life, free of sin’s slavery by the power of God’s Holy Spirit which lives in us when we place our faith in Jesus. Jesus gives us a new life, breaking us free from the bondage of our sinful nature. Paul wrote:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4
If you have never placed faith in Jesus and desire to:
1) Live at Peace with God
2) Live as a new person
3) Have eternal life in Heaven
Please visit our Peace with God page to see how to proceed!