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Thoughts of...The Power of Sin
This past week I have had to watch the power of sin at work in men’s lives. It has been heartbreaking. The very short-lived pleasure of sin for one man is soon replaced with long-lasting pain for that man and for many innocents. The “thrill” is a lie.
“To sin” means “to miss the mark”. The word describes an archer missing his target, his mark. His shot falls short, so he has sinned.
Our Creator has established His mark for us. Perfection (). What kind of “archers” are we?
God created the universe and then he created Adam. He put Adam in the Garden of Eden and gave it to him to work. The Lord gave Adam only one restriction – “Don’t eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If do eat from that tree, you will die.” () Then God created Eve as a partner for Adam, for it was not good that man should be alone. Along comes the most cunning of creatures and tempts Eve to question the words of God and to “Try it, you’ll like it!” Eve bought into the lie and then Adam did also. Eve was tempted but Adam sinned because God gave His Word to Adam; it was Adam who knowingly disobeyed God’s standard of acceptable behavior. ().
We know how the story continues. God is faithful to His Word and removes Adam and Eve from His Garden. Having disobeyed Him, they can no longer walk with Him in the cool of the day in His Garden. Adam and Eve did not die physically immediately () but they did die spiritually immediately. Their fellowship with God was broken, their relationship with Him had been corrupted. God is holy and pure and will not hang out with corruption. Isaiah 59:1-2 says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.”
Banished from God’s presence, Adam and Eve are fruitful and multiply. Seeing how they are physically alive but spiritually dead, they have children who are physically alive but spiritually dead. That would be you and me and every man ever born. The race of Adam is a (spiritually) dead race, born dead to a right relationship with the Creator of the universe. Man inherited from Adam a sinful nature that separates us from God. Man does not “miss the mark” and become a sinner, man is a sinner so he “misses the mark.” My sin does not make me a sinner, it proves that I am a sinner. (, )
Remember that God’s acceptable standard is perfection. Are you perfect? I have yet to hear any one claim to be perfect, especially after they have made a mistake! Therefore, every man, by not claiming to be perfect, admits to be a sinner. What Paul wrote to the Romans is painfully true – we all have fallen short of perfection. Therefore, we all have a horrific problem – a separation from God now and an eternal judgment we deserve as soon as physical life ceases (, ). In Ezekiel 18:29, God says the soul that sins (misses His mark) will surely die. Our sin condemns us, God does not ().
If man’s relationship with his Creator is to be re-established, man needs to become spiritually alive once again and needs to be freed from corruption. A dead man cannot make himself alive nor can he cleanse himself of his filth. Therefore, man has a problem that is impossible for him to solve. If the problem is to be solved, man needs help, big-time major-league help. That help can come only from his Creator, Who gave man physical and spiritual life to begin with.
Enter Jesus Christ, the Seed of the woman (), the Word of God that became flesh (, ), the second Adam () Who loved us when we hated Him (). Born of a virgin (, ) by the power of God the Holy Spirit, Jesus did not inherit the sinful nature from Adam; this Son had another Father! Jesus was tempted just as man was and is tempted (, ) but, having only the nature of God, He never “missed the mark” and was pleasing to God the Father (, ). Jesus “hit the mark” – perfection.
And being God Almighty the Creator of life in human flesh (, ), Jesus Christ did for us what we could not do for ourselves (). By BECOMING sin (, ) and accepting the wages we have earned by our sin (, ), Jesus has made possible by God’s grace through our faith in Him an incredible event – spiritual life and cleansing (forgiveness) of our sin (, , ).
In the finished work of Jesus Christ, God has broken the power of sin over man. A corrupt, mortal man is supernaturally (i.e. by God and not by himself) transformed into an incorruptible, immortal child of God when that man realizes his helplessness and hopelessness in conquering the power of sin and confesses that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior (, , ).
If a man, on the other hand, never voluntarily submits to his Creator and never confesses that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior, the power of sin over his life is never broken. He will die physically in his sin and, because his spirit remained dead, he will forever be separated from God. But before going into the Lake of Fire, every such man will stand before the Great White Throne of God and do that which he refused to do while he still had physical life – confess the truth that Jesus is Lord (, ).
Every man has a desperate need he cannot meet, the defeat of the power of sin. Only God Himself could meet that need. God the Son, Jesus Christ, has defeated sin and death. Is He your Lord? If not, why not?
Pastor Doug
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