Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church
Sin is lawlessness. Nothing good exists in sin. God is wholly desirable and everything good is bound up in God and in His beauty. But sin is all evil, always evil, powerfully evil, and deceitfully evil. Sin promises and then it destroys. Sin kisses and then it strangles. Sin is as old as humankind. Nothing is so monstrous as that gruesome and horrid evil of sin. God despises sin with a holy and righteous anger. Why is sin so bad and how does Scripture describe that evil monster of sin?
Sin is Pervasive. — Sin permeates every part of man’s makeup. No part of the human person exists that has escaped the tragic effects of sin. Sin pervades all man including his mind, his soul, his heart, his will, and his affections. Everything from the soul of his foot to the crown of his head is tainted by the toxic poison of sin.
Sin is Permeating. — Sin has spread throughout the entirety of human nature. The Apostle Paul speaks of the sons of disobedience who have disobeyed God and who are all, together, affected by this soul-killing disease of sin. All are, by nature, sinners and thus have been the recipients of the permeating spread of sin’s influence and power.
Sin is Polluting. — Nothing so contaminates the human soul like sin. All of humanity has suffered from the pollution of this irresistible monster of sin. It has polluted the soul, the body, the mind, and the desires. Starting in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, it has polluted all mankind since them who have been naturally born of women.
Sin is Prohibiting. — The effects of sin prohibit a person from coming to God, worshiping God, and adoring Him rightly. In fact, the problem of sin is not only that man has it but that man is wholly and totally unable to come to God in and of himself and by his own efforts, will, or intentions. Sin prohibits all people from drawing near to God for sin causes man to be idolaters in exchanging the worship of the one, true God for anything else.
Sin is Poisoning. — To poison someone is to severely harm them and bring about their death. Sin poisons the soul in that it brings about death. Physical death is one effect of sin but eternal death under the righteous wrath of God is another inevitable result of sin. Sin has so poisoned the soul that it always leads to everlasting torment in God’s righteous hell unless a soul is rescued by God’s amazing grace.
Sin is Paralyzing. — What an unspeakable tragedy that sin has paralyzed man so that he is wholly incapable of movement toward God, toward Christ, and toward holiness. So horrid and putrified is sin that it completely prohibits the hellbound soul from seeing its dire condition, its devastating outcome, and it has so made the soul unable to come to God for help and deliverance.
Sin is Perfidious. — As early as in the Garden of Eden, sin’s evils have shown themselves to be full of kisses but always resulting in death. Satan, the father of lies is a deceitful worker, the father of sin and the beast who tempted Eve by deceiving her to eat the forbidden fruit. O to view sin in its perfidious nature. Nothing true resides in sin. It is wholly and fully evil.
Sin is Punished. — Sin brings forth death. The end result of sin -- every single last one -- is everlasting death. No sin will ever go unpunished. No wrong will ever be left undone. Every offense against God must be brought before God’s unswerving justice. Sinners, full of sin and corrupted within, will face the everlasting punishment from God Almighty in hell unless God intervenes to save them by His mercy.
All of this concerning sin leads to the devastating portrait of sin -- its totality, its pervasiveness, its thoroughness, in all of its God-abhorring evil. Herein is the corrupt condition of every single person in the world. Every person is born, by nature, into this world of sin and as a sinner. We do not sin because we are sinners. We sin because we are, by default and by nature, born as sinners. Sin is not merely something that someone may choose to do, it is something that all unregenerate sinners are. Behold the astounding and astonishing grace of God! O that God would have mercy upon such poison-filled worms like us! O that God would deliver and rescue us from His righteous punishment by delivering up His very own Son -- the gloriously pure and infinitely delightful Savior -- so that He may gain sinners like us as His sons -- Beloved sons! Thank the Lord for His mercy! Bless Him for His deliverance! Give everlasting praise to Him who had mercy upon you and upon Him who caused you to be saved even when you were running from Him and rebelling against Him and rising up in war with Him! Praise God that His grace is greater than our sin and when He saved us, He thoroughly and eternally changed our nature so that we are no longer unable to please God (as before) but now we have been so radically transformed that we are now able to please and worship Him who is altogether lovely!