The Truth About Sin

Sneaky. Insidious. Destructive. Deadly. That’s the nature of sin, and no one escapes its reach.
The world is filled with iniquity. The evil we see overtaking the world today proves yet again the truth of Scripture: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9).

Sin is everywhere. “There is no one who does not sin.” So said Israel’s King Solomon when he dedicated the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Ki. 8:46). So said the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 59:2), and so said the apostle Paul (Rom. 3:23).

We all are born into sin, separated from God. Have you ever wondered why? The story starts at the very beginning—actually, before the beginning.

Prevailing Sin
The first human sin occurred in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, the tempter (Satan) prompted Eve to eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” which God had placed off limits (2:17):

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate (3:6).

The New Testament adds that Eve was deceived, but Adam was not. This act of disobedience precipitated what we call the fall of man and brought sin and death into God’s perfectly ordered creation. The apostle Paul described the fall this way:

Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. . . . Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him [Jesus] who was to come (Rom. 5:12, 14).

Paul indicated that all mankind received Adam’s sinful nature. The fact that everyone experiences death indicates that everyone is a sinner. Universal death evidences universal sinfulness.

Pervasive Sin
This fact helps explain Solomon’s observation: There is no one who does not sin because there is no one who is exempt from Adam’s sinful nature. The Bible teaches that every person born on this planet (except Jesus) is a sinner on three levels:

1. By nature (inherited sin). We all receive Adam’s sin nature. No one has to teach his children how to sin. It comes naturally.

2. By association (imputed sin). Paul’s use of the indicative active verb (“all sinned,” Rom. 5:12) indicates that, in some manner, we all participated in Adam’s disobedience.

3. By deed (individual sin). Our own sinful actions make us sinners.

These three components are sometimes referred to as total depravity, though the term does not mean everyone has sinned as horribly as possible. Bible scholar Charles Ryrie explained:

Positively, total depravity means (a) that corruption extends to every facet of man’s nature and faculties; and (b) that there is nothing in anyone that can commend him to a righteous God.

Total depravity must always be measured against God’s holiness. Relative goodness exists in people. They can do good works which are appreciated by others. But nothing that anyone can do will gain salvational merit or favor in the sight of a holy God.¹

So, what is this sin that is so devastating? Where did it come from?

Based on the account in Genesis 3, we might define sin as man’s disobedience to God. However, the definition seems insufficient, considering the fact that some people die as babies before they are capable of disobedience.

J. Oliver Buswell explained sin this way: “Sin may be defined ultimately as anything in the creature which does not express, or which is contrary to, the holy character of the Creator.”² Such would be true of our nature even before we are capable of obeying or disobeying.

The result is that every person born of Adam is thrice condemned as a sinner by inherited nature, by imputed sin, and by individual acts of sin. Therefore, every one of us is as bad off as the worst sinner who ever lived—not necessarily as bad, but as bad off—equally condemned and equally cut off from God. The penalty for this sin is death, both spiritual and physical, for those who persist in it.

PreTemporal Sin
How did this universal devastation come to be? Sin actually predates Adam and Eve.

Before God created the universe, Lucifer, perhaps the highest created angel, rebelled against God. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 describe this event:

How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14:12–14).

These verses indicate that Lucifer determined to make himself “like the Most High,” to make himself equal with God, rather than accept his creaturely position. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God declared,

You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.

You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones.

Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you (Ezek. 28:12–17).

God gave His angels the ability to choose, so their worship would be meaningful. But the responsibility rests with the creature: “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you” (v. 15). Ezekiel’s statement is as much as the Bible lets us see regarding the origin of sin.

Sin originated with the magnificent angelic being Lucifer, who was discontented with his creaturely nature. Filled with pride (v. 17), he refused to serve in his designated station, determined to elevate himself to the same level as his Creator.

In its essence, this was the choice he presented to Eve in the garden; and this was the choice one third of the angels made when they followed Lucifer in his rebellion against God (Rev. 12:4).

Overcoming Sin
What could be done about this cosmic problem?

When God created the material universe, He designed another race of creatures in His image (humans), placed them in the Garden of Eden, and gave them the opportunity to respond to His glory without knowing all the details of their situation.

Adam and Eve didn’t know about Satan and his angels. The test is always whether men and women will trust God without knowing all the details of their circumstances. That is why the Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6). Every choice we make either glorifies God or glorifies the Evil One.

The solution to our sin problem is Jesus. Born without a human father, He had no sin nature (inherited sin), did not participate in Adam’s sin (imputed sin), and never committed sin of His own (individual sin). So, unlike the rest of us, Jesus was not as bad off as the worst sinner.

Rather, Jesus was sinless in every aspect and, therefore, qualified to be the perfect, spotless “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29). No one else in all of history was qualified to die for the sins of others. He alone can say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (14:6).

Paul wrote, God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

One day, following a final deception, Satan and all his followers (angelic and human) will be destroyed (Rev. 20:7–15). Sin’s devastating effects will be removed (chaps. 21—22), and Jesus and all His followers will enjoy eternal life and blessing forever.

Sin is the universe’s ultimate problem. And Jesus is God’s ultimate answer. Those who confess their sinfulness and place their faith in Jesus and His finished work on the cross as the final sacrifice for sin receive forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. God also grants the power to live a life pleasing to Him.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace (Rom. 6:12–14).

God gives us the ability to “walk in the Spirit” so that we do not “fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). Walking in the Spirit helps us flee from sin and draw close to the God who loves us.

ENDNOTES

1. 1. 1. Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1999), 253.
      2. J. Oliver Buswell, A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1962), 1:264, cited in Ryrie, 212.

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