Whatever Happened to Sin?

What is more repulsive than having somebody tell you a lie about you (or at least what you believe is a lie) straight to your face? If I were to walk up to John Doe as he walks down the street and tell him, “Hey John, you have terminal (life-threatening) liver cancer. If you do not treat it, you will die from it. But it’s okay, I have the cure in my hand. Take two of these Cancer-X pills twice a day for the rest of your life, and you will not die of this cancer.” What would John think in this situation? Would he not think that I am a nut-case, and that taking those pills would only make his life more unpleasant than it already is? Yes, that is most definitely what John would be thinking. For all he knows, he does not really have cancer. There is little to nothing to make him suspect he really does have cancer; for all he knows, he feels fine.

What if, on the other hand, I told John, “You have terminal liver cancer, come with me for a quick check-up at the hospital and you will see that what I am saying is true. I am a doctor and I have seen many like you, and you show all the symptoms of terminal liver cancer.” So when John goes with me to the hospital and has some tests done, the results show that he does have liver cancer, and it is a very serious case, as I have just told him. John can either believe the results or he can write them off as inaccurate. But if he does see the truth of the scans, will John not reply, “Gee, doc, that is horrible news. Do you have a cure for this?” Then I reply, “I most certainly do. Take two of these Cancer-X pills twice a day for the rest of your life and they will surely suppress the cancer by taking it away and you will live a normal healthy life until you die of old age.” Hopefully John will believe me and take the Cancer-X pills as recommended and will live a normal healthy life. If he chooses to refuse this offer and try to treat his cancer his own way, I can plead with him, but that is his fault, I have done all that is in my power.

When most people that I have heard today preach the gospel, they sound like the first case. They tell the person to whom they are speaking, “You are sinful, you are separated from God. If you keep down this path you will surely die in your sin.” This statement is true, but it will rarely convince anyone of the truth. Most of them will be offended by being told they are sinful, as in they are a wretched sinner with no hope, just one breath away from judgment and infinite wrath. The god they believe in is not a wrathful god, nor are they that horrible that they deserve hell. After all, God needs to populate heaven, doesn’t He? And they are not half as bad as Adolf Hitler or Charles Manson, right? Sure everybody has done wrong, but God is a God of forgiveness and mercy. Who are you to judge someone?

To answer these questions, let us look at what we are telling them, and what we should be telling them. Now, it is very good for people to know God loves them. This should definitely be made clear in a gospel presentation, but it is not the first point that should be emphasized. We must first get people to realize that we are dealing with a holy, perfect, righteous, just God who abhors sin to the fullest. God will not allow sinners into His presence at all for God does not take pleasure in wickedness, “No evil dwells with [God]” (Psalm 5:4). In fact, “The boastful shall not stand before [God’s] eyes; [He] hate[s] all who do iniquity. [He] destroy[s] those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit” (Psalm 5:5-6). They must realize that “God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7-8). God demands holiness. He commands, “You are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy” (Leviticus 20:26). Those whom God has set apart for Himself to be His people are to be holy just as He is. If someone wants to be part of God’s chosen people, that person must be holy.

Most people will not realize what holiness is, and that they are far from holy. This is where we bring in the tutor, the Law. “Now, that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident” (Galatians 3:11). From what I see in Christianity today, we look down on the Law (the holy Torah of God) as if it is unclean. This is definitely not the case. Paul asks the question, “Is the Law sin?” His answer, “May it never be!” (Romans 7:7). He says “the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7:12). So where in the blue-blazing hills would we get the idea that the Law is a bad thing? It is probably due to a misunderstanding of Galatians. In Galatians, Paul is arguing that a person is not justified by the Law, specifically circumcision. If a person wants to try to be justified by the Law, he/she must obey every single commandment perfectly, which is impossible, “for all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them” (Galatians 3:10). Anyone who fails to live up to the whole Law is cursed to die, thus no one can be justified by the works of the Law.

However, the Law is a “tutor” to us (Galatians 3:25). For “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet” (Romans 7:7). Yet sin, being the complete master over the one who is not in Christ (cf. Romans 6), took “opportunity through the commandment, [and it] produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead” (Romans 7:8). Without the Law, we could not know that we were sinful, and yet sin turned around and used the Law as a springboard to make us sin more. Sin used the Law to show us more evil things we could do, and so we did them. Why? Because outside of Christ a person is “dead in… transgressions and sins, in which [they]… [walk]” (Ephesians 2:1-2). They live “in the lusts of [their] flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and [are] by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). Why? Because of the sin imputed to all men through Adam (cf. Romans 5:12-14). All men are accountable for the sin of Adam, for it follows his bloodline. And thus just as he sinned, so everyone else sins. That is why God gave man the Law, so that He might see His sinfulness. For men still die without the Law (cf. Romans 5:14).

So what is this tutor? What is this perfect Law? It is the Law that God revealed to the Israelites at Mount Sinai: The Ten Commandments. “What advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Romans 3:1-2). What are these oracles of God? The Law that He gave to the Jews. They were able to know their sinfulness and repent and follow God, something the Gentiles were unable to do since they did not have the Law. But now the Law is to go forth unto all men everywhere, Jew or Gentile, so that they might know their sinfulness and turn to God (cf. Acts 17:30). Why do all peoples need to repent? Because God is going to judge the world, and everyone found living in sin, whether or not they received the Law, will be found guilty of sin, for their nature is sin, and they will be condemned.

The Ten Commandments, which can also be summed up in “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” is this perfect Law of God (Matthew 22:37, 39). We preach to them the Ten Commandments because it shows them that they have not kept these precepts, they have failed, time and time again. They will see this if they are honest with themselves. But if they are not seeing their sinful state, it is because they have been “veiled,” and continue to be in such a state, until God opens their hearts to the truth of the Law and the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:3, cf. Lydia in Acts 16:14). Thus for such as do not see, we must pray for their hearts to be opened to the truth.

So why not just preach the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ? Well, for one they are going to think it is foolishness that God’s Messiah would die, since the Messiah is to be the Savior of the world (1 Corinthians 1:21-23, cf. John 4:42). Secondly, they will grow angry with you for telling them they are sinful, in fact sin is their nature, and that they are in need of a savior. And thirdly, “The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul” (Psalm 19:7). Yes, the Law, the Old Testament Law, restores people to God. It shows them their sinfulness and brings them to their knees. It turns them from the evil things of this world to God, showing them they need to rely upon the mercy of God, and that they cannot please Him on their own. So that is three strikes against those who do not use the Law when sharing the gospel.

When we preach the Law, people come to see their own sinfulness. They see they are liars, thieves, murderers (at least in their heart, cf. Matthew 5:21-22), adulterers (at least in their heart, cf. Matthew 5:27-28), coveters, blasphemers (they use God’s name as a curse word), idolaters, and in fact, completely worshipers of false gods (at least when we show them the spirit of the Law as Jesus did, and not just the letter). We can then show them that “whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23), that “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Hebrews 11:6), and that they have not done anything for the glory of God (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:31), so all their works were done in vain. When they see this, it is a relatively small step for them to go from, “Wow, I sin all the time,” to “I’m a slave to the power of sin and in need of someone to raise me from the deadness of my sinfulness!” They’ll see they have broken the whole Law, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” Why is this so? Because “He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not commit murder.’” If a person does not commit adultery but does commit murder (or does not steal but does tell a lie), such a one “has become a transgressor of the Law,” God’s perfect Law (James 2:10-11). The Law is a unity of ten; it is one. This person has not broken an inanimate Law, but has figuratively given God the middle finger and has said, “No, I will not keep this one law.” They have transgressed the holiness of God and have spat in His face, calling Him imperfect. Now they can see they are as bad as Manson and Hitler, if the Spirit of God opens their eyes to this truth of their sinfulness, for the Spirit comes to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in [Jesus]; and concerning righteousness, because [Jesus goes] to the Father…; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged” (John 16:8-11).

Some may respond to this unfortunately, “Who are you to judge?” In this case, all we can tell them is that we are not judging them, we are not condemning them, rather “the one who accuses you is Moses” (John 5:45). Not Moses, in person, but the Law given through Moses to the Israelites on Sinai. The Law will accuse them, for they have heard it and have not responded to the Law. Their beef is with the Law, though they may take it out on the messenger, the ambassador (see 2 Corinthians 5:20-21) of Christ who pleads with them to repent and return to God. That is all the Christian can do with such a person, plead with him/her to believe and return.

After preaching the Law, the sinner, if God has opened his/her heart, will see his/her sinful state and will be desiring the cure for this illness. He/she will hopefully be regenerated by God, brought to spiritual life and ready to accept the medicine. This is when we preach grace through faith. This is when we tell them about God’s great love: that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That if they will trust in Christ, not a one time decision, though that is where it must begin, but that they must have a lifetime of faith, they will be saved. This faith will come with repentance, turning from sin to God; both of which are gifts of God! (cf. Philippians 1:29, Ephesians 2:8-10, Acts 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:24-26, 2 Peter 1:3, and 1 John 5:19-20) The sinner, if he/she has truly seen his/her sinful state, is now made alive to the things of God and will respond to the invitation to open the door and let Christ in (cf. Revelation 3:20). They will understand why Jesus is the only way, they will see Him as the Son of God, and they will treasure Him as a priceless treasure.