While we were made “very good”, humanity[1] rebelled against God and sin entered the world[2]. Our[3] failure to obey God in thought[4], word[5], and deed[6], either personally or communally, inwardly[7] or externally[8], constitutes sin against God[9].
The effect of sin is upon all creation[10], including the entire human race[11]. Sin separates[12] humans from the relationship with God[13] for which they were designed[14], distorts the image and intent of the gifts God gives, and, when fully grown, leads to death[15].
Setting right what was broken through sin cannot be accomplished by any human effort[16], or through any[17] other means[18], but requires the work of God[19] on our behalf.
Scripture References
[1] Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
[2] Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”
[3] Ecclesiastes 7:20: “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”
[4] Matthew 5:28: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
[5] Exodus 20:16: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
[6] Luke 6:46: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”
[7] Mark 7:21-23: “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
– Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
[8] Ephesians 5:5-6: “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
[9] Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
[10] Romans 8:20-21: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
[11] Romans 5:19: “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
[12] Isaiah 55:2: “but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”
[13] Genesis 3:7-10: “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
[14] Ephesians 4:18: “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”
[15] James 1:15: “…sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
[16] Romans 8:7-8: “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
[17] Isaiah 64:6: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
[18] Isaiah 45:22: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”
[19] 1 John 3:8: “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”