Most people have a false concept of what sin really is. Sin is God’s enemy and ours as well, if we are to be His children. If we are to resist sin, then we must be sure that we understand it, recognize it, and know what God’s Word the Bible says about how we should respond to it. Readings will be called out in the lesson below.
(Answers to this lesson are also below.)
WHAT IS SIN?
“It’s just the way I am. It’s not my fault!”
“As long as I feel good, it’s not sin.”
“It is only sin if it harms someone else, but I’m not harming anyone!”
“If everyone does it, it is not sin!”
God teaches in 1 John 3:4 that “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.”
Also, in James 4:17, the Bible says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
This means that sin is breaking the law of God, and it is also failing to do what God wants us to do.
WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF SIN?
In Romans 5:12, we read, “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.” Sin is a curse that we have inherited from Adam. But we also know that we cannot blame Adam for our sin, “because all (including you and me) sinned.”
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN?
Sin contaminates us. Jesus says in Mark 7:15, “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
Sin enslaves. Jesus says in John 8:34 that, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
Sin separates us from God. Romans 3:23 states, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Isaiah 59:2 says: “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.”
Sin causes death. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” This is not only physical death, but spiritual death and eternal death. Revelation 20:14 says, “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION FOR SIN?
Ephesians 1:7 says, “In him (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”
Furthermore, in 1 John 1:9 we learn that “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
PERSONAL APPLICATION
In what area of your life do you think that you have sin?
What do you think you should do with your sin?
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