The Problem Of Sin

There is vice in every virtuous thing that I do.

Genesis 3:9-13 Then the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10 He replied, "I heard You walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked." 11 "Who told you that you were naked?" the LORD God asked. "Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?"

12 The man replied, "It was the woman You gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it." 13 Then the LORD God asked the woman, "What have you done?" "The serpent deceived me," she replied. "That's why I ate it."

1 John 2:16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

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Nobody likes to talk about sin these days, even pastors and Sunday School teachers are less likely to talk about it, the response from society can be so severe these days that many people are unwilling to mention sin. God’s rules about creation, marriage, sexuality, morality are being replaced by the individual. Reality is optional. Truth is always changing.

You may think it isn't nice to mention sin, you may not want to make someone feel bad, but if you don't lovingly point out their sin then you are not doing them any favors, if nobody ever helps them see where they fall short then they may never be right with God.

Thankfully somebody started pointing out my sin to me from an early age but even with the most favorable circumstances I still played around with sin and wasted too much of my life doing what I thought was right.

Sin is doing anything for your own glory, even if it means good things. And righteousness is doing things for the glory of God, out of a sense of beauty for who he is.

-Timothy Keller

The assumption that there is sin implies the possibility and obligation for intervention but without sin you do not have the ability or the right to intervene when you see injustice, without sin we are powerless to make change.

Man always finds inadequate ways to deal with sin.

Denial has always been one of our most popular responses to sin, no fault theology is very popular, society says don't define sin for me, I can decide what is right for me.

Another popular response has always been to hide our sin. God came to visit man in the garden and all of a sudden hide and seek is a new game that has been created. First they hid from each other by making the first clothing and and then they hid from God.

As soon as they were confronted with sin they invent the blame game. Adam pointed his finger at God and reminded him that Eve was his idea and then Eve tries to put the blame on the snake.

Even in the most favorable circumstances, such a lovely place to live, creation wasn't marred by sin yet, they could interact with all of the animals without fear, their only neighbor was God yet they still could not be content.

What is your motivation to be good?

Most of us don't like to follow the rules if they don't make good sense, if you don’t give me a good logical reason then I won’t obey, but God doesn't need to give us a reason. If he did there is a good chance that we wouldn't comprehend it anyway. God says do it for his glory, his happiness and his agenda whether it makes sense to us or not.

Satan's biggest trick was to sell us on the idea that we would be like God, he didn't want us to realize that because we were already created in God's image, we were already like God. Instead of becoming like God we actually became less like God and more like Satan.

Theologian, author and pastor Jonathan Edwards first introduced the concept of common virtue and true (saving) virtue in his book "The Nature of True Virtue" back in 1755. Edwards says that common virtue is doing the right thing out of fear or pride and true virtue is doing the right thing simply because God is worthy of our total trust and obedience.

Common virtue says:

1. FEAR - be honest because it pays or be honest because God will get you.
2. PRIDE - be honest because you don’t want to be one of those people, those sinners.

Did you notice that our incentive to be good can also be our motive for sin? Fear and pride may be good incentives to not sin but they can also be the catalyst that creates in us the desire to sin. Think about it, fear and pride are the main reason for all of the evil in this world and yet my virtue is full of fear and pride.

Common virtue is rotten at the core, there is vice in all of my virtue, because of this my efforts to be good will never be good enough and they won't last for very long. Fear and pride will help me develop better filters but real change comes from the heart.

True virtue says:

1. Do the right thing because of who God is.
2. Because of what Jesus has done.

True virtue comes from a desire to honor and please God for his glory and because of his beauty and worth. I want to be generous, humble and loving because I love him and want to please him and be like him. God will be your greatest desire and the source of satisfaction above everything else.

If you realize how bad your goodness is then your point of view will change, Jesus won't be just a good example to follow, he will be your Savior that you cannot be without. You won't run to him when you need him to get you through something rather you will stay at his side because you need him always.

The Gospel: I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me yet I’m so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me.

-Timothy Keller

The gospel changes everything, your pride will disappear as you realize that you are so bad the he had to die to reverse the effects of sin. But at the same time you don’t have to live in fear because God loves you so much that he was willing to come and die for you.

These realities should change your worldview, generosity, racial reconciliation and love will be what you are known for. Let's pray that this reality will come alive for every follower of Jesus so that we will be known for our love.