The Word Sin
Key Words of the Bible • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Introduction
Introduction
Words are an important part of our lives. Without words, we would not be able to communicate. In our series on the Key Words of the Bible, we are looking to define these important words as we study the Word of God.
The eighth word that we are going to see in our Key Words series is the word sin. The words “sin”, “sins”, “sinned”, “sinful”, and “sinning” are found 749 times in the King James. Sin is one of the over-arching themes of the Bible. Mankind’s sin is a violation of the law of God. God gave Adam and Eve a command to abstain from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Their choice to eat resulted in the original sin of mankind that effects us to this day.
Webster defines sin as:
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) (Sin)
1sin \ˈsin\ noun
1 a: an offense against religious or moral law
b: an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible 〈it’s a sin to waste food〉
c: an often serious shortcoming: FAULT
2 a: transgression of the law of God
b: a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God synonym see OFFENSE
Sin is a comfortable to the sinner. But sin is disturbing to the State. Sin is concerning to the group. However, sin is acceptable to the individual. Our inner self is able to accept our sinful state as the easiest path in every situation. We justify ourselves in our sin.
The world will tell us that sin is just the “survival of the fittest”. It will tell us to “follow your heart.” The cry rings out “you only live once!” There is the capacity to “be yourself” or “express yourself”. But there is a danger waiting in the midst of this “inclusive” and “tolerating” society.
There was a water pump in Soho, England, that stood for many years as a reminder of a terrible outbreak of disease from 1854. Cholera, a debilitating and at the time likely fatal disease, was spread through the water in the pumps and wells in this part of London. Much could be said about the importance of this particular outbreak for the future of science. The man who took the responsibility to look into the causes of this terrible outbreak of disease was John Snow.
What Mr. Snow discovered has changed the history of science and how we track and treat disease across geographic locations! John Snow developed data from the outbreak that could be put on a map. This data tracked the epidemic inward toward the source of the infected water, the Broad Street pump. The conclusion that John Snow discovered was that there was an original person who was sick with the cholera that subsequently affected the pump that everyone used for drinking. The same process is followed in each outbreak of disease to this day. This original “index case” was a baby who last name was Lewis.
The sickness and death of baby Lewis was a terrible event that effected the people of that part of the city of London. It began a period of debilitating sickness that resulted ultimately in the death of 615 other people! How much more does the choice of our father Adam and mother Eve effect the whole of human history.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Declaration
Declaration
We know that sin is evil. We know that it is unacceptable to God. But, what is the solution to the sinful condition of man?
1. Why do we need a solution to our sin?
1. Why do we need a solution to our sin?
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
A. We all are born in sin “For all have sinned”
A. We all are born in sin “For all have sinned”
Sin begins in the first story about man in Scripture. God placed man in the garden of Eden. It was a beautiful place with all of the trees and plants of the world that were good for food. One prohibition was given by God. Man was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God then gave man a wife. Adam’s wife’s name was Eve. She was created without sin just as Adam was. Adam passed on to her the command of God. When the time came for the test of man’s faithfulness to the command of God, man failed.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
The sin of Adam carries onto all of mankind today. His sin is how we are born into the world.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
B. We all continue to sin “and come short”
B. We all continue to sin “and come short”
Man is today still sinning. We look around at this world and see wars and conflicts. We see anger and hatred. We see theft and murder. We see lying and deceit. We see evil that is beyond what anyone would have thought of 60 years ago. All of us can think of things that we have heard, even recently, that make us shudder for the future of the human race.
Sin continues to march toward the day that the people of God and the influence of the Holy Spirit will be removed. On that day, when the Tribulation begins, sin will get many times worse even than it is today. We find this truth in the book of 2 Thessalonians.
All of us continue to sin. We struggle against our flesh, the world and the devil. Sin is the result of trying to attain something and not making it. Our sin is short of the goal. Nothing we can do on our own will change this condition.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Even as early as the time of Noah, God knew that man was filled with sin without any change in sight. The standard of God from only a few chapters before in the garden is now far away from reality. God was grieved at His heart because of the sin of man.
I am not a very coordinated person when I play sports. I enjoyed playing soccer in high school and college. I even played flag football in college as well, though not very well.
One sport I am definitely not good at is basketball. I played in a Christian recreation league in middle school and felt like I was pretty good. During my sophomore year of high school, I decided to try out for the basketball team with two of my friends. We worked hard to be at every practice and to get onto the team. We just had not practiced enough on those Saturday afternoons. We had not developed the abilities necessary to be a successful part of the team. We could not meet the standard that was necessary for the team. We got cut.
My junior year, I was asked again if I planned to try out for the basketball team. I decided not to. I felt like I would fall short again.
This is the feeling that we all have as humans. We know that we fall short of the standard that God has for us. That standard is His righteousness.
C. We all have a standard to meet “the glory of God”
C. We all have a standard to meet “the glory of God”
God established in the Old Testament a standard of His glory. In the Bible, this is called the Law. The Law was a series of commands found especially in the first five books of the Bible. The commands distinguished Israel from the pagan worship of the world. But no one could follow them without sin. Instead, God included in the law specific instructions regarding the sacrifices necessary to offer when the law was broken. One resource said it this way
Legal righteousness forms the starting point.
The standard of God is the beginning of our problem of sin. When we are told to obey, we disobey. When we are commanded to change, we get worse. When a call is made to return to Him, we go farther down the path of sin. We have been given requirements that we chose not to meet. Ultimately, we cannot meet them.
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
In the Bible, sin is anything that we think, say, or do that breaks God’s law and make Him sad. We have all been born in sin. We all continue to sin each and every day. We fall short each moment of the glory of God. What can be done for us?
2. Where is the solution to be found?
2. Where is the solution to be found?
A. There is a confidence through the Old Testament
A. There is a confidence through the Old Testament
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Verse 21 has a strong beginning. The word “now” shows us that there is a change occuring in this part of the book of Romans. The time of the sin of mankind running rampant is done. The sequence of man’s sin looking toward salvation is moving to the next stage. Paul says, “But now!”
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
The condition of sin has existed from the time of the Old Testament. The solution by God was His plan from the creation of the world. Scripture is the working out of the plan of God for salvation. The Law shows us the specifics of God’s standard. The Prophets point to a necessary Solution.
The Law says
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
The Psalms say
As far as the east is from the west,
So far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
The Prophets say
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him:
But the just shall live by his faith.
God is preparing the way for the coming day of a permanent solution for our problem. But the time is not yet.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Romans 3:21
Under the Old Testament Law, righteousness came by man behaving; but under the Gospel, righteousness comes by believing.
B. There is a commonality to everyone
B. There is a commonality to everyone
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Paul says there is no difference. The Jewish believer is guilty before God. The Gentile who spends her whole life trying to live a good life and make right choices is still a sinner. The unrepentant child who is choosing to disobey his parents each day is still condemned by the righteous judgment of God.
One preacher (John MacArthur) connected this passage to Job 9 and the questions that he asks there in his conversations with his “friends”. Job asked the question we have asked today,
Then Job answered and said,
I know it is so of a truth:
But how should man be just with God?
If he will contend with him,
He cannot answer him one of a thousand.
He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength:
Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
What is the answer to the question that Job asks? Look back at the beginning of verse 22. The righteousness of God is for everyone because the sin is on everyone as well. God has integrity. He has what we need to be right with Him. Only He has it. The center of God’s plan of salvation, of making mankind righteous, is the Cross.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
C. There is a change before the Justice of God
C. There is a change before the Justice of God
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Is God just? Does He truly hold us to an unreachable standard? Yes, He does. He has made a way to change our underperforming condition. God is the justifier of mankind. We are in a proper relationship now. We are legally righteous before God. We are righteous through the righteousness of another.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
There is a free gift of salvation through God’s grace. The grace of God is the solution for sinful man. This is where the plan of God began to be worked out in the world. Grace is ill-deserved favour. We deserved the opposite. We deserved condemnation for all eternity in hell. Instead, we receive the opposite of condemnation. We received redemption. Redemption is the release of mankind from the slavery of sin.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Just as the sin of mankind is affected by the choice of Adam, the choice of Jesus to die for us is the way of salvation.
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For the many years leading up to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, God held Himself back from punishing the sin of man. He accepted the sacrifices of the people of Israel as a covering for their sin. He choose to forgive their sin as the time came toward the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Today, God is no longer delaying the culpability of man in his sin. The way of salvation is now available. Living out the law or following the commandments is not enough. Only Christ can justify us.
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
Jesus is the mercy seat for our sinful condition. This is the removal of the stain of sin. God has made Jesus the public solution for the sin of mankind. God is the subject of the sentence and He is the one who places Christ as the One who gives us reconciliation to God. Anyone can be a part of the solution that Christ offers. This is the elimination of the evil standing that we have before God. Where before only condemnation was possible, now there is redemption.
And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
The mercy seat was a separate piece of sacred furniture from the ark of the covenant. On the Day of Atonement, there would be two goats chosen for a sacrifice for the people. One would be killed and his blood would be placed on the mercy seat to cover the sin of the people. The sacrifice and the mercy seat represent the death of Christ.
And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
The hands of the priest would be placed on the other one and he would be released into the wild. The act of placing the hands showed the transfer of the sin of the people onto another. This other was a picture of Christ as well.
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
D. There is a choice for the sinner
D. There is a choice for the sinner
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Romans 3:24b–25
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan was trying to explain “free salvation” to a coal miner, but the man was unable to understand it. “I have to pay for it,” he kept arguing. With a flash of divine insight, Dr. Morgan asked, “How did you get down into the mine this morning?” “Why, it was easy,” the man replied. “I just got on the elevator and went down.”
Then Morgan asked, “Wasn’t that too easy? Didn’t it cost you something?”
The man laughed. “No, it didn’t cost me anything; but it must have cost the company plenty to install that elevator.” Then the man saw the truth: “It doesn’t cost me anything to be saved, but it cost God the life of His Son.”
There are a series of questions here. The first is “Where is boasting then?” The answer is that “It is excluded.” Boasting can be used for good, godly pride in the Bible. We see this often with Paul. He is proud of the growth of people in different churches. He is rejoicing with them in their walk with God. There is a type of pride that is wrong, however. The boasting here is pride in keeping the law. Being proud of our “righteous” works is sin. God instead has shut out or removed completely our boasting of our own path through sending His Son to die for us.
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
The second and third questions are how the boasting is excluded. “By what law?”, “of works?”. Paul says no. The exclusion is from the law of faith. Faith is used 8 times in this passage! What is faith? Faith is believing in something that you have found to be trustworthy. Faith is choosing something that is reliable. Faith is choosing Christ and His sacrifice for your sins.
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
The righteousness of God is by faith alone. This is the conclusion of the truth of Scripture. We believe that God has made a way for us to believe on the righteousness of His Son for salvation.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The last three questions give us insight to the universal nature of faith. The Jew and the Gentile, the “good” person and the “bad” person, all must come to the same God. They must come by the same way. That way is Jesus Christ. God is the One who give the one way.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Faith makes the law to stand. It stands upon the truth that God has now satisfied what His justice demanded. For all of us, we can go by the way of Christ.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Conclusion
Conclusion
There stands in Broad Street, Soho, England, a replica pump from the epidemic of 1854. Until 2015, there was a tradition that each year, people in the area would come and ceremonially remove the handle of the pump just as John Snow did after his investigations in the 1850s. He determined that the only solution to prevent the disease was to point the people to an alternate source of water in the city. Jesus has removed the handle of the pump of sin by His death on the cross. No longer are we waiting with the poisoned water that will only bring eternal destruction. Instead, we can find our life in the blood of Christ. All that we must do is to believe!
The law was given, in order to convert a great into a little man—to show that you have no power of your own for righteousness; and might thus, poor, needy, and destitute, flee to grace.
Augustine of Hippo
We are born in sin and continue to fall short of God's glory. God's righteousness is the only answer and it is found in the sacrifice of Christ. We must accept it by faith.
The law will only condemn mankind. The law only brings us to the point of acknowledging our sin. On the other side from the law stands another law. This law is the law of faith. Will you believe the truth of Christ’s sacrifice for you? Will you make the sacrifice your own? What choice will you make for yourself? There is a way made through Christ alone to the righteousness of God. Don’t let today go on without having taken advantage of this grace by faith!