Lesson Two
THREE THINGS YOU MUST BELIEVE

Chapter 1: Sin

In the third chapter of the last lesson we studied about mankind. We saw how man was created, how God was pleased with the people He created in His own image, how man sinned, and how death came as the result of sin. In this chapter let us study a little deeper about this sin which caused the tragic fall of the human race, and doomed us to death.

Unless you know what sin is, it would be impossible for you to understand what salvation through Jesus Christ is all about. Throughout the entire Bible you will find sin and sins mentioned.

Now we must make one thing clear before we go further: by sin we do not mean only such things as stealing, cheating and killing—although every one of these is sin. We want to learn about the basic power called sin (singular) that causes us to commit many sins (plural). We want to look at the cause—not just the effect.

Well, then, what is sin?
First, sin is your inability to meet God's standard. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). This means that all men are sinners who cannot reach up to God's glorious ideals.

The term "the glory of God" (mentioned above) means absolute perfection. God, being perfect, has a perfect standard for everything—our thoughts, actions, words and, indeed, life itself. All thoughts, words and deeds that do not come up to this standard are sin.

Second, sin is breaking God's law. Not only are we unable to meet God's standard, we also constantly break His law. God has set certain rules for us to obey so we can be happy. The reason true happiness eludes us is because we are guilty of breaking His law.

Third, sin is everything that is evil—in thought, word and deed. "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' BUT I TELL YOU that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her IN HIS HEART" (Matthew 5:27, 28).

Fourth, sin is not doing the good thing that you know you should. Generally, we believe that if we don't do wrong things or don't go to certain places, we do not commit sin. But Christianity is not a religion of don'ts but of do's.

The Christian Gospel is neither negative nor passive. It demands and prompts us to do good. It is not enough to avoid evil. "Anyone, then who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" (James 4:17).

 

 To summarize: the failure to meet God's standard, the breaking of God's law, all evil thoughts and deeds, not doing the good you know you should—this is what sin is, according to God's Word. That is not all. The Bible says—and you must remember that the final authority rests in the Bible—that "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilt of breaking all of it" (James 2:10). In other words, if you met God's standard, never broke His law, never harbored any evil thoughts or committed evil deeds—but failed to do the good you should have done, you have broken the entire law!

At this point the question comes: Who then is not a sinner? Indeed, who is not? That is why the Bible says, "ALL have sinned" (Romans 3:23) and, "There is no one righteous, NOT EVEN ONE" (Romans 3:10). No matter what your family background, educational attainment, social and economic standing, talents and abilities, age and experience, reputation—the fact remains you are a sinner.

Do you think there is a single person in the world who is not guilty of sin? So all human beings, including you and me, have sinned before God and the result is death.

But is this the end of the matter? We saw in Lesson One that God is love. How could a God of love allow anyone to die and go to hell without feeling compassion and without doing something about it?