It’s something we don’t like to talk about. In fact, if we can, we dismiss it completely.  It doesn’t exist. It is the dark side we hide from ourselves and others. It is only mistakes made, an accident, a slip-up. Everyone does it. What’s the big deal? But see it is a very big deal. I am talking about sin. It started in the Garden of Eden, and it continues to this day with you and with me. None of us are excluded.

God has much to say about sin in the Bible. He takes sin very seriously. Sin separates us from him. Sin caused Adam and Eve to lose their home in the Garden. Sin has caused the loss of many a home and many broken families and broken relationships throughout history. We must talk about it.

 What exactly is sin? We might immediately think of the big things like murder, adultery, violence, theft, porn, human trafficking, and along those lines. You know the yuck of humanity. The things we can easily condemn. Surely all of these are sins. And they are. But what about the little things, the little lies we tell our family, coworkers, friends, bosses, the ones we make up on the spur of the moment. The ones to cover our tracks when we weren’t doing what we were supposed to be doing or where we were supposed to be. Or when we said we would do one thing and yet did something else entirely. What about the thoughts we know are better kept inside our head that we don’t dare speak about but man if we could tell that person what we really thought. Or our gut reaction to that driver. Or when we feel cheated. Or no one will notice. No one will care. No one sees.

Those are as much sin as the big ones. God takes those just as seriously. He doesn’t see sin as big or little. He sees sin as sin.  Sin literally means missing the mark. Think of an archer or a marksman aiming for a bullseye. The arrow that misses the mark sins. The bullet that goes astray sins. God’s word, God’s law, is the bullseye and every time we go astray and miss the mark we have sinned. Every time we don’t meet God’s law we sin. The book of James puts it another way:

James 4:17 defines sin this way: So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.

Paul also had something to say about how sin is defined. Paul had to address some concerns in the early church between Jews and Gentiles (or non – Jews). For now, the treasure I want us to see is the last part of the last verse of Romans 14.  Paul says, “and whatever is not from faith is sin.”

If you want something more concrete, ever hear of the Ten Commandments? God gave us a set of commandments to live by a guiding law for our lives. You can read them in Exodus 20. Yet we are not able to keep these. In fact, we go so far as to remove them from our presence. We don’t even want the reminder of them. Why? Because we know we cannot keep them. James, earlier in his letter, speaks about the commandments. He names some of the commandments outright then makes an interesting point, “For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.” (James 2:10 NASB)

What does all this mean then? Is any of us without sin? The obvious answer is no. No one is without sin. At some point we all have broken God’s law. We all have gone astray. We have all come face to face with sin and caved at the first opportunity.

God warned Cain in the very beginning, “If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7 NASB)

I think we all know how that ended. None of us can master sin on our own. We need a Savior. I don’t want to end this post without giving us some hope. Yes, we are all sinners. Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sin is dirty and dark and ugly, but there is a remedy and there is a hope. His name is Jesus. Next time we will talk about the price of our sin.

Angela