sin

As I noted yesterday, Christianity offers the hope of moral transformation for those who follow Jesus and submit to the Spirit. To this, I would add that Christianity offers a unique hope of such transformation.

In his closing benediction at President Joe Biden's inauguration, Pastor Silvester Beaman prayed that Americans acknowledge their sins and work toward unity.

Our secular culture will permit you to be a religious person so long as you keep your religion to yourself. But if you begin making your faith the ruling dimension of your life and encouraging others to do the same, you’ll be accused of intolerance. And intolerance is the only “sin” left in our culture.

One of the falsehoods of moral relativism is that there are no falsehoods. Since all truth is subjective, “sin” is equally subjective. As a consequence, there can be no judgment for sin, since there is no basis for such judgment.

If you were Satan, committed to leading as many people into sin as possible, wouldn’t you try to persuade as many people as possible that this lie is true?

In many ways, sin is like a virus. Like a virus, sin is invisible yet it has symptoms. Like a virus, sin is real, it weakens us and separates us from others. Like many viruses, sin is deadly. Sin brings spiritual death or separation from God. Sin spreads and is a universal pandemic. Like many viruses, sin, too, has no human cure. The Bible is clear that no amount of human effort can remove one sin.

In a recent exchange, a Black police officer explained to a White protester that racism, hatred, and violence come from sin, noting that 'America has a sin problem.'

Pope Francis offered some controversial remarks on Earth Days when he asserted that we have sinned against the earth and that natural disasters are the result of Earth lashing out.

Evangelist Franklin Graham shared with Fox News last week that he believes the coronavirus pandemic "is a result of a fallen world, a world that has turned its back on God." He added, "So I would encourage people to pray and let’s ask God for help."

How many blessings are waiting at the brink? How many promises are yet to be fulfilled? How many prayers are being hindered because of besetting, unconfessed sin? Take time now to follow the example of the blind beggar of Mark 10:46-52 and repent: “[Jesus], Son of David, have mercy on me!” God often crushes our pride to open our ears.

I take this pandemic seriously and you should as well. But statistically, your risk of getting the virus is still remote and the risk of dying from it is minimal, but there is a virus that we hear almost nothing about these days, and it is absolutely going to touch you. In fact, the death rate from it is 100%. The virus is sin.