sin

It may seem that, like a medicine that promises to make us well but makes us sick, our faith does not do what it claims to do. If Christians are not more like Christ than anyone else, why follow Christ? A biblical response is that our faith never promises that Christians will be made perfect in this life. Sanctification requires cooperation, which is why we are to “put to death what is earthly in you” (Colossians 3:5). Even Paul the Apostle admitted, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19).

When we obey God, He strengthens us. When we humble ourselves, His grace is manifested more abundantly, “Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds you abased and empty, His glory and power flow in” (Andrew Murray). Disobedience leads to desperation and despair.

How should Christians respond when Christians sin? We need to separate the message from the messenger, hold each other to the standards of Christ, and balance grace and consequences. To the last point, I wrote that “sinners can be forgiven, but they must seek restitution.”

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.