I know, sin is an unpopular concept today. It’s old-fashioned, Puritanical-sounding, uncool, and seems judgmental to many. But, if the Bible clearly says that Jesus came to die for OUR sins, to take our punishment on himself, then shouldn’t we take it seriously and at least understand what it means? Jesus didn’t primarily come to teach us to treat each other better and just try to love each other more, as warm and fuzzy and popular as that message plays in our culture! He came because he knew we CAN’T fully do that, and the power of sin in our lives will kill us, both physically and spiritually. His coming into the world was God’s plan (and only plan) to rescue and save us from the destructive force of sin in our lives, and give us a second change to be reunited with Him and have the power to truly live as God originally created us to be! While many Christians DO understand the horrible power of sin, others take it lightly, and most of our culture laughs at the idea of sin and has no idea that God offers us a much better and fulfilling life than we can ever imagine, free from the crippling power of sin in our lives. So, what is sin really?

The Greek word for sin in the New Testament is hamartia, which means “missing the mark”. A common way to think of this is to imagine a target and you are trying to shoot arrows at it. Sin means that you always miss the target, no matter how hard you aim and try! As hard as we try to be good and just, God says that because of sin in our lives, we are always “a little off”, missing the target, the beautiful and amazing life that he really wants for us. We often jokingly think “that guy or gal is a little off”, but the truth is, we ALL are! When my 3 boys were small, they loved going to the comic store. Of course, Superman was always a comic hero. He was always powerful, good, and just. But the comic creators also made a new character called Bizarro, who had many of Superman’s powers, but was flawed in character. He tried at times to be good like Superman, but his flawed character always led him ultimately to destructive and evil behavior, and he was part of the Legion of Doom! Sin in our lives is a spiritual disease that warps our very thinking, which leads to wrong motives and actions. Even as Christians we struggle with the negative effects of sin. We are in many ways the “Bizarro” version of our best selves, caught in the snare of sin. And the whole world is flawed, a Bizarro version of what God intends, with many trying to do right but not quite making it (think of our flawed political process!) Paul described his struggle like this:
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:14-25 (NIV)

What Paul is saying in this somewhat confusing passage is that our “sinful nature”, the way we were born, will drag us down every time and lead us to think and do things we may even know are wrong. Sin leads to physical death, as we all know (Romans 6:23), but it also results in a state of spiritual death, which we are born into in this world! Paul describes it this way:
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. -Ephesians 2:1-5 (NIV)
Ah, verses 4&5 give us hope!! Even though we are spiritually dead, God in his mercy and love offers us a change to come alive again spiritually, through the resurrection of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit! My next blog will go into detail about this wonderful hope of new life that Jesus offers us. But be assured of this: as bad and hopeless as sin is in our lives, the mercy, grace and power of God is even more amazing than we can ever imagine, and he offers us a whole new life through Jesus!

The bottom line: don’t “settle” for sin! Most non-believers, and even many Christians, settle and resign themselves to a life limited by their sinful nature! They try their best, but are still slaves to their sinful nature. They give up hope and use the false excuse “I was born this way, so I can’t change”. But God wants more for you NOW, not only in the future Kingdom of Heaven! Max Lucado, author & pastor, said “God loves you just as you are. But he doesn’t want you to stay that way. He wants you to become just like Jesus”. The Bible says we are all either slaves of our sinful nature, or we accept God’s power to change and become followers of Jesus, living by his power and direction. Don’t settle for your Bizarro self. Let God change you to become more like Jesus each day, and become the person God created you to be!