What is sin?

Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act,

attitude or nature.

We all know that sin is harmful to our lives and that it brings pain
and destructive consequences to others and us.

However, it much more serious than what it does to others

because it is a direct contradiction, violation and rebellion to the
very holiness of God.
 Scriptural support for the definition of sin

1 John 3:4 - Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness;

and sin is lawlessness.

James 4:17 - Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and
does not do it, to him it is sin

Romans 14:23 - “…and whatever is not from faith is sin.

Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Biblical evidence for the doctrine of sin
 Genesis 6:5: "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually.”
 Jeremiah 13:23 (NIV): "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the
leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to
doing evil.”
 Romans 3:10-11: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one
understands; no one seeks for God.”
 Romans 8:7-9: "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to
God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those
who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to
him."
 Ephesians 2:3b: "[We] were by nature children of wrath, like the
rest of mankind."
 1 Corinthians 2:14: "The natural person does not accept the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not
able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
 Genesis 8:21 - The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the
LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on
account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth;
and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done
1 Kings 8:46 - “When they sin against You (for there is no man
who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them to
an enemy, so that they take them away captive to the land of the
enemy, far off or near
 Psalms 51:5 - Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin
my mother conceived me.
 Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is more deceitful than all else And is
desperately sick; Who can understand it?
 Romans 7:18 - For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that
is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the
good is not
1 John 1:8- If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving
ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Summary Point:
Man is not basically good - Man is bad, evil, wicked and corrupt
Even though we learn in Genesis 1:27 we were created in His
image something went terribly and tragically wrong in Genesis 3
when Adam sinned.
From that time until now - man is not a sinner because he sins,
rather man sins because he is a sinner!
Romans 5:12-21

The Scriptures teach that sin causes a two-fold problem in our lives.
By the way these two sin problems are what all people inherit from
Adam.

1. We have inherited condemnation – our original guilt and

condemnation is not rooted in our first individual sinning but in our
connection with Adam and his sin. Since we are regarded as having
sinned in Adam then we are subject to the same punishment as
Adam. This imputed sin is the ruin of our standing before God in
which we are reckoned as guilty in the courtroom of God.
Romans 5:12 - Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into
the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men,
because all sinned
The Scriptures teach that sin causes a two-fold problem in our
lives. By the way these two sin problems are what all people
inherit from Adam.

2. We have inherited corruption – Because of Adam’s sin then we

all enter the world with a sinful or fallen nature. This sin nature,
which we have inherited from Adam, manifests itself in our
thought, ways of speaking and behaving such that we violate the
moral commands of God. At birth inherent to every person
because of Adam’s sin there are sinful thoughts and feelings. We
are not sinners because we sin rather we sin because we are
sinners!
The point of this Scripture is HUGE because in that my corrupted
condition and my sinful behavior I have a much deeper problem.
That problem is rooted in my union with Adam, my father in
whom I sinned, was condemned and died. We need to see where
in this paragraph Paul is writing to show us that it is our
connection to and with Adam that is our main problem.

Romans 5:15 – “…by the transgression of the one many died…”

The one here is Adam
Romans 5:16 – “…for on the one hand the judgment arose from
one transgression resulting in condemnation…”
Romans 5:17 – “For if by the transgression of the one, death
reigned through the one…”
Romans 5:18 – “…through one transgression there resulted
condemnation to all men”
Romans 5:19 – “For as through the one man’s disobedience the
many were made sinners…”
Now that we understand the two-fold problem what is the solution?

 The problem of our condemnation in Adam God remedies

through justification in Christ.
His reckoning to us the righteousness Christ solves the problem of
our legal guilt and condemnation before God.
In other words if we are to stand before God and be declared “not
guilty” then we must have the righteousness of Someone else.”
That someone else is Christ and His righteousness is imputed to us
by grace alone, through faith alone.

 This event is outside of me and is judicial - (declared righteous)

 This event happens in an instant
Now that we understand the two-fold problem what is the solution?
The problem of our corruption God remedies through sanctification
by the Spirit.
And the problem of our moral defilement and habitual sinning is
solved by His purifying us by the work of Spirit. This process is
what we call sanctification.

 This event is inside of me and moral

 This event happens progressively over time
The judicial consequences of Adam’s sin are experienced by all of
those who are in him which is everyone in the world. It is not on
the basis on the individual sins that they perform but on their
corporate identity with Adam and his sin, condemnation and death
that has been imputed to them.

Therefore the judicial consequences of Christ’s righteousness are

experienced by all of His people, not on their acts of individual
righteousness, but on the basis of their union with Christ
corporately so that His righteousness becomes their righteousness
and they live and have acceptance with God and life.

The way God set up the universe was to bring the whole human
race into condemnation through one man so that it might be crystal
clear that through one man salvation comes and it is through His
righteousness alone.