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"Our Second Nature - Sin "
By Dr. Mickey Anders
First Christian Church
Pikeville, Kentucky
November 11, 2001

Text: Genesis 3:1-19

Karl Menninger begins his book entitled, Whatever Became of Sin? with these words:

"On a sunny day in September, 1972, a stern-faced, plainly dressed man could be seen standing still on a street corner in the busy Chicago Loop.  As pedestrians hurried by on their way to lunch or business, he would solemnly lift his right arm, and pointing to the person nearest him, intone loudly the single word 'GUILTY!'

"Then without any change of expression, he would resume his stiff stance for a few moments before repeating the gesture.  Then, again, the inexorable raising of his arm, the pointing, and the solemn pronouncing of the one word 'GUILTY!'

"The effect of this strange j'accuse pantomime on the passing strangers was extraordinary, almost eerie.  They would stare at him, hesitate, look away, look at each other, and then at him again; then hurriedly continue on their ways.

"One man, turning to another who was my informant, exclaimed: 'But how did he know?'"

I suspect that is the response that many of us would have had.  Or we might have said, "What does he know?"  We would be afraid that he would know the deep secrets about us.

Today I want to tackle the difficult subject of sin using the old journalist's technique of what, who, why, and how.

What is sin?
We are all very familiar with sin, but if I were to ask your definition of sin, we would get a great variety of definitions.  It is not as easy to define as we first may think.

The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines sin this way:
"1. transgression of divine law.  2. any act regarded as such a transgression, esp. a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.  3. any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense."

This definition of sin is a common one - breaking some kind of rule.  But I am not sure that it is the Biblical one.  Is it just disobeying God's commandments?  That's what most people think.  People often ask the question, "Is this a sin?"  People want to know what the rules are.  It makes life easier to have a set of rules.

But the Bible defines sin much more broadly than that.  The Bible talks about sins of omission as well as sins of commission.  James 4:17 says, "Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin."

Jesus had a way of tracking sin to its lair in our hearts.  When pressed about the rules, Jesus defined them very broadly.  In Matthew 22:37, Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and the first commandment.  And a second is like it.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

The Apostle Paul said in Romans 14:23, "For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."

Georgia Harkness says this about sin:
"There is perhaps no word in our language which is used more ambiguously, in spite of its apparent simplicity…  Sin, then, is a relationship to God focused in self-centeredness, which shows itself in unloving attitudes and acts toward our fellow men.  It is when we seek our own wills instead of God's will and regulate our lives by such self-seeking that sin corrupts our nature." (Christian Believer Readings, p. 87)

At its root, sin is alienation from God.  Sin is not having right relationships with God and with humans.  Sin is missing the mark of what God wants for our lives.

Who sins?
Menninger's story answers that question of "Who?"  His self-appointed accuser of all obviously hit a nerve with the people who passed him by.  The answer is that we all are sinners.

Only Christ was sinless.  Hebrews 4:15 says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin."

But for the rest of us, sin is just second nature.  It seems to be natural for us to sin.  Everybody we know sins.  We are all guilty.  Everybody.  Guilty of lying, of arrogance, of stealing, of unfaithfulness, of evil thoughts or evil plans.  Guilty of sins of commission or sins of omission.  The Bible tells us plainly, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).  1 John 1:8 says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

We may try to excuse ourselves by pointing out that we are pretty good or that we are better than someone else, but we can't get around the fact that we are ALL sinners.

How many sins does it take to make us a sinner?  Just one.  Imagine a pen with sheep in it.  How many breaks in the fence does it take for the sheep to get out?  Just one.  And then the sheep are either on the inside or the outside.  That's the way it is with sin.  We are either sinners or we are not sinners, and even one sin makes all the difference.

Who sins?  We all do.  Who is a sinner?  We all are.

What are the results of sin?
Some people picture God as a policeman in the sky ready to hit us with a club every time we sin.  I don't think God works that way.  God has so ordered the world that sin brings it's own judgment on us.  You can see people who are addicted to drugs and it destroys their lives.  In the same way, every sin destroys relationships.  I believe God's judgment is that God lets us go to our own devices.  Romans 1:28 says, "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done."  God gives us up to make a mess or our own lives, and we seem to be experts at that.  We bring the consequences upon ourselves.

Even without the prospect of hell, sin is tragic beyond measure because of what it does to our human relationships.  Sin alienates person from person.  Sin alienates us from God.

Ultimately, our sins are against God.  Psalm 51:4 says, "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment."  We remove ourselves from God.  God is not removed from us.

Why do we sin?
We sin because of Adam and Eve.  Adam's story is our story.  The story of Adam is the story of every person.  What Adam did, everyone does.  What he was, we all are.  People simply repeat over and over again Adam's original sin, with the same consequences.  If I want to understand who I am and what I am like, I only have to look at Adam.

The doctrine of sin says that nothing we do is free from the corruption of sinful self-interest.  Human beings are monotonously the same, repeating over and over again the little drama in the garden of Eden.

Now I don't want to be guilty of the common tendency to exaggerate our sinful nature.  We must not confirm the suspicion that many people have about Christians.  They say that Christians are cynical, sour people who believe in sin more than in anything else, refuse to see any good anywhere, always look around suspiciously for the real evil under every apparent good, and especially denounce any good that non-Christians accomplish.

If sin is second nature to us, what is our first nature?  To learn about our first nature, we have to turn a few pages earlier than our text for today.  We have to go back to the first chapter where God follows each of the Divine creative acts with the pronouncement, "That is good."  And then "God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…  So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:26-27)

We need to always remember that we are created by God and that God proclaimed we are basically good.  But with the story of Adam and Eve that we read earlier, sin entered the picture and became our second nature.  Sin distorts, twists, corrupts, and contradicts this the image of God in us, but it does not change us into something other than what God created us to be.  Our first nature is the image of God, but our second nature is sin.

Sin is an acquired taste.

The Bible affirms two apparently contradictory truths about humans and sin:
1) Sin is universal and inevitable.  All people, everywhere, always, have lived in self-contradiction to their true being in the image of God.  Romans 3:10-11 says, "As it is written: There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understand, there is no one who seeks God."

2) Nevertheless, every person is responsible for his or her sinfulness.  No one forces me not to love God and other people.  It is I who sin and I know that I am guilty, even if I do not want to do it.

Sin comes from legitimate desires that are then drawn beyond legitimate bonds.
"No wonder sin gives us so much difficulty. It approaches us at our places of need and takes them to illegitimate territory so that hunger slips into gluttony, the need for affection becomes lust, the desire to improve oneself becomes theft, and the longing for exhilaration becomes drunkenness or drug abuse.  Even the desire for spiritual fulfillment can lead to self-deification or to seeking to use God for quite ungodly purposes." (Christian Believer, p. 92)

How do we handle our sins?
Now this is the most important question we ask today.  Suppose you were to arrive at the Pearly Gates and God were to ask you the question, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" What would you say on your behalf?

Perhaps you would respond by presenting your spiritual resume to God.  I've been pretty good… mostly."  "I'm better than a lot of people."  "I went to church… usually."  "I tried to be a good person… mostly."  "I was faithful to my wife… for the most part."  "I attended church… sometimes."

The Bible tells us that no such answer is adequate.  You cannot be saved by being good enough.  There is nothing you can do to earn your salvation.  We are all sinners.

Even the Apostle Paul said, "For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh.  I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do… Wretched man that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:18-24)

If Paul couldn't earn his salvation, then neither can we.  But there is good news in Jesus Christ.  1 John 2:1 says, "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.  But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the world."

Jesus paid the price for all our sins.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."  (John 3:16-17)
 

The correct answer is that we believe Jesus Christ is Lord. We claim Christ's sacrificial death for our sins.  We can never be good enough, but God offers us the gift of salvation if we will only respond in faith to Him.  Faith in Christ is the only thing that gets us right with God.  Jesus is the only one who can forgive our sins.

The question for you is not "How good are you?" No one can be good enough.  We are all sinners, but we are saved sinners because we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ.  Are you a saved sinner?  Have you ever placed your faith in Jesus Christ?  If not, you can today.  And you will experience the eternal life promised by God.