Established by God from the beginning, humanity was given the unique honor of being God’s image bearers on the earth.
Being formed and fashioned in God’s likeness, each human being has inherent worth and value. And when God created man and woman, He called them “very good” (Genesis 1:31 NIV).
Human nature, as established by God at the moment of creation, was good and beautiful.
Yet due to humanity’s disobedience and subsequent entrapment with depravity, we fail often to image God before one another and the rest of creation.
The spiral of disobedience, depravity, and death has hindered humanity’s collective vocation as God’s representatives before creation.
As a result, death and corruption fills the world we live in.
What is Sin?
The word the New Testament uses for the act of sinning is harmatano, which means “to miss the mark.”
To sin is to miss God’s mark for His creation.
Pastor and professor Lehman Strauss writes the word harmatano:
suggests inability, the absolute inability of man to measure up to God’s moral standard.
But it’s not just to miss that mark.
It’s also to be unable to hit the mark in our own strength.
Because sin doesn’t just affect us on the outside, it affects us on the inside. It hinders our ability to do what God created us to do and to be who God created us to be.
When we sin, we miss God’s mark.
We miss God’s original design and intent for our lives.
To make matters worse, because of sin’s destructive power in our lives, we lack the ability to recover and redeem ourselves. We live each day with the inability to rid ourselves, on our own, of our sin and shame.
It’s this missing of the mark at a soul-level that separates us from God.
The Consequences of Sin
The consequences of sin are far reaching, affecting all of us at the deepest level.
Sin Affects All of Us
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23 NIV)
There is no person that is not affected by sin.
Through Adam, sin entered the world and wreaked havoc in all of our lives.
There’s not a person we see that has not, in the words of Paul to the Church at Rome, “fallen short.”
None of us are exempt from sin’s destructive effects.
Sin Hinders our vocation to image God before Creation
Humanity was formed and fashioned in the image of God. Made to represent Him, humanity is God’s ambassadors on the earth.
Due to sin, our vocation has been hindered. Sin ensnares and compromises our character to image God in the world we live in.
Sin Affects Our Relationship with God
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” (Hebrews 12:1a NIV)
Sin, at its core, hinders and entangles our relationship with God.
It cuts us off from a deep, intimate relationship with the God who created us, knows us, and loves us.
This separation affects every area of our lives.
It causes us to search for love and meaning outside of God. It leads us to try and satisfy our deepest desires with things that don’t have the capacity to do so.
Sin damages the relationship between the Creator and His Creations.
Sin Affects Our Relationship with Others
Sin doesn’t just affect our relationship with God.
It affects our relationship with other people.
It affects our ability to love and serve the person in front of us. Sin causes us to turn inward. To focus on ourselves and our own agendas, rather than the person God has placed before us.
God created us to live in relationship with Him and with other people.
When we sin, our relationships with other people suffer. We often have our best interests in mind, rather than the good of another. We struggle to forgive others. We often fight against others.
Sin complicates our vocation, our calling to love God, to image God, and to love others.
The Good News
Theologian Christopher Morgan writes in book Fallen: A Theology of Sin:
The biblical story sheds much light on sin. But clearly, sin is only the backdrop, never the point. It emerges in God’s good creation as a temporary intruder, causes much havoc, and holds many in its clutches. But it is no match for the work of God in Christ. Through his sinless life, sin-bearing death, sin-defeating resurrection, and sin-crushing second coming, sin and its offspring of suffering and death are given the death blow. Sin abounded, but grace super-abounds.
Although sin’s effects are far-reaching, the grace of Jesus is all-encompassing.
What sin destroys, Jesus restores.
What sin breaks, Jesus puts back together.
The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus has defeated sin. We no longer must remain bound to the power of sin. We no longer must search for life and peace and contentment in anything else but God.
Now, in and through Jesus, we have freedom from sin and power to live as His image bearers once again.
Through Jesus, we can love our neighbors and walk in relationship with each other.
Through Jesus, our human nature is transformed.
This good news affects how we view the world and the people around us. It informs the way we love and serve the person in front of us. It provides the foundation for how we answer the question of what it means to be human.
Jesus has overcome sin and its power.
Now, we can live free from sin.
Now, we can be who God created us to be.
Grow In Your Understanding of God’s Word with AWKNG
C.S. Lewis once said:
But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.
While sin’s effects are far-reaching, the freedom Jesus offers is available to every person.
At AWKNG, we are committed to Jesus and His commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. And we are passionate about helping God’s people develop a deeper understanding of His Word.
A major way we do that is through developing online courses and resources for followers of Jesus in all seasons of life.
Whether you’re a parent, a pastor, or a professor, you’ll find what you need to grow deeper in your love and understanding of God’s Word.
Because when we grow deeper in our knowledge and understanding of God’s Word, we are empowered to obey it and walk in it.
If you’d like to explore our library of online courses and resources, click here.