The Silliness and Seriousness of Sin

 

The human mind is capable of an unlimited number of tasks and intellectual levels. Yet, it's amazing at how a normal, intelligent human being is still capable of such evil and vile thoughts as well as actions to support those thoughts. If we consider the origin of these thoughts and actions, we would realize it is sin. We would also understand the silliness and the seriousness of sin.

Now, for those who are not Christians, they will scoff at that statement. They don't believe sin is anything but a fictitious element which Christians use to blame all wrong doings for. Atheists believe there is no such thing as a God or supreme being. Therefore, how can there be anything such as sin? It's just an excuse for the bad actions of some people. But the reality is this: Sin is the root cause for all evil and vile actions. Actually, there is a God and anything which does not meet His standard is sin. Sin is something we are all born with; it's commonly referred to as the sin nature and is the result of Adam's and Eve's disobedience to God. They disobeyed His commandment to not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When they disobeyed Him and did eat the fruit of this tree, it gave sin a way into this world and every human being born past, present and future has this sin nature.

This is recorded in the Bible in Genesis 2. Yes I know, those who aren't Christians don't believe this and consider it a Christian fairytale. But it is absolutely true. There is a God and He is the creator of all things and has also provided a rescue from that sin nature in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died on a cross to pay the price for the forgiveness of our sin. Only Jesus could do that because only He was without sin. He is the second person of the Godhead, the Son of God the Father. He is 100% God and 100% man and the only person who has never sinned. Only a sinless person could die as a pure sacrifice for sin. Any person who understands and believes this and asks Jesus to forgive them, is forgiven and given new life through the Holy Spirit. These are not fairytales; this is all recorded in the word of God, the Holy Bible. I also understand why those who don't believe, consider this book one which was simply written by a bunch of men and it is meaningless.

But I simply offer this, and without going into all the documentation to prove this is not just a book written by men, go and talk to a Christian, any Christian. Ask them how their life has changed since asking Jesus to forgive them. Ask them how they were rescued from a life which sin had them enslaved to. Ask them how they were rescued from alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography and sex addiction. Ask how miserable they were before Jesus saved them. Just ask them how Jesus changed their lives. Not all Christians were addicts or sex workers or addicted to porn. But they can tell you how miserable they were in their lives before Jesus. They can tell you how they thought they were good people but realized they weren't, after they were saved. Every Christian can give a testimony of how Jesus changed their lives. That's the best proof of the fact that there is a God and he rescues us from our life of sin when we surrender to Him.

That's the seriousness of sin. It enslaves us as the apostle Paul describes in Romans 6.

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.  But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.  Rom 6:21-22

Paul uses the term slaves to provide a better understanding of the emphasis of this topic. We are not slaves, in the sense we understand the meaning of that word, but we do belong to God when we are saved. But in the case of sin, yes, we were/are slaves to sin because it is the nature we were born with and it's all we know/knew. We were spiritually dead and were incapable of knowing any better or of fixing our sin problem. This is where Jesus comes in. Only He can save us from our life of sin. This is a serious problem which far too many people either don't know, don't care or can't accept as truth. It is the seriousness of sin because without knowing, understanding and realizing that Jesus is the only way (JN 14:6), their eternal destination is eternal suffering in the fires of hell. Always burning but never being consumed. It is a very serious matter. It is the serious matter of sin!

What about the silliness of sin? Alright, let's take a look at how silly sin can actually be. Let's consider the color of a person's skin. He/she is a person, created by God and no different in there physical makeup other than male or female. Why does the color of their skin matter or make them different than any other person of a different skin color?  Again, the apostle Paul makes this statement,

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.  Gal 3:26-28

Paul, of course, is speaking to Christians here but just because they are saved affected no change to their physical make up. Salvation did not change them physically but it did change them spiritually. So, how silly, when you stop and consider, is it to judge another person by their skin color? But this happens every day around the world and we are having a serious problem with it here in our country right now. So, stop and think about that right now; does a person's skin color make them less of a human being or more of one? The answer is no, it doesn't. The problem with this race issue is sin. It is the root cause of this issue. It's not the result of something which happened 200 or 400 years ago; it is the sin which people were enslaved to which brought about these ideas concerning skin color and it is absolutely silly when you consider it. There have been great minds in history and there have been extremely evil people in history but the color of their skin had nothing to do with either situation. To reject or accept a person by their skin color is a result of the sin in a person's life.

Allow me to give an example. I read an article about Major League Baseball recognizing the Negro Leagues as part of MLB now. In 1920, the Negro Leagues were formed because players of skin color were not allowed to play in MLB. So now, after 100 years, MLB is recognizing the Negro Leagues and all those Black baseball players as being part of Major League Baseball. This is good but what about those players who had to find alternative places to sleep and eat because they wouldn't be served due to the color of their skin? What about those players who were far more talented than some of the players in MLB? Now, they are recognized as having been MLB players but they weren't and only because of the color of their skin.

Why were these players rejected and not allowed to play in MLB? Yes, it was because of their skin color but why would another human being make that rule? It was sin; to consider one person as a lesser human being and to be rejected by general society is all because of sin. It is the root cause of this and many other degenerate actions against a human being. Why would Hitler murder six million Jews just because they were Jews? The answer is the same; it is sin. How silly and ignorant to take such actions against a person simply because of the color of their skin or their ethnicity.

Sin in this world can be silly and serious; sin has been the cause for many atrocities and continues to be. Culture and society cannot fix this problem; it doesn't matter how many ideas and man made solutions are brainstormed and considered. The only way to end these problems is to allow God to remedy it. And, He has already provided the fix through Jesus. As I have already explained, Jesus is the only way to suppress sin in a person's life. But not everyone will come to Jesus and surrender to Him so, these sin issues will not be solved until Jesus returns and transforms this world.

As individuals,  we can help now by telling others about Jesus. Let them know there is an alternative to a life of sin and that is freedom from sin in Jesus. The world is busy trying to fix these sin issues by treating the symptoms but only Jesus can fix the root cause which is sin.

-Bill Petite