Creator, Father, King #37

Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.

FALLING IS NEVER A good thing—well, unless you’re a skydiver, perhaps. Then, it’s pretty cool. (Just don’t forget your parachute.)

But in general, falling hurts. It produces scrapes, bruises, cuts, broken bones, or worse.

Genesis chapter 3 is often referred to as “The Fall” of mankind. And boy, did it hurt.

This is when humanity fell from perfect fellowship with God through Adam and Eve’s original sin in the Garden of Eden.

Interestingly, the word sin is not mentioned at all in Genesis 3. But if you read what the rest of the Bible has to say about sin, it’s clear that’s what Adam and Eve did.

This leads us to the question, What is sin? It’s a vitally important concept to understand. In fact, it’s a matter of life and death.

What’s It Mean?

Sin is breaking God’s law, as today’s verse says. Adam and Eve sinned because they willfully disobeyed God’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Every human in history has broken God’s law. As Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (ESV).

But sin goes much deeper than our actions. Sin is a matter of the heart. We have also rebelled against God in our attitudes. This is what Jesus was driving at in passages such as Matthew 5:21-26 and 15:1-20. If we think hateful thoughts against someone—even if we refrain from speaking or acting maliciously against them—the Bible says we have still broken God’s law to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We are also sinful by nature. Because of Adam’s sin, all humans are born inherently guilty before God (Romans 5:12). From birth, we have what’s often referred to as indwelling sin. It’s in our nature to defy him.

This all sounds pretty bleak, doesn’t it? We said earlier that understanding sin was a matter of life and death—because sin brings both physical and spiritual death (Romans 6:23). But there is one who offers hope and eternal life to rebels! As Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (ESV).

Our sin is great, but Jesus is greater!

Now What?

“The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2, ESV). Trust in this Savior!

Did You Know?

Temptation isn’t the same as sin. Check out James 1:14-15 and the February 14 devotion for more on this.