Have you ever tossed and turned with an illness? Your symptoms haunt your dreams. You languish on a desert, or sinister beings stab you with needles. You wake up burning with fever and aching all over. Your illness has tormented your sleep, much like sin tortures the wicked (Isaiah 57:20-21).
Every person has experienced the real guilt of offending God by his or her conduct and heart attitudes (Romans 3:23). Sin is an archery term that means missing the mark. Since I understand tennis better than archery, let me use it to illustrate sin.
In the game of tennis, fault is called when a ball fails to land in the receiver’s service court. When my son was learning to play tennis, sometimes he’d knock the ball over the fence or into the next court. As his skills improved, his faults were much closer to the line. However, it didn’t matter if the ball landed on the edge of the box, in the next court, or clear down the street; if it didn’t land within or on the painted lines, it was a fault.
The Bible says we all fall short of God’s glory. We also fall short of His perfect moral law, but Romans 3:23 highlights His glory. Humans were created in the image of God to reflect His glory. Christ came to show us the Father. Words, actions, and attitudes that miss reflecting Christ are sin. When we understand this, we recognize how we all have sinned.
The Guilt of Sin Runs Deeper Than What We See
Sin goes much deeper than wrong actions. Its scope is much broader than the deeds that make the news. When we fail to believe God loves us or fail to love our office mate, we sin. When we act out of fear instead of from faith, we sin (Romans 14:23). When we injure others with careless words, we sin.
That is why no one can stand before God at the end of his or her life and expect to enter heaven based on merit. We all have missed the mark of God’s glory.
Maybe you’ve heard people say that all sin is the same to God. I don’t believe the Bible teaches that. Degrees of punishment show varying levels of guilt (Luke10:12; 12:47-48). However, all sin is alike in this way: any sin, no matter how small in our eyes, is enough to keep a person out of heaven and send him or her to hell. God made it clear that His standard for heaven is moral perfection. If He allowed sin into heaven, it would no longer be heaven.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21-22), Jesus said just being angry with a brother or calling a person a fool made a person guilty enough to go to hell. Jesus is showing us our need for a Savior. No one is good enough for heaven. But God has provided a Savior to remove our sin and give us His righteousness. Whose righteousness are you trusting, His or yours?
Adapted from Give Yourself a Break.
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Oh Debbie such a good word and an important clarification!
Ann, understanding this causes our appreciation for Christ to sky rocket. If we think we’re not so bad, we miss why Jesus had to die such a horrific death for our sins.