Know What Sin Is

Monday, October 23, 2017

Romans 3:19-20: Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

As a child, we know when we did something wrong. I remember the famous line from my mom, "Wait until your father gets home." My mom was not shy about punishing us for what we did or didn't do. Yet the guilt went up a couple of notches when she said, "What until your father gets home."

The Law of God, both the internal conscience and the written Word, tells us very clearly we sinned. That is the purpose of the Law. It is designed to lead us to know our sin and what it is. It is designed to lead us to contrition, which is a genuine understanding and acceptance of what we did and that it's wrong before God. The Law leads us to realize and accept the condition our sin and sinfulness. The Law is designed to keep us from rationalizing away the sin by calling it a "wrong choice" or a "bad behavior" or a "mistake." The also leads us to realize that when our Father gets home, we are "IN TROUBLE." Sin is sin. There is no excusing it. It's time to buck it up and take the punishment.

From contrition comes repentance, which is the genuine desire to turn away from the sin and turn toward God and salvation through Jesus. Then the really Good News is knowing that we are forgiven of our sins by God through what Jesus did.

We need to realize sin more clearly so that we can realize more clearly the grace that is from God through Jesus. When we realize our sin more clearly, we will see more clearly the grace of God, that Jesus substituted, or sacrificed, Himself for us. So when we know our sin and what is causes, we also know our Savior and what He did. Dear Father, lead us by Your Spirit to confess our sin and receive Your grace, Amen.