Genesis 3 — Thoughts

There’s a trend among Christians to stop talking about sin. It’s understandable. No one wants to be a "fire-and-brimstone preacher." At least, I don't.

But we miss something vital if we don’t talk about sin. It's the human condition after all, and the Gospel simply doesn’t make sense without it. So it's actually important that we understand sin correctly.

Here are three common misconceptions about sin we that need to avoid:

1.) “Sin is just religious rule-breaking.”

Sin is more than rule-breaking. At its core, sin is rejecting God. It’s ignoring His love for us and trusting in ourselves instead. That’s why God asked Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” Of course, He already knew where they were. But He wanted them stop, look around, and realize how far they had gone from Him — how much they had broken their relationship with Him.

2.) “Sin isn’t a big deal.”

A lot of people don’t think sin matters. They don’t feel any more sinful than the next person, so they tell themselves that, because God is loving, He will simply forgive their sin. But this idea of God is incomplete. God is loving, but He is also righteous. If He deals justly with our sin, we all face spiritual death in hell (Romans 6:23). Making light of this lulls people into a false sense of security about where they stand with God, and I can’t think of anything more un-loving we could do to a person.

3.) “Sin should be our focus.”

We’ve all met people who make themselves the morality police and leave everyone they talk to feeling guilty. Again, this comes from an incomplete idea of God. God is a righteous judge, but He is also merciful and forgiving. That’s why Jesus went to the cross in our place, paying the penalty for our sin on our behalf. On the cross, God’s justice and mercy come together, finally giving us a complete picture of who He is. It was costly for Him to do this, but He loves us that much (John 3:16). And that should be our focus.

So we have to talk about sin. We have to talk about it because God’s greatest expression of love for us came from His response to it. And we can’t risk leaving out any part of that story.

(Originally written May 9, 2020)