How Bad Can Sin Really Be?

We know something is wrong with us, so we have a choice. We can either go to the doctor and find out what is going on (which might really depress us, but could lead to a cure) or we can just deny it and hope it goes away. The same thing is true of our spiritual condition. We can either go to the Bible and find out what is going on (which might really depress us, but could lead to a cure), or we can deny it and hope that it goes away. You have probably lived long enough to know that it is not going to go away, no matter how many new leaves you turn over.

So how bad is it? The Bible tells us that every part of man's constitution is corrupted by sin and that nothing man does in his natural state pleases God. Man is totally depraved. It is not that we are as bad as we could be, but it does mean that sin and its effects have contaminated every part of our existence.

The Bible tells us that we are wayward, choosing our way rather than God's (Isaiah 53:6); that we are unable to please God even with our best deeds or thoughts (Romans 8:7-8); that we are willfully blind, not wanting to look at or know truth (Ephesians 4:17-19); that we are ungrateful (Romans 1:21); that we are disobedient (I John 1:8); that we are hostile to God (Romans 8:6-8); that we have a bad master (John 8:4) and we have a bad record (Isaiah 69:5). In fact, there is not one who is righteous (Romans 3:10; Isaiah 64:6) and none of us can do anything good. (Proverbs 15:8)

Our whole nature is polluted. We stand guilty before God, who is the righteous judge of all the earth. So our record, our file, has been stamped with a big red, Guilty! That pollution reaches all the way into our heart, our inner most being, down at our core. We have a bad heart, spiritually speaking.

And we are hopeless to make it any better. We are in bondage to sin. Does that mean that I can blame it on the devil? No, I cannot. The Bible teaches us that we do whatever we will, whatever we choose (Matthew 17:12). Though man's will is in bondage to sin, the sins he performs, he wishes to perform. In one account, Jesus tells those in front of him that a particular man wills to choose materialism as a lifestyle.

When we choose to sin, we choose between what kind of sin we will perform. Though man freely chooses, nothing he chooses can be anything but sinful. He is a slave to sin. So man is free even though he is morally in bondage. He is free to do what he wants, and as a sinner he freely chooses to sin.

What is the result of this sin? How bad is it? There are consequences for sin. There is punishment. We undergo spiritual death (Ephesians 2:1) we have offended the purity of God and His justice (I John 1:5; Exodus 34:7) so that we are repugnant to God (Luke 16:15) and repudiated by Him (Psalm 1:6).

Moreover, we undergo present grief (Genesis 3:16-17; Proverbs 11:5). Sin brings disruptions in this life. Its effects are cosmic (Romans 8:23). The human family is disrupted so that we find divorce, abuse, rivalries, etc. Our human personality is disrupted as we struggle with depression and anxiety, etc. It ends with physical death (Ezekiel 18:14; Romans 6:23) and separation from God (II Thessalonians 1:8-9; Matthew 25:41). These are all aspects of God's punishment on sin in this life. But there is also a final judgment that comes after death when all men will give an account before God for the things done while we lived on this earth.