The Sinfulness Of Sin

((We,the regular Set-Apart "staff" thought it would be beneficial to have different peoples come in a write for the blog sometimes. We like to call them our "guest bloggers". So here is the following post written by our friend,and brother-in-Christ,Adam.))




So really, how bad is sin? Ask yourself that. From 1-10,with 10 being the worst. How bad do you think sin really is? I hope everybody said a ten or there is something wrong. Haha. Alright, now how bad do you think sin is when you are sinning? Do you think it's ok to say a little lie here,a lustful glance there, or maybe forget to take the trash out after your parents asked you to? What would you give those on your sin scale? What would you give a little lie? Maybe a 3 out of 10? What about a small lustful glance? Maybe a 4? What about forgetting to take out the trash after you were told to? Possibly a 1? Well truth is, all those are tens!

J.C. Ryle said "I am convinced that the first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realize more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin."

Sin is the thing that God hates the most. Come to think of it,sin and its affects are the only things God hates. God's relationship to sin is one of complete hate,anger, and wrath. Now,we as Christians are covered by the blood of the Lamb,so we don't have to fear God's judgment. But people who haven't accepted Christ as their Savior have everything to fear.

Now what I want to talk about in this post is realizing how evil and sick sin really is. But in order to do that we have to look at sin not from our level,but from God's level. From our level,since we are sin filled creatures,sin looks like a normal everyday thing. Even if we hate sin,we still manage to do it. There hasn't been a day in my life where I haven't committed a sin. But we have to look at sin differently in order to realize how bad it is. As sinful creatures we are blinded by our sin and can't see clearly. But God sees sin as something that is rebelling against His glory and power. Sin is something evil that lures you into its addicting claws and promises satisfaction but never delivers. Also,if we are not covered by the blood of the Lamb, it will take us with it to hell for eternal torture and torment. That is what sin really is.

All sin is a rebellion against God,but not all sin has the same consequences. Not obeying your parents wont have the same consequences as adultery. But they are both very serious,whether you think so or not.

The closer we get to Christ the more we see things the way he sees them. So that means the closer we are to Christ the more we hate sin. The closer we are to Christ the more sensitive we are to sin. My sister is a great example of this. She will apologize for some things that I wouldn't even recognize as a sin. She does this because her conscience is fine tuned,if you know what I'm saying.

Now there are many trails I could go down with this post but I'm going to choose this one because I recently read about it. In Donald Whitney's book,"Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health",he has a chapter about grieving over sin. Now this is something I do a lot and I wasn't sure if it was good or not. I knew sin was bad and didn't want to ignore that I had sinned but I also didn't want to forget that Jesus paid for my sins. Whitney points out that the more we grow to be like Christ the more we hate sin, and therefore,the more we grieve over it.

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."
- 1 Timothy 1:15

Paul in his letter to Timothy is clearly grieving over his sins.

Whitney writes, " The closer you come to the light of Christ, the more sins His holy light will expose in you."

Jonathan Edwards said,"The more a true saint loves God... the more he mourns for sin."

In the book "Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health", Whiteny points out that there is a right way to grieve and a wrong way to grieve. He says that the two kinds of sorrows for sin is sorrow in a godly manner, and sorrow in a worldly manner. The godly manner leads to salvation and repentance,while the worldly manner does not. Here are two verses that show both kinds of sorrow:

"Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry,but that your sorrow led to repentance" - 2 Corinthians 7:9

"He could bring about no change of mind though he sought the blessings with tears" - Hebrews 12:17

The difference between the two sorrows is one is focused on God, and the other is focused on itself. One looks for answers in God, while the other one looks for answers in itself. And in itself there are no answers.

If you struggle with not grieving over sin Donald Whitney writes, "Ask God to show you the reality of your sin." He also says, "Meditate on the fact that it was your sin that nailed the holy, sinless One from Heaven to the cross."

Thank you for reading this and I hope this touched some of you who read it.

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