Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. (1John 3:4-5)
An old preacher was asked during the week what he was preaching on in the upcoming Sunday’s sermon. Without hesitating, he answered, "Sin, and why I’m against it!" Often, that story is related as a humorous anecdote. There is something about the idea of sin that has always made it easily adaptable to humorous stories. I suppose when we make sin humorous, we find it easier to justify it. Unfortunately, sin is no joke, and it has some very real consequences.
Several years ago, in a sermon entitled The Sinful of Sin, I shared with you a story that bears repeating today. On a sunny September day in Chicago, a stern-faced, plainly-dressed man could be seen standing still on a street corner in the busy Loop. As people were hurrying on their way to lunch or business, he would solemnly lift his right arm, point to the person nearest him, and loudly say a single word: "GUILTY!" He would do this without any change of expression, then resume his stiff stance for a short period and repeat the process again. Over and over he would raise his right arm, point to a person and pronounce them "GUILTY!" A person present described the reactions of the pedestrians as almost eerie. It was as if they didn’t know quite how to respond. One man, perhaps describing how many others probably felt, turned to another person and exclaimed: "But how did he know?"
You can find this story in the beginning of Dr. Karl Menninger’s book What Ever Became of Sin? – a book that should be reprinted in great quantities and sent in bulk to Washington, D.C.
You see, sin has not disappeared and people still feel guilty. Many of us could respond just like that passerby in Chicago. Most people do have a sense of their own guilt. They feel guilty, not because someone tells them they’re guilty, but because they truly are guilty. They are guilty because they have done wrong. And guilt is not some dysfunctional feeling we should not be having, although there are many so-called therapists who would tell you as much. In fact, guilt is a warning that tells us we have violated a moral code.
But we do not like to feel guilty. And many have found that the answer is to do away with the notion of sin. We’ve tried to redefine it. We play it down. We substitute other terms like faults, shortcomings, hang-ups, problems, mistakes, or we say we are dysfunctional or sick. We don’t like to use the word sin because sin sounds ominous. And to say we have sinned is to say that we are sinners. Sin sounds like a big deal and we do not want to make it a big deal.
This, however, is a very dangerous position for us to take personally and for us to take as a society. It’s dangerous because sin obviously is a big deal to God. Sin, you see, caused God to send Jesus and suffer the agony of His death. That was and is a big deal.
Our text today defines the problem of sin and offers a solution. It causes us to confront the reality of our current situation and challenges us to confront the consequences of our behavior. It also shows us the heart of the Gospel in God’s solution to the problem of sin in the person of Jesus Christ.
Like it or not we live in a sinful society. Indeed, there is no other kind of society in which we could live. That is because societies are made up of people. And people are not perfect.
In our text, John uses the word sin. When we see that word we are forced to look at the reality of sin. Sin is real. Sin is not an illusion nor is it an invention of a few religious people who wanted to give everyone a hard time. Sin is a violation of God’s law. The Bible says that all of us have violated God’s law. In Romans 3:23 we read, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And God takes this sin quite seriously, even if we do not.
But we should. When you think about it, even a small amount of sin compounded over a lifetime becomes quite a lot. Even if you only committed one sin a day for an average lifetime you would have over seventy thousand sins on your record. Now, most of us manage to commit a few more than one sin a day. If you went into a court of law as a multiple offender with over seventy thousand crimes for which you were guilty as charged, do you suppose you would be in more than just a little trouble? I think so. Does "under the jail" sound like something the judge might say to you?
This brings us to the nature of sin. Sin is rebellion. In the verse we quoted from Romans 3:23, sin was described as "falling short" of the glory of God. Literally sin is missing the mark. It is failing to live up to a moral standard. And in our text, John describes sin as lawlessness. When we sin we brake the law. We become a law unto ourselves. It is an act of rebellion.
The Bible teaches that sin entered the human race through our original father and mother, Adam and Eve. When they disobeyed God, the entire human race became corrupted by sin. The Bible teaches that we come into this world already corrupted and that we act out this corruption by committing deeds that violate the law of God. We commit acts of sin because we are sinful by nature.
Within each of us there is this independent nature. There is a desire to do our own thing even if it is a conflict with what God desires for us. We want to be in charge of our lives. And from the beginning of time, humankind has wanted to be the master of its own fate. This desire is captured well by the English author, editor, and poet, W. E. Henley, in his poem, Invictus.
Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soulIn the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but unbowedBeyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but a horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me, unafraidIt matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishment the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.
This desire to be the master of our fate and the captain of our souls only leads to rebellion, lawlessness — sin. That is the nature of sin.
Finally, we come to the danger of sin. Sin is ruinous. The destructive affects of sin are everywhere to be seen in our society. Sin destroys everything it touches. Sin destroys marriages. Sin destroys relationships. Sin destroys children. Sin destroys careers. Sin destroys people. The consequences of sin are two-fold – temporal and eternal. In other words, there are consequences here and now and there are consequences for all eternity.
In Galatians 6:7-8 reads, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." Sin has an effect in the here and now in ruined lives and it has an effect in eternity in eternal destruction. This is the danger of sin.
You see, the message of our text today is that we must take sin seriously. Unless we do, we will never understand why Jesus had to come and die.
Jesus Christ is the solution to the sin problem. The Bible teaches that Christ came because of our sin. There are three reasons why Christ came.
Christ came to deal with sin. If you ask people why Christ came, you will probably get a number of different answers. Some people will tell you that Christ came to reveal what God is like. And it is true that He did reveal what God is like. But this is not the real reason He came. Others will tell you that Christ came to give us an example of how we should live. And indeed, this is what He did. But this is not the real reason Christ came. Still others will tell you that Christ came to show us just how much God loves us. And He certainly showed us a love that is like no human love we have ever experienced. But this is not the real reason Christ came. The real reason Christ came was to deal with sin. In fact, our text says that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. Christ came to deal with our sin.
This reveals to us God’s opinion of the seriousness of our sin. It also reveals to us God’s opinion of the desperate nature of our need. Our sin is serious enough to condemn us to Hell and our need is for a Savior, because we cannot save ourselves. So Christ had to come.
Secondly, Christ came to die as a sacrifice for sin. This is what His Saviorhood is all about. Nothing less than a sacrifice for sin could ever make atonement for our sin. And it had to be a sinless sacrifice as well. John tells us that in Him is no sin. A sinful sacrifice could not atone for anyone else’s sin. As in the Old Testament, it must be a lamb without spot or blemish. Jesus became the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
When Christ died on the Cross as the sacrifice for sin, He became a substitute for you and me. He died on the Cross as a substitute, taking our place so that we would not have to pay the penalty for our own sin. That is how He dealt with sin. And it is on that basis that our sins can be forgiven. They are forgiven, not because God chooses to ignore them, but because Jesus Christ has paid for them. This is why Christ came.
Finally, Christ came to deliver us from sin. Jesus came not only to make forgiveness possible, but also to give us freedom from sin itself. He came to set us free. The Bible says that if the Son sets us free, we will be free indeed.
He sets us free from the penalty of sin. This is what He accomplished in His death on the Cross. When we are forgiven, we are set free from the consequences of our sins. The eternal consequences of judgement and condemnation are lifted. Now, when we stand before God, we will stand in the righteousness of Christ. God will look, not upon our sin, but upon what Christ has done for us. We are literally clothed in His righteousness. His righteousness becomes ours — effective for us. In this way we are set free from the penalty of sin.
He also sets us free from the power of sin. It’s great to be forgiven for past sins, but we must also have the power to live in the present. Christ has broken the power of sin over our lives. Before, we were slaves to sin. Now, we have been set free from that slavery and are no longer under sin’s control. Paul tells us in Romans 6:22, "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God." Now we have the power to say no to sin and yes to God. We have the power to live for Christ in the present and in the future.
And one day He will set us free from the very presence of sin. He appeared the first time to take away our sins and He will appear a second time to receive us to Himself. When Christ comes again, we will be forever delivered from the presence of sin as we join Him in Heaven’s glory. What a glorious day that will be.
So we see that our sinless Savior came to deal with our sinful society by dealing with sin itself. Because of His death on the Cross He has dealt a deathblow to sin. He has made a way for us to experience freedom from sin and from the consequences of sin. God hates sin. God hates sin because sin destroys the people He loves. This is one reason why God takes sin so seriously. And if He does, we must. Thank God we have a sinless Savior to whom we can go.
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