Why Is Sin Sinful?

Friends:
In general, friends have several points of intersection in their relationship.

Close friends have many points of commonality and, most likely, even think similarly. It is not just that they like many of the same things or have had numerous shared experiences; they usually also have the same or similar values.

In His Image:
God created mankind in His image. While we may not understand the full depth of that statement, one thing is certain: We were created with something in common with God and that point of commonality separates us from all other created things. So, there was an immediate relationship between Adam and Eve and God. They enjoyed fellowship.

In the Greek language the word for fellowship described community, participation in or sharing in something. Its root simply meant common. Unlike rocks and grass, birds and bass, God desires fellowship with every human.

Sin:
If we think about sin as a set of arbitrary rules assigned by a divine being who is always looking over our shoulder, we are thinking like a child. A child does not understand the rules assigned by his parents. A safety rule such as, “Don’t run with scissors,” a rule of etiquette such as, “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” and a moral rule such as, “Don’t tell lies,” all seem to be the same. They are rules that keep the child from doing what he wants. When we think of sin as mere rules, we are likely to overlook God’s desire for a meaningful relationship with us.

We must not look at sin in a clinical way as if a dictionary or Bible verse defines it. Sin is not merely an ethical or moral wrong. In reality, sin is a relationship destroyer. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, their relationship with God changed. It died! They died!

They destroyed their fellowship with God. As a result God had to cast them out of the Garden “to cultivate the ground from which he was taken” (Genesis 3:23). God cursed man with hard labor “till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). At that point it almost seemed as if Adam and Eve had more in common (fellowship) with the ground than with God.

It is important to see that they broke fellowship with God, not the other way around. How do we know this? After Adam and Eve sinned, they heard God in the Garden and they hid themselves from Him because they were afraid (Genesis 3:10). They knew that their relationship had changed and they knew why: sin.

Why is sin sinful?
Sin is sinful because it opposes the very essence of God. The fundamental difference between God and sinful man is life. God cast Adam and Eve from the Garden and guarded the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24) because they had chosen death. God is life.

In the final judgment God will forever separate:

• The righteous from sinners;
• The godly from the ungodly;
• Sons of light from sons of darkness;
• The living from the dead.

We are called into fellowship with Jesus, the Son of the living God. 

He is the way, the truth, and…THE LIFE!

Mark Stinnett

March 21, 2021