My Sin

Scriptures: As it is written: ”There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:10)

The other day, as I was driving to work, I noticed a car before mine. It was a nice car, an Infiniti G35, with a license plate that read “MI-SIN.” I don’t know the owner of the car, nor the story behind using “MI-SIN” on the license plate. But it reminded me of the issue of Sin in our life.

Sin has always been a disturbing subject, a subject that makes people uncomfortable, Christians and non-believers alike. Rightly so! But, people always question the validity of calling everyone sinners. They consider it offensive because, to a large extent, I believe they equate sin with crime and do not know what sin is.

Everyone has a frame of thinking that allows them to tell right from wrong. It’s a frame they choose for themselves. So, someone could, on the one hand, be strongly against stealing and, on the other hand, take a pen or a folder home from office for personal use without feeling any sense of guilt. Or, they could be adamantly against death penalty, on the one hand, and at the same time be so attracted to fur coats. To them, as long as things fit in their frame of thinking, and the resulting value standards, they are acceptable.

I remember a news interview in which a reporter asked the criminal how he could break the law and committed such a horrible act of violence. The criminal replied, “What law? I didn’t break any law. They (the law enforcement) were the ones that broke the law. They broke my law!” It’s so sad!

I think we find the issue of sin so offensive because it challenges our frame of thinking and our judgments. It basically tells us that our standards are not good enough and, therefore, we are not good enough. We don’t like it because it hurts our pride and makes us feel inferior. But, that really needs not be the case.

For us Christians, we need to know that, in the original language, i.e. Hebrew, sin means missing the target, as in shooting arrows. In other words, sin is everything we do that does not live up to the expectation or standard of God. Bible tells us that God created us in His image, His moral image. That image was His expectations. Since He is perfect in every way, His standard / expectation for us is also perfection.

This means that, we sin when we do things we are taught not to do by God and, if we don’t do the things we were taught to do, we also sin. Sin is a reality and, whenever we are called sinners, we are reminded of this reality and of the need to come back before our loving Father in heaven to seek His forgiveness and guidance so we may come back on track.

We hear this all the time that, for effective medical treatments, the first step is to face and accept the reality of the medical condition and problems and then to seek help and treatment. This is common sense to most of us. But we need to realize that it is also true spiritually. To grow and mature spiritually, we need to first face the reality that we are sinners and, then, that the only hope we have in solving this sin problem is in our Lord Jesus.

He, being the perfect God-Man, is our model. His choices to approach and to abstain, to forgive and to rebuke, as well as to obey and to command are all examples of a God pleasing life. Such a perfect and God pleasing life came to this sinful world for one reason, and one reason only, that is our sin.

So, let’s not look away from this sin issue and look to our Lord Jesus for teachings and guidance in how to live a righteous life for His kingdom and glory!

Prayer Requests:
For those seek to live a God pleasing life

Prayer:
Gracious Lord, thank You for leaving all riches and glory behind to come to us, sinners. We ask that, with the help of Your Spirit, we may be constantly reminded to come to You for reflection on our way of life and to seek Your guidance in growing to maturity like our Lord Jesus so we may have a life pleasing You. In His name we pray, Amen!