But at your word I will lower the nets.” ⁶ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets started to tear. ⁷ So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they were about to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

Luke 5:5-8

The last post began the topic of sin and how it bars our entry into heaven. To summarize, sin is defined as a violation of God’s unchanged Law, we all are sinners, and the penalty is death (Romans 6:23).

The Lord has provided a solution for us and I will get to that. I invite you to continue reading these posts about the gospel.

In this post I’d like to discuss the magnitude of our sin problem. I think this is necessary because the truth about sin is suppressed in our culture. In fact, the predominant worldviews, even with many in the Christian church, teach that mankind is basically good – that sin is not real.

Are People Basically Good?

But is it true that mankind is basically good? Peter, a fisherman who later became an Apostle, felt the weight of his sin as he encountered the Lord and came to the realization of who he is.

Is it true that sin is not that big a deal? It was for Peter – and he was chosen as one of the 12 Apostles. He would later preach the gospel at the beginning of the church age – the very same gospel I am trying to relate here. Before a person can receive this message for themselves, there has to be a moment where you understand the weight of your sin. That moment came for Peter and it changed him forever.

Most people think about themselves and others as basically good people. However few of us realize from a biblical standpoint how much sin there actually is in our lives. The bible does not hold back on the truth about how sinful we really are:

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

Galatians 5:19-21

This verse is a brutally accurate description of the way people and our culture really are. What do you think? If you are intellectually honest about the observations you make about the culture around you, do you think people are basically good or do you think this verse is accurate?

The condition of society today is a powerful witness about who we really are. Mass shootings, violence and destruction in our streets, war, chaos, rebellion, lawlessness, injustice, rampant sexual depravity, human trafficking, hatred of those who look different or think different, lies, greed in the midst of poverty and famine, brutal oppression. It goes on and on. After 6000 years of recorded history, nothing has really changed about mankind. In fact, things are not getting better, they are getting worse. Why?

As the verse above indicates, the inclinations of the human race – all of us – are wicked, dark, evil. And now, we as a society have chosen to abandon the Law of the Creator, and even eject Him and His ways from society. As a result, darkness, wickedness, immorality, and deception are rushing in to fill the spiritual vacuum created by a culture that has expunged the Creator and His ways.

Sins of Thought, Word, and Deed

I never thought I was that sinful and most people I’ve talked to don’t either, but given the behaviors listed above, consider the following:

• There are sins we commit – doing things God has forbidden. The ten commandments are still in force today. Murder and stealing are the obvious ones people know instinctively are wrong. But there is also lying and desiring what does not belong to us, adultery, pride, selfishness. All evil behaviors – all against God’s law. Have you ever told a lie? The bible says liars will not enter the Kingdom of God.
• There are also sins of neglect – not doing the things that God has commanded we do. For example, he commands us to worship Him alone (Deuteronomy 6:13). We are forbidden to worship, venerate, kneel before, or acknowledge any other spiritual entity. God calls this idolatry. We are to worship and serve only the God of Heaven – the one true God. He commands us to worship Him alone and yet many people do not even know who He is. Every time there is acknowledgement of a false god, or venerating the dead (to include prayers to dead people, even if they were saints), or kneeling in front of a statue made by human hands, or any other entity we turn to instead of the God of Heaven, we sin against the one true God.
• There are also sins in thought and word. Jesus said even thinking adulterous thoughts made us guilty of adultery. He equated hatred with murder. So even our thoughts can be profoundly sinful. What do you watch on TV? What internet sites do you display? What thoughts do you have as a result? Violence, hatred, lust – all violations of God’s Law.

Jesus taught something very interesting: what we say, the words that come out of our mouth, reveal the content of our heart. In other words, how we speak, what we say, is a symptom that can, at times indicate our sinful inclinations.

Think about your words for a moment – how you speak sometimes to others. Do you spew out curses and anger? Do you use the name of Jesus as a curse? One of the 10 commandments explicitly says not to misuse the Name of the Lord.

I used to have a foul mouth – cursing, misusing the Name of the Lord all the time. The God of heaven says he will punish anyone who uses his Name in vain. Note what the Bible says below about how we speak.

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain.

Exodus 20:7

The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Matthew 15:18-19

I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

Matthew 12:36-37

Here are additional statements about how we really are:

But the LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.

Genesis 6:5

The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9

“There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one. Their throats are open graves, they deceive with their tongues, the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known.”

Romans 3:10-17

Most of us use social media – now there is the clear evidence of the true content of the human heart! When we speak (or post) hatred, lies, threats, we sin. Technology hasn’t helped us at all – its only given additional ways to instantly broadcast to the world our sinful thoughts, words, and wicked deeds. Social media and the internet have multiplied, focused, and supercharged the sinfulness of mankind. One day we will be confronted with every careless, angry, hateful word we ever spoke or posted.

I used to think I wasn’t that bad – there wasn’t much sin in my life. Then I saw some of the verses above in the bible. When you let the truth of these verses sink in, you start to understand a little about just how sinful we really are. The bible clearly says those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God (in other words, not receive eternal life, not go to heaven). In those verses, I found I was in a lot more trouble that I thought.

How sinful are we? Well, for me, considering the sins I commit in violation of God’s law and the sins of neglect in failing to do what He commands, also sin in thought and word, I probably sin dozens of times a day.

The Magnitude of Sin in Our Lives – How Bad Is It?

Here is an illustration of how much we really sin. Just for the sake of the illustration, lets assume I only sin 3 times a day: a hateful post on Twitter, a lustful thought, a lie. Assuming only 3 sins a day, the result is over a thousand sins a year – multiply 1000 sins per year by my age and it totals to over 65,000 sins. Violation of the law of the Lord over 65,000 times – and of course, the real numbers are much bigger! Remember: every careless word spoken, every unclean thought, every unlawful act in the sight of God. Yep, all those sinful acts committed in secret – all recorded as violations of the Law. There are no secrets we can keep from God.

I used to think the good things I did compensated for my sin – a set of scales in my mind with good things always stacked in my favor – my thumb on the scales, conveniently ignoring the weight of my sin. By my example above, I am in real trouble because on one side are my 65,000 (and counting) sins. So a ton of sin on one side and a gram of goodness on the other. But the reality is that it doesn’t work that way anyway. Even if it did we would all be found wanting due to the weight of our sin.

But as I’ve already demonstrated from scripture, sin is a legal issue. There are no scales of heaven weighing my good against my sin. Sin is breaking the Law and we are all sinners, lawbreakers.

A violation of the law stands on its own as requiring justice. It has nothing to do with whatever good I do. If I rob a bank, it does me no good to give half the money to the poor. I am still guilty of a crime. I must pay the penalty for that crime. And so it is with violating God’s law. Multiplied thousands of sins during a lifetime and each sin has the sentence of death.

Our polluted hearts cause deeply wicked thoughts and behaviors, some deeper than others, but we all stand guilty before God. In our own minds we think we do enough good to get to heaven. But it is our sin that bars entry. Heaven is a holy, undefiled place. What makes us think we will enter into a pure place with impure hearts?

Think about this: everything we have ever done will be used as evidence against us in the court of heaven.

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened—the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds.

Revelation 20:12

Our self-assessed “goodness” is no answer for the massive legal trouble we are in because we continually break God’s unchanging Law. God will judge and the penalty of the Law will be applied. But the good news is, God has provided a way out. There is an answer.

OK, that was a lot about sin, but its necessary to understand the depth of our situation before God. Is there any way to fix this? Keep reading!

God in His love for us has provided a way to resolve our sin problem. But first, we have to recognize there is actually a problem. That is only possible if we honestly assess ourselves according to the unchanging standards of God’s Word. If we can stop living in denial about the problem, then we accept God’s solution. We can be forgiven of all of our sin.

But perhaps things might be a clearer if we understand a little more about God first, the topic of the next post.