Why Do We Sin?

• 1). We sin when our bodily desires tempt us to ignore God’s instruction and our own conscience. ‘Do not let sin _______ in your mortal body, that you should obey the _______ thereof’ (Romans 6.12). We sin when we follow our desires instead of our conscience. ‘Each man is tempted when he is ________________ by his wrong desires’ (James 1.14-15). We sin in disobedience when we live ‘in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the ______ and of the _______ ‘ Ephesians 2.3 as ‘sons of disobedience’ (Ephesians 2.2). So even a Christian is aware of a constant battle, ‘the flesh pulls with desire against the _______ and the Spirit pulls with desire against the ________ so that we cannot do the things that we would’ (Galatians 5.16). As Paul says, ‘for the good which I would, I do not, but the _____ that I would not, that I practise’ (Romans 7.19).

• 2). We sin because man’s first rebellion against God has affected the nature of man. ‘Through one man sin _________ into the world, and _______ through sin, and so death passes unto all men for _____ have sinned’ (Romans 5.12). ‘Through the __________ of one, many were made ____________ (Romans 5.19). So when man first sinned a powerful tendency to sin became part of the human lot. That is why Paul can say, ‘in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For to _____ is present with me, but to do that which is good is not’ (Romans 7.18). So he says, ‘It is no more I that do it, but sin that ________ in me’ (Romans 7.17). Thus, he adds, we are all ‘by nature children of ______, even as others’ (Ephesians 2.3). But we are not to blame for having a ‘sinful’ nature, for we had no choice. But we are to blame for following the dictates of that sinful nature, when we follow our own desires. And none of us escape, for ‘there is none righteous, no not one’ (Romans 3.10), and ‘there is no ____ who does not sin’ (1 Kings 8.46). So the Psalmist can add, ‘In Your sight shall no man living be accounted righteous’ (Psalm 143.2).

• 3). We sin because of self-will. We deliberately choose to go our own way rather than God’s way. ‘All we like ________ have gone astray, we have turned every one to our _____ way (Isaiah 53.6). Thus do we deliberately go astray from what we know to be right. So in the end we cannot blame the first man, or our sinful desires, we have to blame ourselves. As Ecclesiastes tells us, ‘there is not a righteous man upon earth who does ______ and does not sin’ (Ecclesiastes 7.20), and ‘who can say “I have made my heart clean, I am ______ from my sin’ (Proverbs 20.7). Indeed ‘if we say that we have no _____ we deceive ourselves’ (1 John 1.8)

What is the Result of Sin?

• 1). Sin Separates us from God.

  ‘Your iniquities have _______________ between you and your God, and your _______ have hid His _______ from you (Isaiah 59.2). Man is separated from God because of sin, and sin makes God distant and unreal The Bible portrays this as an awful condition. It says men are ‘darkened in their _____________, alienated from the life of God because of the ____________ that is in them because of the _________________ of their hearts (Ephesians 17.18). The separation is one of deprivation. Those who are separated from God by sin have no right to His goodwill and will have no true understanding of Him. In the end it will result in ‘eternal ______________ from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His ________’ (2 Thessalonians 2.9). For ‘the __________________ will not inherit the Kingdom of God’ (1 Corinthians 6.9). And who are the unrighteous? Paul speaks plainly, ‘Fornicators, adulterers, transvestites, practising homosexuals, the dishonest, those who desire what belongs to others, drunkards, those who are constantly attacking others verbally, those who profit from other people by underhand methods’ (1 Corinthians 6.9-10).

• 2). Sin Pollutes Our Lives.

  Once we become aware of sin we become aware of what it has done to us. Job asks, ‘Who can bring a ________ thing out of an unclean?’ (Job 14.4). And Jeremiah tells us ‘The heart is deceitful above ____________, and desperately sick, who can know it?’ (Jeremiah 17.9). And it produces its own fruit. ‘The _________ tree brings forth evil fruit’ (Matthew 7.17). Or as Jesus says elsewhere, ‘The good man out of the good ____________ of his heart, produces what is good, the evil man out of the ______ treasure of his heart produces evil’ (Luke 6.45). And it is the evil heart that produces ‘backsliding, ‘Take heed, brethren, lest haply there be in any of you an __________________ of unbelief in falling away from the living God’ (Hebrews 3.12). So we are warned, ‘Keep your heart with all _____________, for out of it are the issues of life’ (Proverbs 4.23).

• 3) Sin Tyrranises Our Lives

  Up to now we have looked at sin as acts against God and His ways. But the Bible also speaks of sin as being such a part of our very nature, that it is like a tyrant that rules over us. It is seen as something that battles with us and subdues us (Romans 7.13-19), as something that enslaves us, ‘he who commits sin is the ________ of sin’ (John 8.34). It uses what God has given to make things worse us, for ‘sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the ____________ all manner of coveting’ (7.8). So Paul says ‘Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey its desires’ (Romans 6.12), .

  But references like these are personalising sin, so as to bring out its awfulness. They occur to show how our sinfulness, rather than making us free, brings us into cruel subservience. We have made ourselves the slaves of sin as Jesus made clear (John 8.34). We cannot blame fate or the first man, for God has made a way out. We choose to follow sin’s path. The consequences of sin are on our own heads.

• 4). Sin brings us into Judgment.

  ‘The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all _____________ and unrighteousness of men who hold down the ______ in unrighteousness’ (Romans 1.18). ‘Do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the ___________ of God leads you to repentance? But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up for yourself _______ in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God’ (Romans 2.4-5). ‘For he will have judgment without ________ who has shown no mercy’ (James 2.13). For ‘The Lord knows how -------- to keep the __________ unto the judgment of the great day’ (2 Peter 2.9), and the Lord will come ‘to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the __________ of all their _________ of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the ________ things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him’ (Jude 1.15)

• 5). Sin Results in Death.

  ‘The _______ of sin is death’ (Romans 6.23). God’s purpose for man was that he should enjoy a live of fullness and blessing for ever. Man’s disobedience to God’s instruction resulted in the forfeiting of that blessing, so that now death is man’s destiny. ‘Through one man sin entered into the world, and _______ through sin, and so death passed unto all men in that all have sinned’ (Romans 5.12 compare 5.14, 17). This is not referring specifically to suffering in the after-life, rather it is referring to what man has lost by his disobedience, eternal life and blessing with God.

• 5) Sin will bring Final Punishment.

  The Bible makes very clear that sin will result in final punishment of a most awful kind. However it is important not to overstate the pictures used so as to give them a meaning beyond what God intended. The idea of conscious souls writhing in untold agony for ever and ever is neither honouring to God, nor is it Scriptural. Sinful man will be brought to judgment and suffer awful remorse and rejection. They will weep and gnash their teeth in despair (e.g. Matthew 22.13). They will endure differing levels of conscious punishment (Luke 12.47-48) before finally being cast into a place of awful permanent destruction Mark 9.44, 46, 48), but notice that it is the maggots and fires that never cease, not the persons. The consequences of what has happened to them will be an eternal warning. For further details and exegesis see our three articles on the After-life.

IS THERE SOMETHING IN THE BIBLE THAT PUZZLES YOU?