What Is Sin, and Why Every Man Is Guilty

A man goes to the doctor because something is wrong, and the doctor runs the tests and comes back with a word the man does not want to hear. Nobody enjoys a diagnosis. But notice something: the diagnosis is not the doctor's cruelty. It is the first act of the cure. A physician who softened the word to spare the patient's feelings would not be kind; he would be useless, and eventually he would be responsible for a death.

The Bible's word for what is wrong with us is sin. It sounds old-fashioned, and it makes people bristle, and it has been mocked out of most modern conversation. But it is the word that names the actual condition, and no cure is available to anyone who will not hear the diagnosis. So let us take it seriously — what sin is, where it came from, why it is universal, what it does, and what God has done about it.

1. What sin actually is

Most people, asked to define sin, will name a short list of serious crimes — murder, theft, cruelty. That list is real, but it is not the definition, and starting there hides the problem rather than revealing it.

The Bible uses several words, and they fit together. Sin is transgression — crossing a line God has drawn. Sin is iniquity — a crookedness, a bent in the wrong direction. Sin is missing the mark — an arrow that falls short of the target, however carefully aimed. And sin is also failure to act: to know the good you ought to do, and not do it, is sin as truly as doing wrong.

Put those together and you have something far larger than a list of crimes. Sin is any failure to be and do what God requires — in act, in word, in thought, and in omission. Which means a man may have broken no human law, harmed no neighbour, and stood well in the eyes of everyone who knows him, and still be a sinner in the exact sense the Bible means.

2. The measure is God, not other men

This is where nearly everyone goes wrong, and it is worth stopping on.

We assess ourselves by comparison. We think of someone worse — and there is always someone worse — and conclude that we are doing reasonably well. It is a comforting method, and it is entirely useless, because God has never proposed that standard.

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

Short of the glory of God. Not short of the average. Not short of our neighbour. Short of God's own perfection, which is the only standard a holy God can apply without ceasing to be holy.

Think of it this way. Suppose a great chasm lies between two cliffs, and a crowd is asked to jump it. Some are athletes and clear forty feet; some are elderly and manage four. The difference between them is real and is worth noticing. But the chasm is a mile across, and every one of them falls. That is what come short means. Our moral differences from one another are genuine — some people really are kinder and more honest than others — and they are entirely irrelevant to the question of whether we have cleared the distance to God's holiness.

And even our best is affected. It is not only our failures that fall short, but our achievements:

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6)

Not our sins — our righteousnesses. The good deeds we would offer God, examined by Him who sees the motives underneath them, come out stained. This is the humbling truth that empties a man's hands so that he can receive something.

3. Sin is not only what we do; it is what we are

If sin were only a matter of actions, the solution would be behaviour management. But the Bible goes deeper and locates the trouble in the source.

The Lord Jesus Christ taught that what defiles a man is not what enters him from outside but what comes out of him — and He listed evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, thefts, covetousness, deceit, pride, foolishness, all proceeding from within, out of the heart. The prophet Jeremiah said the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and asked who could possibly know it.

Two things follow, and both matter.

First, our sins are not accidents. A tree does not produce apples by mistake; it produces them because of what it is. Our wrong actions are the fruit of a nature, which is why they keep recurring after every sincere resolution to stop.

Second, the heart is deceitful — which means the very instrument we would use to assess ourselves is compromised. We are not neutral judges of our own case. This is why a man can be genuinely convinced of his own decency while others see plainly what he does not.

4. Where it came from

Sin is not how God made us. That matters enormously, because it means the human condition is a ruin rather than a design, and a ruin can be restored.

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12)

Sin entered. It came in from outside the original design, through one man's deliberate act, and with it came death. And it did not stay with him. Every human being since has been born into a race with that fracture running through it.

People sometimes protest that it is unfair to be affected by another man's act. But look honestly at the world and see whether the diagnosis fits. No parent has ever had to teach a child to lie, to grab, or to strike; those come without instruction. What must be taught, patiently and for years, is honesty, generosity, and self-control. Every culture in history has had laws, and every culture has needed them. The doctrine of a fallen race is not a strange religious claim; it is the plainest description of the human situation that anyone has ever offered.

And notice that the verse does not let us hide behind Adam either. Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. We inherited the nature, but we have each personally ratified it. No one is condemned for someone else's sin alone.

5. The verdict is universal

Scripture states the conclusion in the most sweeping terms it possesses, and repeats it so that nobody may slip out:

"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Romans 3:10-12)

Count the exclusions. None righteous — no, not one. None that understandeth. None that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. None that doeth good — no, not one. Five times the door is shut. This is not the Bible being harsh; it is the Bible being thorough, because a half-diagnosis leaves a man half-treated.

And the purpose of this indictment is stated plainly a few verses later: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Every mouth stopped — no defence, no plea, no explanation left. That silence sounds like despair, but it is actually the doorway. A man who is still arguing his case has not yet reached the place where mercy can be received.

6. "But I am a decent person"

This is the honest objection, and it deserves an honest answer rather than a sermon.

You may well be decent. You may be a better neighbour than most, faithful in your family, generous, hardworking, and kind. The Bible does not deny any of that, and it never says all men are as bad as they could possibly be. What it says is that all men have fallen short — which is a different claim entirely.

Scripture puts it this way: whoever keeps the whole law and yet offends in one point is guilty of all. That sounds severe until you see what it means. A chain suspending a heavy weight may have a hundred sound links and one cracked one — and it will fail at the cracked link, and the ninety-nine sound links will not hold the weight for a moment. A man in court for one offence does not get acquitted by listing the laws he has kept; the judge takes those for granted.

And there is a second matter. God sees the inside. He hears the thought you did not speak, knows the motive under the good deed, and remembers what you have forgotten. Ask yourself honestly: if every thought you had this past week were displayed publicly, exactly as it occurred, would you be content to be judged on that record? Nobody would. That is the case being made.

7. What sin does: it separates

Now to consequences, because sin is not merely staining. It does something.

"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." (Isaiah 59:1-2)

Observe the care of that passage. It begins by clearing God of blame. His hand is not too short; His ear is not dull. The problem is not that God is unable or unwilling. The problem is a barrier, and we built it.

This explains a great deal that people feel but cannot name — the silence when they pray, the sense of distance from a God they half believe in, the flatness of religious duty. It is not that heaven is empty. It is that something stands between.

And the Bible describes the resulting condition in the strongest terms:

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:1)

Not sick — dead. This is why self-improvement cannot reach the case. A sick man can be treated; a dead man needs life given to him, and cannot contribute to the process.

8. What sin earns

Sin also has a wage, and the Bible uses that exact commercial word, because a wage is something earned and owed rather than something imposed unfairly:

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

Read both halves, because the verse is built as a contrast and the contrast is the whole gospel in miniature. On one side a wage — worked for, deserved, paid out in full. On the other a gift — unearned, undeserved, freely given. Everyone receives one or the other. Nobody receives both.

And this is where the diagnosis turns toward hope. The same sentence that names the disease names the cure, and God did not wait for us to ask before providing it.

9. The one thing that keeps men from the cure

There is only one obstacle now, and it is not the size of anyone's sin. It is the refusal to admit having any.

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)

Notice who is deceived. Not God — He is not fooled. Not our neighbours — they usually know. We deceive ourselves. The denial of sin is not a clever position; it is a self-inflicted blindness, and it locks the door from the inside.

And notice how immediately the door opens for anyone willing to be honest:

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

Weigh those two words: faithful and just. Not merely merciful, as though God were bending the rules for us. Just — because the penalty has already been paid in full by Another, so that forgiveness costs God nothing of His righteousness. He is not overlooking your sin. He is pointing to a cross where it was dealt with.

10. What God did about it

Here is why the hard diagnosis was worth hearing. God did not leave the matter where the diagnosis left it.

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Not after we improved. Not once we had cleaned ourselves up enough to be worth saving. While we were yet sinners — at our worst, and with the diagnosis fully in view.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

And because the payment was made by Another, no part of it is left for us to contribute:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." (John 1:12)

The diagnosis was for your good

Return to the doctor's room. The word nobody wants to hear is the word that makes treatment possible. A patient who argues with the diagnosis does not become well; he simply forfeits the cure while continuing to have the disease.

The Bible tells you that you are a sinner — not to shame you, and not because God enjoys the accusation, but because it is true and because there is a remedy and He wants you to have it. Every honest person, examining himself by God's standard rather than his neighbour's, arrives at the same verdict. There is no shame in joining the rest of the human race at that point. There is only ruin in refusing to.

Stop defending the case. Admit the diagnosis. And then look away from yourself entirely, to the One who bore the whole of it in your place.

Let us Pray:

Our gracious heavenly Father, we come before Thy throne of grace through the precious name and perfect merit of our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone has opened the way into Thy presence.

We thank Thee for Thy beloved Son, and for **Him** who was made sin for us, who knew no sin. We praise Thee for Thy preserved Word, which declareth **"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God"** (Romans 3:23), and which cannot be broken.

We confess before Thee that we call small what **Thou** callest death. Forgive us, we pray, and cleanse us, for Thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

We beseech Thee for every soul reading these words who is yet without Christ. Send forth Thy Holy Ghost to convince them of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; open their understanding; and draw them to Thy Son before this day is done.

Strengthen Thy people who read it. Comfort the discouraged, establish the wavering, and let none go away empty. And use this message to let every reader see his sin as **Thou** seest it, and then see the **Saviour**, for Thy glory and not for ours.

We pray all of this to Thee, O God, our Holy and Heavenly Father, in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by the power and anointing of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Most Important Prayer You Will Ever Pray

Before you close this page, one question matters more than everything you have just read: if you died tonight, do you know where you would be?

You cannot be saved by joining a church, by being baptized, by giving money, or by living a decent life. Salvation is not a wage that is earned; it is a gift that is received. Every one of us has sinned, the wages of sin is death, and there is a real hell prepared for sin — but the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross in the sinner's place, was buried, and rose again the third day.

If you know yourself to be a sinner, and you are willing to turn from your sin and trust Him alone, then speak to God now. There are no magic words — but if these words are the cry of your heart, pray them and mean them:

After You Have Prayed

1. Tell somebody today. "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:9).

2. Begin reading the Bible. Start with the Gospel of John, then Acts, then Romans. Read a little every day. "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2).

3. Talk to your Father every day. You may now come boldly, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. No appointment is needed and no man's permission.

4. Find a Bible-believing church and be baptized. Not to be saved — you already are — but in obedience, and as the public confession of what has happened to you.

5. Rest in this, and do not be shaken by your feelings. "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). You will still sin; when you do, confess it and go on — "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).