What Is Sin?

The best way to define sin is to compare it with something much more familiar—viruses. Most of us have experienced a cold or the flu. Both are fairly minor but viruses have caused large-scale outbreaks throughout history. We have seen examples of these even recently.

• Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in 1981.
• Swine flu (H1N1) in 2009.
• COVID-19 in 2019.

Each of these outbreaks caused illness and death across multiple continents and people groups. Sin is similar in that you can also point to past outbreaks. The first one happened soon after the earth was formed. When God finished creating the world, He said it was “very good.” There was no suffering, problems or evil.

This was true until the first man (Adam) and woman (Eve) disobeyed God. In that moment, sin arrived and sparked a pandemic of sin. The Bible says, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned” (Romans 5:12). This outbreak of sin continues today and it’s the most serious challenge we face.

A virus infects a person by injecting parts of itself into our good cells. Then the virus reprograms those cells to make more of the virus. Sin is a spiritual virus that infects every part of our lives. Once it gets a foothold, it begins to grow. Sin can affect us physically, but it makes us spiritually and morally weak. If left unchecked, it will invade your emotions, conscience, desires and every other part of you. The Bible adds, “And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (James 1:15).

It’s possible to overcome sin, but we can’t do it on our own. We need God’s help. “But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:15).

So how do we protect ourselves? How is Jesus the solution to our sin problem? The Bible explains it as, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus’ sacrifice “cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7) which means “we are no longer slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6) and makes it possible for us to enter heaven.

Would you like to receive Jesus as your Savior and fix your sin problem today?