FEATURES
FEATURES
SiN | 2333 image-bearers do not love, reverence, worship, and obey the one true God as they ought.
SIN SHOWS ITS MANY COLORS
From Gen 3 until Rev 21, the story of God’ s people is, at least in part, the story of sin. But while sin is universal, the biblical language for sin is not univocal. In the Pentateuch sin is breaking the covenant. It is a breach of the legal stipulations given to Moses and to which Israel professed allegiance. But sin is also everyone doing as they see fit( Judg 21:25). Sin is the stupidity of forsaking God and being satisfied with broken cisterns( Jer 2:13). Sin is the breakdown of shalom and the sad triumph of evil over good. Wisdom literature often describes sin as foolishness and vanity. In Kings and Chronicles, sin is forgetting God and refusing to humble oneself before him. In the Prophets, sin is often hypocrisy. Elsewhere in the OT, sin manifests itself as strident injustice or perfunctory obedience( e. g., rending your garments instead of your heart). And on other occasions it represents a failure to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbors as yourself. Sin is the villain with a thousand faces.
And all of those faces oppose God. We must never forget that sin frequently has a horizontal dimension. But just as important, we must remember that sin always has a vertical dimension. There are no innocent transgressions. There are no victimless crimes. Every sin, no matter how private or quiet, is an affront to the holiness and benevolence of God. David, in his adultery and murder, may have sinned against Bathsheba, Uriah, Joab, his army, his family, and the whole nation of Israel, but in the deepest sense it was still right for him to say to God,“ Against you, you only, have I sinned”( Ps 51:4). No matter how heinous our infractions against others, God still remains the most offended party whenever we sin.
SIN GETS CONFRONTED
Thankfully, the story of sin in the Bible is not the story of unchecked evil and wickedness. Though he may prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour( 1 Pet 5:8), the devil, as a created being, has always been subservient to the Creator. Satan cannot operate apart from God’ s permission( Job 1:12) and plan( 1 Sam 16:14 – 16). And the divine plan has always been for the downfall of sin and the devil( Gen 3:15). Satan’ s rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word— the Word of the gospel— shall fell him.
More precisely( to speak with the story line of Scripture), we might say the Word made flesh shall fell him. The incarnation was a frontal assault on the devil. Not only does Jesus begin his mission as the second Adam by resisting Satan’ s temptation where the first Adam failed( Luke 4:1 – 13), he also actively makes the exorcism of demons a touchstone of his ministry( Mark 1:39). Even when the crowds and the disciples do not recognize Jesus’ true identity, the demons know who he is and cower in fear( Mark 1:24; 3:11; 5:7; Jas 2:19). They know that Satan is about to fall like lightning( Luke 10:18) and the ruler of the world is about to be decisively judged( John 16:11).
Of course, Jesus’ confrontation with Satan was also a confrontation with sin. Even before he was born, it was understood that Jesus would save his people from their sins( Matt 1:21). Jesus’ miracles impressed the crowds, but what absolutely shocked them was his daring presumption to forgive sins( Mark 2:7). Jesus addressed numerous problems in his ministry— hunger, disability, poverty, fear, demon possession, even death— but the one problem underlying them all, the one that had bedeviled God’ s people throughout their whole sordid history, was the problem of sin. This is the problem Jesus came to confront. And in the end, it is the one he triumphantly conquered.
SIN GETS CONQUERED
Sin cannot be without consequences. Whether this means plagues on Egypt, captivity in Bab ylon, fire and sulfur on Sodom, a flood on the earth, or expulsion from the garden, God is a God of justice, and in the end every trespass and every trespasser must face consequences. This principle holds true after death as well as in life.
One way God conquers sin is to throw death and the devil into the lake of fire( Rev 20:10), along with all those whose names are not written in the book of life( Rev 20:15). The eternal punishment of the wicked in hell not only vindicates God’ s honor and upholds divine justice, it also exposes the utter sinfulness of sin. God would be less than God and sin would be something less than sin if the Lord allowed our treacherous disobedience to go unnoticed and unchecked. If there is any axiom the Bible assumes from start to finish— from the Garden of Eden to the heavenly city, from before Adam to after death, from the OT to the NT— it is that sin must be paid for.
But of course, hell is not the only way sin, death, and the devil can be finally and decisively judged. Hell is but a minor theme next to the soaring melody of the cross. On top of Golgotha we see most clearly the reversal of the curse as the reviled Son of God becomes the curse for us( Gal 3:13). Here Jesus drinks the cup of God’ s wrath( Mark 14:36). Here Christ lays down his life as a ransom for many( Mark 10:45). Here at the cross we see not the abandonment of justice but the complete fulfillment of it. Jesus overcomes sin by becoming sin for us. Jesus conquers the Goddefiant wretchedness of sin by divine satisfaction through divine self-substitution.
28 theologically rich articles by authors such as Tim Keller and Kevin DeYoung
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