Tuesday, March 29th - Becoming More Solemn

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

When was the last time you sinned? Yesterday? A week ago? 30 minutes ago? We have a sin problem. We were born with brokenness inside of us and a propensity to sin. We are drawn to selfishness and pleasure. Apart from God’s grace we can’t do anything about it. We can’t try harder, do better, or be self-controlled enough to save ourselves from our sinful state. Oh, we can control our actions long enough to appear holy on the outside, but God sees to the very depths of our hearts, and nothing is hidden from His view. The impatience we have with others, the resentfulness and bitterness we hold inside, the reluctance to reach out to others, the selfish thinking, and the thoughtless way we dismiss others are all seen and known by God. We are sinful creatures who are helpless to do anything about our sin.

Our world constantly seeks to justify our sin. “You’re worth it. You deserve it. If you don’t put yourself first, no one else will.” These messages bombard us in marketing, advertising and well-meaning but bad advice from friends and professionals alike. We downplay our sin nature and the choices we make against God’s commandments of loving Him and loving others.

But I think it’s time to take the problem of sin seriously. It’s time to solemnly consider the state of our brokenness and the depth of our need. We often look at those whose actions exhibit “greater sins” than ours and see the depth of their need while hypocritically downplaying our own trespasses and sins simply because they are more “socially acceptable” forms of sin.

Sin is sin. All sin is an affront to God’s holiness. Even if we had only committed one sin in our entire lives, just one little white lie, we would be unacceptable to stand in front of God. The “smallest” sin breaks our relationship with Jesus and requires divine intervention to repair. You aren’t good enough. You never were and you never will be apart from God’s grace through Jesus. As we become more solemn about sin, we better understand the price Jesus paid to forgive that sin and take the punishment we deserve.