The Heinousness of Sin

Before I offer thoughts regarding God’s ultimate expression of His wrath and judgement, namely consignment of unrepentant sinners to Hell, I want to offer Biblical reasons for why Hell – eternal torment, is a just response to mankind’s sin, our willful opposition to our creator.  Such understanding is necessary if we are to ultimately praise and glorify God for His perfect justice toward those in Hell (Psalm 9:16-17) and love God for His great mercy in saving us from it (Romans 5:8-9).

Many of us who call ourselves Christians have a limited or superficial understanding of the vileness, the wretchedness and destructiveness of our sin and of its offensiveness to a Holy God that makes it worthy of divine condemnation and judgement.   Preachers fail to teach, and we as individuals fail to pursue an accurate understanding of the heinousness of sin, of what it cost God to save us from its eternal consequences (John 3:16), and of the infinite grace, mercy and love He displays in forgiving us for our sin. Thus, our love for God and our rejoicing in our salvation remain on the tepid side.

Beginning with Adam and Eve and up to this present day, all mankind have rejected God’s purpose for our lives (His glory) and His rule over our lives, willfully transgressing His righteous laws and commandments (1 John 3:4) that He has given to promote human flourishing and individual happiness (John 15:9-11).  Instead, we have chosen to pursue our joy, our pleasure, our significance and satisfaction independent of God, in opposition to God, on our own terms and not His.  In doing so we have made ourselves the objects of his wrath as we are told in Roman’s 1:18-25. 

Because of mankind’s sin, and its corrupting impact on all of creation, particularly on man himself, the whole human race has been condemned by God as no longer fit to live in His presence, deserving only of divine judgement.  And what makes sin so insidious and powerful over our lives is that it blinds us to this reality (John 12:37-38). The typical man or women in our society would laugh you to scorn if you implied that they were part of a condemned race, in which everyone is destined for Hell, and thus in need of a Savior.

 Our self-absorbed, man-centered society scorns, ridicules and denies the very concept of sin, and of ultimate accountability for how we live in relationship to God and our fellow man.

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us this is so because the heart of man, the core of our being, has become so corrupted, so deceitful and desperately wicked, that we are unable to understand, apart from the word of God and the Spirit of God, just how sinful and rebellious we are. In our present God ignoring world, we minimize, normalize, glamorize and even celebrate sin, if we even acknowledge that there is such a thing.

All sin is personally and “infinitely” detestable, vile, and offensive to God, provoking His infinite wrath and perfect justice.  Sin strikes directly at God’s heart, portraying Him as a despicable being, irrelevant, inconsequential and unnecessary to our happiness and well-being and thus unworthy of being neither feared nor loved, trusted nor obeyed, worshiped nor enjoyed as the most glorious, most desirable and essential of all beings, the infinitely wise, infinitely powerful creator, sustainer and sovereign ruler of the universe.

The essence of sin is our attempt to replace God with self as the ultimate determiner and source of our good, thus denying God the very delight of being God; of displaying, communicating and conferring to man that which God loves, enjoys and cherishes most, namely His own glory, the infinite perfections of His being displayed to us, through us and in us, for our eternal joy and delight in Him.

According to theologian R.C. Sproul, sin is an act of “cosmic treason”, as in all of its forms and expressions, sin is an act of defiance, disloyalty and hostility toward God’s sovereign rule over our lives, a rule He exercises to ensure and secure the happiness and well-being of His people, while upholding His own glory.

Every sin is an act of “spiritual adultery” in which we distrust God’s love, His faithfulness and commitment to His covenant promises, doubting His capacity to make us exceedingly and abundantly happy in himself (James 4:4).  Thus, like the unfaithful spouse who sets his or her affections, desires and longings on another, we look to the created world and the things of this world as the source and substance of our greatest pleasure and delight, rather than on God who created us to be satisfied in knowing, loving and being loved Him (1 John 2:15-17).

When we sin, we blaspheme the holiness of God and denigrate the majesty of God (Exodus 15:11), denying His worthiness to be known and loved, trusted and obeyed as our infinitely glorious creator.  Ultimately, sin aligns our life, our nature and character and ultimately our eternal destiny with that of God’s greatest enemy, the devil, who was the first cosmic traitor in the universe, the first of God’s creation to deny God’s right to rule over his life (Isaiah 14:12-15), and the spiritual father of all who have done so since (John 8:44).

And yet the eternal God, the God we have despised and disdained, disbelieved and disobeyed, disrespected and dishonored will glorify Himself in the salvation of sinners, wherein Jesus Christ, God the Son, will come into this world as a man to suffer the divine wrath and judgement we deserve for our sins (Isaiah 53) so that whosoever will acknowledge and turn from their sin and believe on Him may be forgiven their sins and granted the gift of eternal life, the glorious life with God for which man was created (Romans 6:23).

Grace and Peace ×