All have sinned
"All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…"
Romans 3:23
“There is none
righteous, no, not one."
Romans 3:10
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked; who can know it?"
Jeremiah 17:9-10
Sins of the
heart and imagination
“You have
heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not
commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a
woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with
her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable
for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole
body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes
you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more
profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for
your whole body to be cast into hell."
Matthew 5:27-30
The consequence of
my sin
"...just
as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin,
and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned..."
Romans 5:12
"The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
Our sin nature
("flesh": our natural inclinations apart from Christ)
"...when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death."
Romans 7:5
"I know
that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to
will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do
not find. or the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the
evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will
not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in
me.
"I find then a law, that evil is
present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God
according to the inward man. But I see another law in
my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from
this body of death?
"I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
Romans 7:18-25
"Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and
these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you
wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which
I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who
practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Galatians 5:16-24
"For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty
as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."
Galatians 5:13
"For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows
to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."
Galatians 6:8
"Therefore
let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No
temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man;
but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted
beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make
the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
Jesus'
redeeming death free us from bondage to sin!
"...the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations
and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of
judgment, and especially those who walk according to the
flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority."
2 Peter 2:1-10
"...the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness."
Romans 1:18
"Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be
well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ."
2 Corinthians
5:9-10
"God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:8
"For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life."
John 3:16
"God our
Savior… desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth."
1 Timothy
2:3-4
"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed."
Isaiah 53:4-6
"He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins." 1 John 4: 11
"He came
to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of
God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God." John
1:11-13
Importance of
knowing and confessing our sin
"If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him
a liar, and His word is not in us."
1 John
1:8-9
Confronting a
brother or sister in Christ
“...if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault
between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained
your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or
two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every
word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them,
tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the
church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector."
Matthew
18:15-17
The cleansing
power of the blood of Jesus
"Then He
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you.
'For 'this is My blood
'of the 'new covenant, which is shed 'for many for the
'remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink
of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I
drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
Matthew
26:27
"...it is already an
utter failure for you that you go to law against one another.
Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let
yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat,
and you do these things to your brethren! Do you not know that
the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will
inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.
But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our
God."
1 Corinthians
6:7-11
From bondage to
freedom
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses
and sins, in which you once walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts
of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the
others.
“But God, who is rich in
mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and
raised us up together, and made us sit together in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that
we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:1-10
"There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ
Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to
the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law
could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account
of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous
requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on
the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the
Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who
are in the flesh cannot please God." Romans 8:1-8
"For He
made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him."
2 Corinthians
5:21
Living by His grace
-- in the victory of the cross
"What shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly
not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not
know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through
baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.
"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death,
certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the
body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be
slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no
more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He
died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He
lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be
dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should
obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments
of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not
under law but under grace.
"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under
grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present
yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey,
whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to
righteousness?
"But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And
having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
"I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For
just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of
lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members
as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
"For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to
righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which
you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
"But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of
God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans
6:1-23