D. Scott Meadows

Before we can fully appreciate the blessing of God’s grace, we must have a biblical understanding and keen awareness of our own need of grace.

A simple definition of sin is “disobeying God, or the inner disposition to disobey God.” As sinners, we are condemned before God. We deserve God’s wrath both now and hereafter. God clearly set forth His requirements to man, and man has flagrantly, repeatedly, and defiantly fallen short of them.

Not only do we practice sin, we are sinners by nature. We do bad things because we are bad by nature. Rebellion against God is ingrained in us. We are in bondage to sin, held captive as its slaves. We cannot free ourselves from sin; only God can deliver us. The only hope for sinners like us is God’s mighty grace. These things are clearly taught in the Word of God.

The Fact of Sin

Of course, our initial rebellion against God began in the garden of Eden. God permitted our first parents to eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve ate of it and disobeyed God (Gen. 3).

Though God was gracious to Adam and Eve, they still produced corrupt, sinful offspring. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” (Job 14:4). Their first son, Cain, expressed his antagonism toward God by killing Abel his brother (Gen. 4). A sinful nature has been passed on to all Adam’s sons. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). Even from birth, we enter this world with a sinful nature. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psa. 51:5). “What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?” (Job 15:14-16). That speaks of you and me!

“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child” (Prov. 22:15). The word “foolishness” here comes from a Hebrew word meaning “perverse, quarrelsome, licentious, guilty.” Though children are often thought of as completely innocent and without sin, this is mere illusion. The fire of sin smolders in their little hearts, and is fanned into a flame as they grow up, except for the grace of God. The only exception to this, of course, is Jesus Christ our Lord, who was completely without sin (1 Pet. 2:22-23; 1 John 3:5).

These truths are summarized and expressed in the most universal terms in Romans 3, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. . . . For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (vv. 10-12, 23).

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Used with permission.

Taken from God’s Astounding Grace by D. Scott Meadows. Available at Trinity Book Service.