Miserable Offenders and the Mercy of God
The concept of “sin” seems quite out of step in the modern world. Many people have relegated “sin” to a bygone era of puritanical prudishness or the pulpits of sweaty, Bible-thumping preachers. However, many people readily acknowledge that there seems to be something wrong with our world—with us. Our news feeds overflow with anger, sorrow, and anxiety. Violence, wars, and natural disasters abound. We also personally experience pain and hurt in the actions of others.
The question comes home to us when we experience these things and often leads us to wonder, “What’s wrong with people?” Or “Why do I do what I do?” In response to the condition of our world and ourselves, each week in the General Confession, we pray,
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We acknowledge and lament our many sins and offenses, which we have committed by thought, word, and deed against your divine majesty.
Holy Eucharist: Anglican Standard Text, Book of Common Prayer (2019)
Likewise, as we confess in the words of Morning and Evening Prayer of the classic 1662 Book of Common Prayer, we pray, “O Lord, have mercy on us, miserable offenders.” Those are deep, strong statements that reveal our condition and status. We see what sin does to our lives, and we face the fact that it is we who are guilty of it.
Our Sinful Nature and Sinful Identity
The very first question in the ACNA’s catechism, To Be a Christian, is, “What is the human condition?” The answer is,
Though created good and made for fellowship with our Creator, humanity has been cut off from God by self-centered rebellion against him, leading to lawless living, guilt, shame, death, and the fear of judgment. This is the state of sin.
Notice the word “humanity.” Every human has in them the nature of sin. Just as we were born with blood pumping through our veins, we were born with the nature of sin, a natural inclination toward rebellion. This is more than a tendency toward rebellious behavior; we inherit a rebellious identity.
Why? Because we are born “in Adam.” Adam is the representative of all humanity, and we all suffer the effects of Adam’s fall to this day. This is why St. Paul says
Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
Romans 5:12
This is the hard diagnosis so many people in the modern day are reluctant to accept, much less proclaim.
In Ephesians 2, St. Paul describes our condition before Christ. He says,
We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the bodyand the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians 2:12
We need to understand that this is our natural condition apart from Christ. Bluntly put, apart from Christ, humanity is hell-bound. We are born with an ingrained nature of sin, under its total dominion, and under the judgment of God.
This can be jarring to us who live in a post-enlightenment, progressive culture that would have us believe humans are all essentially good. It’s not uncommon to find many Christians who live with the assumption that they are basically good people, heading to heaven as long as they don’t screw things up too badly here on earth. This is Biblically backwards. The Bible shows us that we will remain miserable sinners, destined for an eternity apart from him, unless God intervenes on our behalf.
The glorious news of Christianity is that Jesus Christ is the divine intervention we need. But if our Christianity is to be for us what it is meant to be, we must understand the perilous nature of our natural condition. As the confession says, “Apart from your grace, there is no health in us.”
Our Sinful Behavior
We must look at our lives and see how our specific actions reveal our general nature. J.I. Packer says that
Sin may be comprehensively defined as lack of conformity to the law of God in act, habit, attitude, outlook, disposition, motivation, and mode of existence.
Packer, J.I. Concise Theology (Crossway, 1993)
He connects the sinful nature and identity with our sinful acts when he observes,
We are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners, born with a nature enslaved to sin.
Packer, J.I. Concise Theology (Crossway, 1993)
Our sinful behavior is outlined in many places in Scripture. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says,
“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Matthew 15:19
St. Paul puts it this way in his Second Letter to Timothy when he describes the sinfulness of the last days,
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
2 Timothy 3:2-4
We see in Scripture a movement from the general to the specific. Sin is not simply an abstract concept but involves specific acts we do in rebellion to God himself—specific thoughts, words, and deeds. Scripture holds a mirror up to our lives and calls us to look closely and realize that it’s not just humanity in general that is fallen and deserves the wrath of God, but each of us individually, that must, as the Prayer Book says, “turn from our wickedness and live.”
We modern Christians do not take this nearly as seriously as we ought. We tend to excuse, rationalize, or ignore our sins and our blatant disregard for the will of God.
Anything we do that is contrary to God’s word and commandments is sin. Even if society doesn’t think it’s a sin, it’s a sin. Even if you don’t think it should be a sin, it is a sin. Sin is not defined by popularity or our own opinion, but by God’s Word. Most people, especially most Christians, are not ignorant of these things. We are often just simply disobedient and rebellious, wanting things our own way. Therefore, our sin nature shows in our behavior. Is it any wonder then that the Bible says we are “children of wrath”?
Our Glorious Remedy
How horrible it would be to leave us with an eternally terminal diagnosis like this—without hope and without a remedy. Thanks be to God that humanity’s story does not end here. The remedy for sin, the remedy for our inherited sin nature, and rescue from sin’s dominion over us is Jesus. Only Jesus.
When we become aware of our sin, we may feel tempted to seek other solutions to address it. Often, we just want to remove the feeling of shame or guilt. We may punish ourselves, shame ourselves, and otherwise make ourselves miserable. Other times, we may say, “Well, I may have failed here, but look at all the other good things I’ve done.” We may even increase our religious activity to try to relieve our guilt. We promise to pray more, serve more, or go to church more. But none of these are remedies for either our sinful nature or our sinful behavior. The glorious remedy is only Jesus. That is good news for miserable offenders.
Our Lord does not leave us without a way home, to redemption, to freedom—a way to a living relationship with the living God. One of the Comfortable Words in our Communion service comes from 1 Tim 1:15,
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
1 Timothy 1:15
That is a “purpose statement”. Why did Jesus come? To save sinners –sinners like you and me. The incarnation was a rescue mission! And what was His motivation? Love. Perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16,
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
Only when we understand the reality of our sin can we truly appreciate the glorious and surprising love of God.
The famous Puritan John Owen put it well when he said,
Behold the Lord Christ, who hath all the fullness of grace in his heart, all fullness of power in his hand: He is able to slay all these his enemies. There is a sufficient provision in him for my relief and assistance: he can take my drooping, dying soul, and make me more than a conqueror.
John Owen, The Mortification of Sin
Conclusion
Sin is our fallen nature, which manifests in specific acts of disobedience and rebellion against God. As the Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent says, “we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves” (BCP 2019).
That’s the diagnosis. But we have a definitive and glorious cure, our Savior Jesus Christ. In our Eucharistic prayer, we give thanks for his cross because
He made there by his one oblation of himself, once offered, a full perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.
Holy Eucharist: Anglican Standard Text, Book of Common Prayer (2019)
While the term “sin” may be out of fashion in our modern culture, as Christians, we know its reality. Sin is serious, and humanity’s condition is perilous, but our God’s remedy is glorious. Sinclair Ferguson noted the power and finality of Jesus’ work in dealing with sin. He said,
When grace appears on the horizon offering forgiveness, the sunshine of the love of God melts our hearts and draws us back to him.
Sinclair Ferguson, The Christian Life (Banner of Truth, 2013)
Image: photo by chatkarenstudio, courtesy of Canva. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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