Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Why is sin so bad? Besides the fact that God tells us in His perfect Word that it is bad, the repercussions of sin display why it’s bad for us too—sin hurts. It hurts us, and it hurts those around us. The opening verse, Romans 6:23, spells it out just how much sin can hurt—it can kill us. It is killing us in our natural state. “The wages of sin is death.” Sin reaps pain and death. Even those of us who have professed faith in Christ, and have received forgiveness for our sins, still experience these terrible effects. We don’t experience a spiritual death, but we will still experience a physical death. And during this life, we still experience the painful effects of sin—physically, spiritually, and relationally.
This next series of posts is going to be all about the ways that sin hurts. Maybe you’re thinking, “Wow, Leah, what a dark topic!” However, I’m choosing to study and write on this topic because I’m learning to parent a 6 year old girl, who, though she may be super sweet and funny 90% of the time, is also a sinner. The longer we get to foster her, the more clearly we can see the sin that is already in her heart and how it affects her and us. We also see the importance of sharing the Gospel with her and helping her see her own sin.
Today I’m going to start this series by focusing on looking at what the Bible says is the answer to this question: Why does sin hurt? God’s Word clearly lists the consequences of sin, starting in the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve chose to sin by disobeying God’s command in Genesis 3, God clearly explained the effects that sin would now have on them and the world.
Genesis 3:16-19
To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
In this passage we see that everything has been cursed by sin: our physical bodies, our relationships with one another, our views of authority, the earth, our work, and our lifespans. There is nothing in this world that sin has not touched or tainted. Because the first people sinned, we all now sin and are impacted by the sins of others.
Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
No one is excluded from the curse of sin because we all sin. Everyone is going to experience pain and hurt because of their own sin and the sins of others. We are all both sinners and sufferers because of the curse. Learning to parent over the past month and a half has been a vivid reminder of that truth.
When talking through disobedience and consequences with our foster daughter, we try to clearly explain the difference between just being “good” or “bad” and actually understanding what disobedience to God (sinning) looks like compared to obedience to His Word. Trying to explain bad choices, sin, and consequences can be very challenging. But one thing that does seem to help her understand is when I explain that sin hurts us and other people. Even at 6 she can understand that when she lies to me, it hurts me and it hurts our relationship. It also hurts her because there are consequences for lying when she is caught. That is just one simple example of how the sins that come most easily and naturally to all of us still hurt us and others tremendously.
So I ask again, why does sin hurt? From what we’ve discussed so far, I hope you’ve gleaned that sin hurts because it is a curse on God’s Creation. Another way to put it is that sin ruins the things that God has made. Sin is not the way we were designed to live. That’s why in many Christian circles you’ll hear people say the phrase “We live in a broken world,” meaning the world we experience now is not the way it was meant to be. When I say that, I’m not doubting God’s sovereignty or perfect will in allowing sin—that’s a difficult topic that I hope to hit on throughout the posts in this series.
But because God didn’t want robot-like creatures to worship and serve Him, but rather children who choose to have a relationship with Him or not, sin now exists in each of our hearts. We all contribute to the brokenness of the world because we choose to sin. And because we are sinful, our relationship with God has been severed. The perfect, holy, righteous God cannot be in the presence of sinful people, as it would go against His nature to allow sin to go unpunished. Sin hurts because it causes this separation from our God and Creator. That’s why in the beginning God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden as part of the curse (Genesis 3:23-24). Thank the Lord, though, that the second half of Romans 6:23 exists! “…but the gift of God is eternal life.” Put another way:
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Because of the Gospel, we can have the hope of eternal life, the hope that one day we will stop experiencing the painful effects of sin. Praise God for that truly Good and Wonderful News!
In the rest of this series I want to talk about several areas of sin and how it hurts, in the obvious and the not so obvious ways. I’ll be looking at specific sins, what God has to say about them in the Bible, and the ways those sins hurt us. I want to clearly share the hope of the Gospel for those of us who believe in Christ when confronting the pain sin causes. I hope this dive into sin will not be discouraging for you, but rather that it will help you realize 1) we’re all sinners in need of God’s grace and 2) studying what the Bible says about sin helps us see it more clearly in our own lives. Constantly reminding ourselves of those two truths helps us grow in gratitude and obedience to our Lord and Savior who has defeated sin and promises to give us the strength, grace, and help we need to live in this broken world for Him.
As always, I look forward to sharing more with you next time here on Speaking Truth. Thanks for joining me!
Why Sin Hurts