Prelude to Sin, a miserable business

Lord’s Day 2

From where do you know your sins and misery? From the law of God.

What does God’s law require of us? Christ teaches us this in a summary in Matthew 22:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. 

Can you keep all this perfectly? No, I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbour.

Romans 3:9-20

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
 All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”
 “Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
     ruin and misery mark their ways,
 and the way of peace they do not know.”
     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

This world is so obviously in a mess, but is there hope for it? I consider the original sin, the communist model, other religions and think, do these really give hope?

God in the first few chapters of the bible gives hope. The same Spirit who hovered over the waters before the creation of the world is busy restoring paradise by applying the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Because his Spirit is busy in this world giving spiritual new birth to men, women, boys & girls we see new life entering in. If we want to see man as he was created to be, we need to look at Jesus.

He has come to give hope and life to all who admit that they cannot make it by themselves.