WHAT IS SIN—AND WHY IS IT SUCH A BIG DEAL?
Before we can understand why Jesus died, we need to understand what went wrong.
Most of us don't think of ourselves as terrible sinners.
We make mistakes.
We lose our temper.
We say something we shouldn't.
We hurt somebody and later apologize.
Sometimes we even joke about our faults.
So what's the big deal?
Why does the Bible take sin so seriously?
And why would our sins require something as terrible as the death of Jesus?
To understand that, we need to go back to the beginning.
GOD MADE A GOOD WORLD
The Bible begins with God creating.
Light.
Land.
Plants.
Animals.
And finally, human beings.
Again and again Genesis says:
“God saw that it was good.”
When everything was finished:
“God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” — Genesis 1:31
That's where the Bible begins.
Not with sin.
Not with death.
Not with a broken world.
It begins with something very good.
HUMAN BEINGS WERE DIFFERENT
God created animals.
But when He created human beings, He said something different:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” — Genesis 1:26
Then God gave humanity responsibility over His creation.
They were to have dominion over the animals and the earth.
That doesn't mean human beings were gods.
It means we were made to represent God within His creation.
We belonged to Him.
The world belonged to Him.
And we were supposed to live under His rule while caring for what He had made.
That makes what happened next much more serious.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST SIN?
God gave Adam and Eve enormous freedom.
But He also gave them a command.
There was one tree from which they were not to eat.
Then the serpent challenged God's word.
Would they trust God?
Or would they decide for themselves what was good and evil?
They ate.
We sometimes make that sound almost trivial.
They ate a piece of forbidden fruit. What's so terrible about that?
But the fruit wasn't really the heart of the problem.
The problem was rebellion.
The creature was telling the Creator:
“I will decide for myself.”
God had spoken.
They chose another voice.
That is why sin is more than making a mistake.
SIN IS REBELLION AGAINST GOD
We often measure sin by how much immediate damage we can see.
Running a red light seems small.
Murder seems enormous.
And obviously, some sins hurt other people much more severely than others.
But every sin has something in common.
God says one thing, and we choose another.
John puts it simply:
“Sin is lawlessness.” — 1 John 3:4
Sin says:
“God, I know what You said. But I will do what I want.”
That is why sin is ultimately against God.
David had terribly wronged other people. Yet in his confession he said to God:
“Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” — Psalm 51:4
David wasn't saying nobody else had been hurt.
He was recognizing the deepest problem.
His rebellion was against God.
THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED
Look at what follows the first sin in Genesis 3.
Adam and Eve hide from God.
They become ashamed.
Adam blames Eve.
Eve blames the serpent.
The relationship between the man and woman is damaged.
Pain enters the story.
The ground itself is cursed.
Life becomes difficult.
And death lies ahead.
God had warned Adam:
“In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” — Genesis 2:17
Later Paul summarizes the result:
“The wages of sin is death.” — Romans 6:23
Sin didn't make things slightly worse.
Something fundamental had gone wrong.
AND IT DIDN'T STOP WITH ADAM
We might like to blame Adam and Eve for everything.
But then we have to read the rest of the Bible.
Their children sinned.
Their grandchildren sinned.
Nations sinned.
Israel sinned.
Kings sinned.
Priests sinned.
And we sin.
Paul eventually reaches this conclusion:
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” — Romans 3:23
The problem isn't merely something that happened thousands of years ago.
We have joined the rebellion.
BUT WE DIDN'T HURT ONLY OURSELVES
This is easy to miss.
When Adam sinned, God said:
“Cursed is the ground because of you.” — Genesis 3:17
The ground hadn't rebelled against God.
Adam had.
Yet Adam's rebellion affected the world in which he had been placed.
Paul returns to this in Romans 8.
He says creation was:
“subjected to futility.” — Romans 8:20
He says creation is in:
“bondage to corruption.” — Romans 8:21
And then:
“The whole creation has been groaning together.” — Romans 8:22
Think about that.
Our rebellion affected more than us.
WE HAVE NEVER SEEN AN UNFALLEN WORLD
This is worth thinking about.
Everything we have ever experienced has been in a world affected by sin and death.
We see sickness.
Pain.
Decay.
Death.
Creatures suffer.
People suffer.
Creation itself can be dangerous.
And because this is the only world we have ever known, we call it normal.
But is everything we call normal exactly what God intended when He looked at His creation and called it “very good”?
The Bible doesn't tell us everything that changed after human rebellion.
We shouldn't pretend that it does.
But it tells us enough to know this:
We don't know how much we lost.
Paul says creation itself is groaning.
Something has gone terribly wrong.
SO WHY DOESN'T GOD JUST FORGIVE US?
Now we reach an important question.
We forgive people all the time.
A driver cuts us off in traffic.
Someone says something hurtful.
A child spills the milk.
Someone owes us money and perhaps we finally say:
“Forget it. You don't owe me anymore.”
So why can't God do that?
Why can't God simply look at humanity and say:
“You did wrong. But I love you. I forgive you. Let's forget the whole thing”?
That sounds reasonable.
Until we understand what sin actually is.
God isn't dealing with spilled milk.
He isn't dealing with an irritated driver.
He is dealing with His creation in rebellion against its Creator.
And God is perfectly holy and perfectly righteous.
Can a righteous God simply call evil good?
Can a just Judge pretend guilt doesn't exist?
Can God simply overlook everything sin has done and still be righteous Himself?
Paul asks the question another way.
How can God be:
“just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus”? — Romans 3:26
How can God remain just—and justify guilty people?
Now we have reached the problem.
WE NEED MORE THAN A SECOND CHANCE
Suppose God simply told us:
“All right. Start over. From this moment on, don't ever sin again.”
Would that solve our problem?
What about the sins already committed?
What about our guilt?
What about death?
What about creation groaning under corruption?
And how long would it be before we sinned again?
We don't merely need better instructions.
We don't merely need another chance.
We need rescue.
We need reconciliation with God.
We need guilt dealt with.
We need death defeated.
We need what has gone wrong to be made right.
In one word:
WE NEED REDEMPTION.
AND THAT BRINGS US TO A STRANGE PART OF THE BIBLE
This is where the Bible may become difficult for modern readers.
Sacrifice.
Animals.
Priests.
Altars.
Blood.
Morning after morning.
Evening after evening.
Year after year.
Why?
Why would God require any of that?
Why couldn't He simply say:
“I forgive you”?
And if all those sacrifices were necessary—
why did they have to keep doing them over and over again?
Those questions take us to the next step in the story.
And eventually they take us to a man standing beside the Jordan River, pointing toward Jesus and saying:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” — John 1:29
Why a Lamb?
Why did Jesus have to die?
Now we are ready to find out.
NEXT STUDY
WHY ALL THE LAMBS AND ALL THAT BLOOD?
What was God teaching Israel—and us—through sacrifice?