I Believe Because Sin Is Real

Today’s Reading:

• Genesis 4:1-5:32
• 1 Chronicles 1:1-4
• Genesis 6:1-22

Faith-Stretching Verse(s):

• You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master. – Genesis 4:7, NLT

Thoughts:
The Bible teaches that sin is real. For some of us, that’s not too faith-stretching a concept. But there is a fairly large group of people that believes humanity is inherently good, good by nature.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe that every person in the world is an obvious sinner. It’s not like we’re all stealing all the time, or cheating on our spouses, or killing everyone like Cain does in this passage.

But since Adam and Eve disobeyed God and took the fruit He commanded them to leave alone, we’ve all been sinful and vulnerable to sin’s control in our lives. Think of the kindest, gentlest person you know, the white-haired saint of a grandmother you have who never seems to do anything wrong. And ask her (or him, whoever you’re thinking of), “You never seem to do anything wrong. Have you ever sinned? What’s something bad that you’ve done?” And even that elderly saint will have an answer for you. You might think that their sin is so insignificant that you personally wouldn’t worry about it. You might wish that your life contained such minute sins instead of whatever it is you’ve done. But still, they’ve sinned. Sin crouches at the door of every human heart and, at some or many points in life, every human heart is mastered by it. Sin is a pervasive human reality.

And since the Bible teaches us that sin is a reality in this world, sin itself is another reason to trust that God knows what He’s talking about. God is in touch with reality, and reality includes sin. So if God says that there’s sin, and life proves it, maybe we ought to listen to God a little more when He talks about other things, too.

For an overview of this year’s blog, please see http://threequartertank.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-do-believers-believe.html.