Chapter 4 - THE STATE OF MAN

Honest people will agree with what the Bible says in Romans
3:23. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The problem with sin is that it brings spiritual death because sin separates us from God. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rm 6:23). But why and how do men sin?

It is necessary that we have moral laws by which to live with
one another. It is important to understand that we could not be left alone in a world of human relationships to develop our own moral laws. Throughout history people have tried to establish moral laws by which to direct society. But when we are left to ourselves to direct our own ways, social decay is usually the result. The Bible is right when it says, “It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jr 10:23).

When we try to make our own moral laws, we always end up
making laws that please our own worldly desires. We often make moral laws that will allow us to do as we please. Therefore, if we were allowed to make our own moral laws, we would make laws that would eventually lead to social confusion and corruption. God knew that we would do this to ourselves. He thus took the initiative to give us moral laws that would direct our paths.

But the problem with law is that we cannot keep it perfectly.
For this reason, all of us have violated God’s law. Even if we try to do the best we can, we still break God’s laws. And breaking God’s laws is sin. Sin thus brings spiritual death because sin separates us from God (Is 59:1,2). When one is in a state of being separated from God because of sin against His laws, he cannot by any means or methods of himself be reconciled to God.

MAN’S DILEMMA

• Inability to keep law perfectly so as to save oneself.

• Inability of good works to atone for sin.

Here is our dilemma. First, we cannot keep law perfectly so

as to save ourselves, for everyone of us has sinned (Rm 3:23). Even if our desire is to obey God in every way possible, we still sin. Therefore, because no one can keep God’s law perfectly, the law condemns us to sin. We are thus driven to find something other than law in order to be reconciled to God.

Secondly, we cannot do good works so as to make atonement for the sins we commit. We cannot be saved by good works, lest we boast one against another (Ep 2:9). God simply does not accept our good works as a sacrifice for sin. He cannot because there is no amount of good works that we can do to earn eternal life in heaven. Therefore, we are in a condemned state in sin. In this state, we are unable to redeem ourselves from our sin against God. All of us stand condemned in the sight of God because of our sins. So what can we do?

SCRIPTURE READING: Ep 2:1-10; Rm 3

SCRIPTURE RESEARCH: All sin: Gl 3:22; Rm 3:23; 11:32; 1 Jn 1:6-9, Sin and death: Is 59:1-3; Ez 18:4; 1 Jn 3:6, Definition of sin: Rm 14:23; Js 4:17; 1; Jn 3:4