Sin cursed the world. The entry of sin into God’s original creation corrupted it completely, and this present threat of sin in our world affects us in profound ways. It affects us in visible and invisible ways. The visible ways sin affects us can be seen in (1) the corruption of the physical world and (2) broken relationships with fellow humans.

The first visible sign of sin’s effects on the world is that it’s physically corrupted. This includes the earth and ourselves. Natural disasters, human sickness, and death are all symptoms of a world broken by sin. Our world has a dark nature, often filled with more weakness and death rather than life. This affects our ability to survive or enjoy our existence in a way God originally intended.

The second visible sign of the effects of sin is seen in broken relationships between humans. When sin entered the world, humans became sinful. We became selfish, proud, cruel, and evil unlike ever before. This made relationships between humans’ hostile, difficult, and often full of brokenness. People began to want to become better than their fellow man—to dominate and oppress them. War, slavery, and poverty throughout history are some visible results of these sinful qualities in the human heart.

However, a greater understanding of sin than this brief description is needed to fully understand the gospel. This is because, even if we can observe the effects of sin in these visible ways, it’s the hidden or unseen effects of sin that impact us most powerfully. 

1. Born into sin

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity”

~ Psalm 51:5 (ESV)

The Bible says that humans are born into a sinful world as sinful selves. Because of sin, humans are born imperfect. On earth, humans now aren’t born as the superior and eternal selves God originally made them to be in the Garden of Eden.

As already mentioned, we can see this first in a visible way. Because of sin, our bodies are now born differently. God didn’t originally make us to die, but we have a limited lifespan now because of sin. We can get sick because of sin. The force of sin in us makes us inferior physical beings in comparison to God’s original design of us.

But the Bible says we’re not only inferior in a physical way but also in hidden ways. Because of sin, humans have also become inferior both morally and spiritually. When Adam and Eve sinned, something happened that not only cursed their bodies, but also their minds and souls. Because we’re all descendants of these first humans, sin is now part of who we are in a deeper way than any outward signs suggest.

Morally, sin causes us to internally struggle against doing evil. Spiritually, the sin in humans naturally makes us hostile towards God. Sin causes us to naturally dislike, offend, belittle, reject, and ignore God. Because of sin, we’re unable to have any positive relationship with God by our own effort. You and I were born on this earth as broken, fallen, and imperfect in comparison to God’s original intentions for us.

2. Sinners

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

~ Mark 7:21-23 (ESV) 

Not only has sin marked our human identity from birth, but we also participate in it. We all regularly do wrong. We perpetuate sin. Have you ever lied, stolen, cheated, killed, lusted, abused, bullied, or hated? The Bible defines these actions and more as sins. In ways like these, humans are active in continuing to reject and rebel against their creator like Adam and Eve originally did.

All humans have rebelled against God and disobeyed the good moral code he has put in their hearts. Since Genesis, sin has expanded and increased across the world and throughout history. Sin is rampant. Look at how evil the world is! Humans are not only tempted by sin because of our default sinful nature, but we also often willingly give in to sin. In fact, the Bible admits that humans can’t help but sin, even if we try our hardest not to. At our worst we agree with, enjoy, and even crave sin. Sin is so normal for humans that we find ways to act like it’s ok.

The Bible also says that humanity has gone to great lengths to actively ignore God and pretend he doesn’t exist, even though he has clearly revealed himself to humanity. In these ways, the world is evil in perplexing and extreme ways because humans are sinners.

The Bible describes this condition as humanity’s captivity to sin. In John 8:34, Jesus says, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” In other words, we’re enslaved by sin. We are enslaved by sin because we can’t stop sinning. We can’t stop doing wrong by God. Just like a prisoner is trapped behind bars, humans are trapped within a state of being that is unable to reach the perfection God originally designed us for. Humans are “captive” to sin. This captivity has dire consequences for humans. 

Because of our captivity to sin and wilful participation in it, the Bible says we’re naturally inclined to be hostile to God. The idea of God’s existence naturally offends humans. They’re skilled in their attempts to reject and ignore God. Spiritually, this force of sin within humans is a power that blinds a person to the truth of who God is. This spiritual blindness pushes the possibility of any acknowledgement or thankfulness towards him away. Humans enter into the world as rebels against God by nature, and they continue to participate in rejection and offence towards him. By birth we’re hostile to the idea of God, and by nature we’re God’s naturally sworn enemies.

3. The consequences of sin

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world”

~ Ephesians 2:1-2 (ESV)

“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind”

~ Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV)

As discussed in the previous chapter, the Bible says that without God’s help, humans are spiritually dead. This is also seen in verses 1-2 from Ephesians chapter 2. By ‘dead’ the author means that we have no spiritual life. We’re unable to help ourselves when it comes to gaining spiritual life. We’re born into sin, and we can’t stop sinning. We’re imperfect, and we can’t lift ourselves out of our imperfection. Just like a dead person can’t bring themselves back to life, so we’re spiritually dead in a certain way—being unable to see the truth of our condition or form any positive relationship with God by our own effort.

If humans aren’t somehow freed from this curse they’ll suffer the fair consequences of their own sin. This is firstly because God knows all the evil in our lives. This is stated in the verse above from Jeremiah 17:10. There’s nothing hidden from God. He knows your heart and mind. He knows all your thoughts, actions, and secrets. To him, your life is entirely transparent. And it’s important to note that God not only knows all but also remembers all. He has a record of all the sins you’ve ever committed, including every dark thought. There are two main consequences of the idea that God knows and remembers all our sin.

The first consequence of God knowing all the sins of our lives is that God must punish sin. In other words, God has to punish sin. Why? Because God is perfectly good and just. This means that it’s impossible for God not to punish evil because that would make him evil. For God, not to repay evil is to permit evil. This isn’t the same for relationships between humans, because all humans do evil. This means that humans can forgive one another in the hope that, when they make mistakes, they too will be forgiven. But God is perfect and cannot sin. The Bible says God can’t ‘shrug his shoulders’ at sin or ignore sin because that’s not who he is. It’s impossible for God to be evil, which means it’s not possible for God to dismiss or ignore evil. Because God is perfectly good, he has to punish humans for sin, since a perfectly good God can’t let evil go unpunished. Just like it would be evil for a human judge in a court of law to stop a convicted murderer from being fairly sentenced to jail for his crime, it’s evil for God not to punish all evil. If God knows all our sins, and he’s the ultimate judge of the world, he must punish us in return for the sins we commit towards his creation—including all the harm we do to others and ourselves.

The second consequence of God knowing all the sins of our lives is that God can’t dwell among sin. We can already see this in our world. Because God can’t dwell among sin, he remains at a kind of distance from our present world. However, the fact that God can’t dwell among sin has more extreme consequences for us. The Bible says there’s an afterlife, and that without our ability to dwell with God, we’re destined to be unable to enjoy the benefits of relationship with him or his eternal creation after death.

We’ve discussed that God’s original creation was much better than the broken world we now experience. But what happens when even the good of God’s broken creation, our current world, is removed? It means there’s no blessing left for us to find comfort in. We’re left with the realisation that everything we currently enjoy is from God, and if he takes that away, we have nothing good to lay claim to into eternity. While humans contribute some good to the world, our moral debt and nature of sinfulness still remain, which remove our ability to be in the presence of God or enjoy his creation into eternity.

Sin has terrible consequences for us. Sin has completely ruined humanity’s positive relationship with God. Under the curse of sin, we’re unable to dwell with God into eternity (in ‘heaven’). God also can’t dwell with us in our sin, because sin, in its very essence, is a power of hostility towards him. The sin in us causes us to hate God and desire to steal his authority for our own selfish ends. In summary, humans under the curse of sin can’t gain any positive relationship with God by their own effort or dwell in his eternal presence.

We’ll see in the following chapters that that sin doesn’t just separate us from God, but that it leaves us with a deep sadness and dissatisfaction of lost relationship with God. We’ll also see that sin destines us for ‘judgement’.

Chapter Summary:

• Sin has cursed our world, seen in visible and invisible ways.

• Humans are born into a sinful state. This makes humans inferior physically, morally, and spiritually.

• All humans participate in sin, individually and personally rejecting God. This means they’re enslaved to sin and hostile enemies towards God. 

• Humans are spiritually dead. They’re unable to free themselves from the curse of sin or have any positive relationship with God by their own effort. 

• God knows and remembers all our sin. This has serious negative consequences for humans, including:

  • God must punish sin because he’s perfectly good.

  • God can’t dwell with us because of our sin, since sin is a power of hatred and hostility towards him.