Why do we continue to experience suffering and injustice? Why, despite all our progress, education, technology, medicine, philosophy, and political systems, do we experience disappointment, conflict, and death?
If you had to determine the most essential Christian doctrine for understanding these realities, what would you choose? I would propose that, apart from the existence of God, the doctrine of sin is perhaps one of the most consequential.
Consider Paul’s letter to the Romans. Before Paul explains the astonishing grace of God revealed through Christ, he spends the first three chapters unpacking the reality and consequences of sin. He wants us to understand the problem so that we can fully appreciate the rescue.
The Root of Our Problems
Consider the implications. The Bible describes sin as any thought, word, or action that is contrary to the will of God for His creation. If you were to believe there is no such thing as sin in the way the Bible describes it, then you would see no need for God’s moral standards, the wisdom of Scripture, the rescuing grace of Jesus, the Redeemer, the ministry of the church, or the bright hope of eternity.
Sin is no longer a clearly defined category in people’s minds or our culture.
One of the sad results of sin is that people go about life with little, if any, awareness, understanding, or sense of guilt for sin. Sin is no longer a clearly defined category in people’s minds or our culture. Sin is not viewed as a lens that explains people’s motivations, behavior, or pain. But when sin is a reality you have left behind, you must explain the problems with humanity differently.
Perhaps most significantly, you will think that humans have the power to fix humans. Without the doctrine of sin, society puts its hope in education, politics, philosophy, psychology, medicine, and other human constructs. All of these things are beneficial blessings from God, but they have no power whatsoever to rescue us from the darkness, deceit, destruction, and death that sin has rained down on us all.
If, however, you believe that the most profound problem within every human being is sin’s grip on our reasoning, desires, and choices, and that no one can escape sin independently, you will conclude that our only hope is divine intervention.
This is the argument Paul makes in Romans. He methodically exposes the universal problem of sin until he reaches the conclusion, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
In a sin-scarred world full of brokenness, danger, disappointments, difficulties, and injustices, every cry is actually a cry for God and His redeeming, rescuing, and restoring grace. Most times, the person crying just doesn’t know it.
There are ultimately only two groups of people: those who put their hope in human systems of redemption and those who know that human hope requires a divine Redeemer.
Hope for Humanity
Romans takes us from the devastating diagnosis of sin to the astonishing rescue of Christ, the Redeemer. Romans 3:23-24 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
The doctrine of sin tells us that the hope of humanity will never be delivered by humanity but will come only through God’s intervening grace. If sin is the problem, then God is our only hope.
Sin is our problem, and Christ is our answer.
Paul makes this hope even more personal: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (in Romans 5:6).
Christ did not wait for us to become strong enough to help ourselves. He did not wait for us to clean ourselves up or prove that we were worthy of rescue. He came when we were helpless. And why? Paul explains: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
This is the beautiful hope hidden inside the doctrine of sin: our inability does not make us hopeless because our hope was never meant to rest on our ability.
Sin is our problem, and Christ is our answer. We do not need better self-help; we need a Savior. We do not simply need better circumstances; we need redeeming grace.
When we are looking for answers to the world’s problems, we can begin in an unlikely place: the doctrine of sin. But we shouldn’t stop there. Romans takes us from “all have sinned” to “justified freely by his grace.” From helplessness to hope.
So don’t stop at Romans 3. Keep going. Keep studying. Keep digging into God’s Word with others and discover the depth of God’s grace and the hope we have in Christ.