How would you describe the world in a word? Naturally that’s a matter of perspective. The naturalist might say, “beautiful”; the scientist might say “puzzling”; the merchant might say “opportunity”, etc. The list could go on and on, but what would you say? Ask people to describe the world in a word and you will get all kinds of answers. Some would say, “difficult”, “bad”, “terrible”, “confused”, “corrupt”, “sick”, etc. But it is actually much worse than any of those things. The best way to describe the world and the worst thing that can be said about the world are the same—“Sinful”. There is no better, more accurate, description of the world than that, and nothing worse could be said about it.
The problem is that this doesn’t sound all that bad to most people. They would be more impressed with words like awful, filthy, vile, rotten, putrid, etc. To simply say it is “sinful” doesn’t impact people as it should. They aren’t impressed because they have no real understanding of the word. If they did they would know that “sinful” is the best way to describe the world and that nothing worse could be said about it.
On a personal level we could say a person is ugly, uneducated, stupid, poor, hungry, sick, or suffering and that would get people’s attention, even draw out sympathy. But to say they are “sinful” hardly raises an eyebrow. The average person thinks, “So what?” If their accountant said,”You are bankrupt”; or their wife said,”I want a divorce”; or their doctor said, “You have cancer”; or the judge said, “I sentence you to life in prison”, they would be devastated. But if the preacher says, “You are a sinner”, they go on their merry way as though everything is fine. The truth is that sin is worse than bankruptcy, divorce, cancer, or prison. If we understood the true nature of sin we would realize that nothing is worse–absolutely nothing. Those who don’t hate it don’t understand it. The truth is that no man fully understands how horrible sin is. It is worse than anything we can imagine. Thankfully Christ is God’s remedy for sin. Because of His sacrifice we can be forgiven, cleansed, and set free from sin. He offers grace that is greater than all our sin–and that’s the best thing in the world! — HDS, 10/11/16
