The Problem

Do you know the difference between right and wrong?  Do you know when you have done something wrong?  If you are like most people you would be able to answer, “yes,” to both of those questions. This raises another very important question: If we know the difference between right and wrong, and we know when we have done something that is wrong, how do we know these things?  The answer to that question is a little more complicated, but the Bible has an answer.  The Bible says that God has created us to know the difference between right and wrong, in that He has written His law on our hearts (Romans 2:15).  The Bible also says that we have been created with the knowledge that there is more to this life than just what we see and experience; there is something beyond this world that we live in.  The book of Ecclesiastes says that He created us with eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  So, if we know that we do wrong things, and we know that there has to be more to this life than just what we see with our eyes, we are left with a dilemma—If I do wrong things, and I know they are wrong, and there is life outside of the life I see now, then I must be responsible to the one who created this world.  The question is how can you be right with this One who has created the world we live in?

The Solution

The Bible says that God created this world to be perfect (Genesis 1:31).  However, the Bible also says that sin entered into the world through the disobedience of the first man, Adam (Genesis 3:6).  When man disobeyed God, the perfect fellowship, and the perfect creation was tainted with sin; this is the reason that the world we see today is so far from perfect.  All of the death, disease, and despairing is due to that one act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden.  The perfect relationship between God and man was severed in that moment, and the Bible says that since we are all descendants of Adam, we are all born separated from God (Romans 5:12).  The Good News is that God did not leave us in this helpless estate; He has provided for us a way that we can be right with Him again. 

After Adam sinned in the Garden, God promised that He would provide a permanent solution for the problem of sin.  The Bible says that one day a man would live on this earth who would crush the head of Satan, and finally defeat evil (Genesis 3:15).  That Man was God Himself, the God-Man, Jesus Christ.  God became flesh (John 1:14), lived a perfect life (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 3:5; Hebrews 4:15), and gave His life for the sins of the world (Mark 10:45; 1 John 2:2; Galatians 1:4).  Christ is the solution to the problem of sin.

The Way

If Christ is the solution to the problem of sin, how do I appropriate this solution for myself personally?  That is a very good question.  Perhaps if we live a good enough life, do enough good deeds, belong to the right church, give enough money to good causes, or are just nice enough to people around us, God will give us a pass for our sinfulness, and let us in to His perfect heaven?  No, in fact, the Bible says that none of these is true.  Our good works are meaningless to God; they are an affront to His holiness according to the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 64:6).  Our church membership is also meaningless to God, if we belong to a church thinking that will give us a good standing with God.  The Bible says over one hundred and fifty times that the single condition a person must satisfy, in order to have a right standing with God, is faith in Jesus Christ—faith that His death on the cross paid the penalty for your sins, and faith that Jesus Christ rose from the dead proving that everything He said about Himself was true.  The moment that you trust in Christ as the only solution to your personal sin problem, is the moment that you have eternal life in His name (Acts 4:12).  Only through faith in Christ can we have a right relationship with God the Father; only through faith in Christ can our sins be forgiven—that truly is Good News.