Romans 3:9-23 “For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. (10) As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; (11) there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. (12) They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one”. (13) "Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of Asps is under their lips"; (14) “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." (15) "Their feet are swift to shed blood; (16) destruction and misery are in their ways; (17) and the way of peace they have not known." (18) "There is no fear of God before their eyes." (19) Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. … (23) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
There can be no doubt regarding the sinfulness of mankind. In the above quoted passage of scripture, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul describes what mankind is really like, and none of it is good. In fact God says that “there is none who does good, no, not one”. It amazes me to hear some ministers of the gospel proclaim that most (unsaved) people are good at heart and ultimately have good intentions. The bible however teaches us the complete opposite to that. Sadly, because many “ministers” of the gospel do not believe what the bible says about the sinfulness of mankind, they do not encourage people to repent of their sin and preach a distorted gospel, declaring only that God loves them and accepts them as they are. Many hear that message and are deceived into believing that they can continue in their sin and still enter the kingdom of God. Nevertheless, from the noblest person that has ever lived to the most wicked person that has ever lived, all are viewed as sinful in God’s eyes and need to repent of their sin. So why is that? Simply because God looks upon the hearts of men and knows what each one is really like. Some, who are religious, foolishly think that if they can perform enough “righteous” acts before the Lord that they will ultimately be accepted by Him. God declares however that their “righteous” acts are as filthy rags before Him (Isaiah 64:6), and the reason God says that, is because He knows the sinful motivation of their hearts. Sadly there are also many that believe that if they do enough good works during their lifetime that they will ultimately make it into heaven. The bible speaks about this deception when it says, “there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:10). Make no mistake, mankind is sinful in nature and no amount of good works can ever change that. I want you to notice that the above passage of scripture declares that the entire world is guilty before God. So why does the scripture say that? It does so because all men commit sin, and when they do so they are in fact guilty of sinning against God.
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, (2) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, (3) among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”
The above quoted passage of scripture describes the nature of every believer before they were born again, and consequently also what every unbeliever’s nature is like today. The scripture describes them as being sons of disobedience. So why does the bible classify the unsaved as being sons of disobedience? The reason for that is because the simple definition of sin is disobedience to the laws of God, which is the lifestyle that all unbelievers practice. In other words, the world always does the complete opposite to that which God counsels us to do in His word. The scripture goes on to say that the natures of the unsaved are that of children of wrath. What that means, is that because the world continually walks contrary to His laws, that ultimately the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience (Col 3:5-6).
Psalms 51:4 “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight-- That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.”
Because sin is being disobedient to the laws of God, in effect we can ultimately only sin against God. Even when we do harm to others we are still sinning against God, for it is He who has instructed us to love our neighbour as ourselves (Matt 22:39). David, in the above quoted passage of scripture confirms the truth to us that we ultimately can only sin against God. David wrote this psalm in response to the sin of adultery that he had committed with Bathsheba and then tried to cover it up by committing the further grievous sin of having her husband murdered. And so, even though David had wronged Uriah, David understood that he had ultimately sinned against God. You will recall that when our Lord Jesus spoke about the day of judgement, that He said to the unsaved that when they mistreat others on the earth that they are in fact mistreating Him (Matthew 25:41-46). The reason therefore that all of mankind stands guilty before God, is because all of mankind sins directly against God.
John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.”
John 15:23-25 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. (24) If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. (25) But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.”
So why does mankind sin against God? In the above quoted passages of scripture, our Lord Jesus tells us quite plainly the reason why all unbelievers continually sin against God; it is simply because of their intense hatred for both God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, because the world hates God, they deliberately walk in disobedience to His laws. Make no mistake, the world is completely against God and would rather obey anyone else other than God. Jesus said that the reason the world hates Him is because He reveals to them just how evil their works are, including the self seeking motivations of their “good” works, and they hate Him for doing that.
Michael E.B. Maher
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