OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IS…

As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived. ~ Charles H. Spurgeon.

The race for the 2024 elections has begun. Several days ago eight Republican presidential candidates gathered for the first primary debate of the 2024 cycle, offering Americans one of their first major chances to start weighing who will be the GOP standard bearer next year. The democrats will likewise give the voters the chance to hear what they view as the biggest issues facing our country today.

Some point to education inequality, poverty, racism, lack of economic opportunity for all, security, crime, and war, and climate control as the biggest issues facing our country today. All of those are important issues, but none of those is the biggest issue facing us as Christians today.

Our biggest problem is sin. There is no greater calamity that has fallen upon mankind than the problem of sin. Not surprisingly, the topic of sin is not generally a popular one. However, the Bible speaks about sin throughout the Old and New Testaments. God says that we have all sinned. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). 1 John 1:8 adds, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Sin is a reality that is a part of all our lives. We all sin, we are all sinful.

The Bible talks a lot about sin. But more importantly, it also talks a lot about the answer to sin. That’s exactly who Jesus is: the answer. The message of the Bible is that Jesus Christ was perfect and sinless. He is declared in the pages of Scripture to be God. He is uniquely qualified by His perfection to stand as a substitute for humanity’s sin problem. “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus suffered the penalty we deserved. His death now makes it possible for a righteous God to forgive our sins and offer us salvation. Jesus Christ suffered the excruciating horror of a torturous death of which all mankind was deserving. He died on the cross willingly to give people throughout the ages the opportunity to be reconciled to God.

“Why would God do this for me?” John 3:16 answers that question:“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). 

The Good News of the gospel is the solution to our biggest problem.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are some euphemisms people use today for sin (e.g. “white lies”)? Why do you think people use them?
2. What can we do this week to sin less?