The Bondage of Sin

How deep does the tendency to do wrong penetrate the human soul? That depends on what we mean by wrong. Scripture has a very strict definition of what is involved here (Matthew 5:21-48; 22:35-40; James 4:17). Based on this, we all fall far short of what we should be. We are sinners (Romans 3:23; Isaiah 64:6; Jeremiah 17:9). We are not basically good people whose evil is superficial. But neither are we as bad as we could be (Romans 2:12-16; 2:25-29; James 1:17). We were originally made in the image of God, and even in our current sinful state some remnant of it remains (Genesis 1:26,27; 9:6; James 3:9,10).  Total depravity is often misunderstood as saying this. What it actually says is that there is nothing we do and no part of us that is totally free from the corruption of sin. But more importantly, we cannot truly come to God and follow Him on our own (Romans 3:10,11; 8:8; John 15:5). Rather, we require God's intervention to do so (John 6:44,45; 1:12,13; Acts 16:14). We cannot understand the things of God without His intervention (1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; Matthew 11:27). Therefore, a person comes to Christ through God's work to draw them to Himself (Acts 13:48; Romans 8:29,30; Ephesians 1:3,4).

But more fundamentally, it means we are in bondage and unable to save ourselves (Romans 3:19,20; 7:14-25; Galatians 3:10). Therefore, we need God to act to deliver us (Romans 8:6-8; John 3:14-18; 1 John 4:9,10) by sending Christ to die for our sin (1 Peter 2:24,25; Colossians 2:13,14; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Based on this, God offers eternal life by faith (Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 4:4,5; Philippians 3:9), apart from anything we can do to earn it (Galatians 2:21; Titus 3:4,5; Romans 3:24-31). The result of this is that the Holy Spirit begins the process of transforming us into who God wants us to be (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:28,29) This is based on love for God, for what He has done, and not the desire to obtain something from Him (1 John 4:19; Titus 2:11-14; 2 Corinthians 5:14,15). But this will be a process that we will be involved in all our lives, in which we will not reach the point that we can conclude we have arrived (Philippians 3:12-16; 1:6; Hebrews 12:1-3).

One key thing to remember is that sin is a bondage (Romans 6:16-20; John 8:36; Galatians 5:13,14) and Christ desires to set us free from it (Romans 7:4-6; Galatians 5:1; John 8:31,32). This runs contrary to our natural way of thinking. We want to see sin as a way to freedom. It looks like something desirable at the start, and in the end becomes a ball and chain. This is true not only of the blatant sins, but of subtler sins like bitterness, envy, and pride. We need to recognize that sin really is not a good thing. Its attractiveness is only an illusion.