Sin has become a four-letter word in most churches. It’s rarely mentioned and the subject is often considered taboo. What does the Bible say about sin?
Preachers have developed euphemisms for sin. It’s referred to as weakness, brokenness, and other terms designed to save the fragile feelings of the congregation.
Well, the Bible doesn’t shy away from the subject. Here are a smattering of scriptures pulled directly from the Holy Writ.
What Is Sin
Sin is expressed in the Bible as both a noun (Genesis 4:7) and a verb Ephesians 4:26).
Here is a comprehensive definition of sin:
Sin is an offense in relation to God with emphasis on the resulting guilt. To continually miss the mark in his relationship with God. Disobedience to the divine Law. To transgress in actions.
We’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s standard of perfection and that is why we need Jesus!
The Law
The Law is good when it’s used lawfully. It’s used as a mirror to reflect our sinfulness and our need for salvation.
Genesis 4:6-8 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Exodus 32:30-31 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold.
Leviticus 26:17-19 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
Numbers 32:23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.
Deuteronomy 24:16 Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.
List of Sins
Joshua 7:10-12 The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; have taken some of the devoted things; and they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.
Judges 10:13-15 Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.”
I Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as reprehensible as the sin of divination,
and insubordination is as reprehensible as false religion and idolatry.
Since you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.
2 Kings 8:18-19 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.
Can Sin Be Killed?
1 Chronicles 21:17 And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.
2 Chronicles 7:13-15 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
Nehemiah 4:5 Do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
What Is Sin In The Bible
Job 1:21-22 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
Psalm 19:13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
Psalm 25:18 Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
Psalm 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Psalm 51:1-3 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Psalm 78:32-33 In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe. So he made their days vanish like a breath and their years in terror.
Psalm 90:8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
What Is Mercy
Mercy is not getting what we deserve.
Psalm 103:10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 119:11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Proverbs 13:21 Adversity pursues sinners, But the righteous will be rewarded with prosperity.
Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.
Ecclesiastes 7:20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.
What Is Salvation
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.
Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
Ezekiel 3:20 Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.
Ezekiel 18:20 The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.
Micah 6:8
Amos 9:10 The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.
Micah 6:7-8 Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Malachi 2:10 Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?
The Sick Need a Doctor
Matthew 12:31 Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
Mark 1:4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 5:32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
Luke 7:47 For this reason, I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.
John 16:7-11 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
Dunk or Dip?
Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Death, Sex, and Money
Romans 5:12-13 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—to be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.
Romans 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Sin = Death
Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Rescued and Restored
Galatians 6:1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
Ephesians 2:1-2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Colossians 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
TNT
I Thessalonians 4:7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
I Timothy 1:8-11 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.
Sin & Mercy
Hebrews 2:17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
James 1:13-15 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Apostolic Epistles
I Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
I John 1:6-10 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. When we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Judgment & Freedom
Jude 14-15 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Revelation 1:4-6 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
What’s the Answer?
We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s demand for perfection. In our strength we cannot accomplish perfection. The GOOD NEWS is that God has made provision for us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ!
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.