Understanding Our Sinfulness

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Gen 3:7).

Do we really understand the fullness of our sinful state? Apart from the working of God’s Holy Spirit it is impossible to understand just how awful our sinfulness is. The reason I know this is because Adam and Eve didn’t understand the fullness of their sin when they ate from the Tree of Knowledge.

If ever there where two humans who truly understood the fullness of God it had to be Adam and Eve before they sinned. Before they were sinners they saw God and experienced Him in ways no other person could imagine, except Jesus. They saw Him in His glory like none of us have. They knew Him in an intimate way that none of us can. Yet when they sinned by disobeying God’s command not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, the only concern they had was that they were naked. Hello!! You just disobeyed God and the only thing you can think about is that you don’t have any clothes on! This one sentence in Genesis 3:7 shows that they did not understand the fullness of their sin when they disobeyed God.

So I ask you my friends, if Adam and Eve didn’t understand how serious and how grievous their sin was on their own, how can you and I possibly understand how sinful we are on our own? We can’t. And because we can’t, we need a working of the Holy Spirit to understand just how sinful we are. Our hearts are deceitful; they are always trying to deceive us about how grievous and offensive we are to God when we sin. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9)

So what? So what that we don’t understand how sinful we are? We cannot appreciate how much God sacrificed (John 3:16), we cannot fully grasp how deep the Father’s love for us (I John 3:1), we cannot see how glorious Christ death on the Cross is (II Cor 3:16-18) until we understand how wretched and sinful we are. Until we see our sinfulness as it really is, we will never appreciate the gift of God’s grace and mercy of salvation through Jesus Christ! That’s the “so what.”

Here is a very important point. We don’t seek to understand how sinful we are, or help others to see how sinful they are, to lower our self image or be masochistic. The reason we seek to understand how sinful we are is so we can see how blessed and beautiful Jesus is, how loving God is. We need to understand our sinfulness so we can see God’s glory better and brighter.

“Lord, help me to see my sinfulness and understand how offensive I am to you when I sin. Oh Holy Spirit let me see just how bright and beautiful the triune God is by knowing how sin stained I am. Then Lord, warm my heart and soul with the fullness of your love for me through Christ death on the Cross and the forgiveness of my sins, in Jesus name, amen.