For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Rom. 6:23)

Something is wrong, very wrong, with humankind today. You pick up a newspaper and read the headlines. You quickly change the channel as the evening news comes on because you don't want your little children exposed to the violence that is depicted.

You gasp with amazement as you hear that a friend, someone you trusted implicitly, has led a double life and has betrayed his wife and family. When lighting strikes close to home, what you minimalized or became insensitive and calloused to suddenly becomes vivid and shocking.

You ask yourself, "How could this have happened?" followed by "Why would God allow this?" Issues that you have ignored or trivialized suddenly loom up and must be confronted. "Like what?" Principally the nature of man and the evil which leads to violence and wrongdoing that the Bible describes as sin. "Hey," you say, "I thought sin was something for theologians, pastors, and priests to deal with."

Nothing satisfies the question of "Why?" apart from accepting the reality that evil, terrible evil, exists and produces the shocking behavior we so detest. While secular historians don't like to admit that the Bible contains accurate, factual history, the reality is that this book vividly depicts 5,000 years of human failure--war, violence, murder and deceit, the same cancers of human behavior which account for the horrible suffering which has grown by quantum leaps as science has expanded man's capability for mass annihilation.

If you have never done this, I recommend that you sit down and read through the entire Bible. Taking ten minutes a day, in less than a year you will read the entire book, and you will see a pattern of human failure repeated over and over again; but in the midst of it, you will see the coming of Jesus Christ and note that from the beginning of the announcement of the angel to Joseph that Christ would save His people from their sin, human failure has only one antidote: the grace and forgiveness of God.

Paul, interpreting what Jesus Christ did, explained, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, NKJV). And "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). When Paul used the term "all" it suddenly includes us in the company of terrorists, murders, and the immoral, something we don't like. "No, no," our hearts cry out, wanting to stand apart from the rest.

Here's the bottom line: The quality of evil that is in the heart of the worst is incipient in the heart of the best--it is only the extent that differs. The good news is that there is forgiveness for your sin and failure. As David cried out long ago, "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared" (Psalm 130:4, KJV).

As John Alexander put it: "To deny sin is bad news, indeed. The only good news is sin itself. Sin is the best news there is, the best news there could be in our predicament. Because with sin, there's a way out. There's the possibility of repentance. You can't repent of confusion or psychological flaws inflicted by your parents--you're stuck with them. But you can repent of sin. Sin and repentance are the only grounds for hope and joy. The grounds for reconciled, joyful relationships. You can be born again" (Source: John Alexander, The Other Side (Jan-Feb 1993) as quoted by Christianity Today, Feb. 9, 1998, p.78). And that is good news, very good news.

The reality of sin not only explains man's inhumanity to his fellow man but also explains our own personal failures; but it is dwarfed by the magnitude of God's grace, which not only brings forgiveness but restoration, healing, and change. As Paul put it, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).