Question 3: How does sin affect you?

Sin alienates me from God, my neighbor, God’s good creation, and myself. Apart from Christ, I am hopeless, guilty, lost, helpless, and walking in the way of death. (Genesis 3:14-19; Psalm 38; Isaiah 53:6, 59:1-2; Romans 6:20-23)

NOTE: All scriptural references taken from the English Standard Version (ESV) 

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Genesis 3:14-19

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Psalm 38 

38 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath!

2 For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.

3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.

4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

5 My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness,

6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning.

7 For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.

8 I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

9 O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.

10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me,and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.

11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.

12 Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long.

13 But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth.

14 I have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes.

15 But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

16 For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!”

17 For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me.

18 I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.

19 But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully.

20 Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good.

21 Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me!

22 Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!

Isaiah 53:6

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 59:1-2

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 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.

Romans 6:20-23

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.