Guilty as Sin

LORD, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.

– Ezra 9:15

It takes just a single word — positive or negative — to paint a vivid picture of someone. For example, we might link words like genius or visionary to Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs, or leader to George Washington and Martin Luther King. Likewise, we might label Ted Bundy or Hitler as murderer.

How about you?

Would you label yourself as generous, energetic, successful … or maybe humble? Or what about lonely, abused or divorced? How about addicted?

Ask that question to 20 different people, and you’ll probably get 20 different answers. But the apostle Paul tells us through the book of Romans that there’s one word that fits everyone: GUILTY.

He explains that everyone (that’s you and me) has in one way or another broken God’s perfect Law. That’s because we’ve all lied, cheated, stole and killed — either literally or figuratively. We’re all guilty as sin. And according to God’s Law, the death penalty is the just response to our wrongdoings. 

Scripture affirms this. It’s in Romans 6:23 that we read the wages of sin is death.

But here’s the good news: This same Bible passage adds that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Paul writes that God paid the penalty we all deserve through the death of his own son (Jesus) on the cross. So as far as our Creator is concerned, we’re considered RIGHTEOUS, or right in the eyes of God, and are now free to live out our lives and follow his ways. 

Have you put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If so, he’s cancelled your debt. And as far as he’s concerned, your label is now innocent. Paul sums it up this way in 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.