This is referred to in the New Testament where it says, “who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). People often say we are sinners because we commit sins, but the Bible concludes that we commit sins because we are sinners.
What then is sin? What kind of a sinner are you? What sins do you have, and with what are they to be covered? When people think of sin, they tend to think, “That’s right, I did steal something once,” or, “I did hate someone once and I hit him.” Yet, the Bible tells us man is an absolute sinner from head to toe. The Bible also tells of a judgment of each of us individually, a judgment from which we cannot escape.
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. Isaiah 59:1-2
Some people read these words and think, “I’m a sinner, so God won’t listen to me no matter how much I pray.” Yet, God definitely hears the cries arising from the hearts of people who are searching for the life promised in the Bible. This passage is pointing out that God does not listen to the prayers of a person who asks God for whole lists of things without ever having resolved the problem of his sins before God.
It also says here that there is sin between man and God. If there were a pane of blue glass between two people, when they looked at each other, the face of the person they were looking at would appear blue. Similarly, the sins you have committed are there between you and God, so these sins that are not resolved before God block your view as you look to Him. This passage tells us about this relationship between the individual and God.
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. Isaiah 59:3
Is there anyone who has never committed a sin with his or her hands? Is there anyone who has never told a lie? If you were to say, “I have never told a lie,” that in itself would be a lie.
No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out. Isaiah 59:4-5
This passage is talking about the innate sinful nature that wells up inside us from deep down in our hearts. This is a power from which we cannot escape. It says here that if you brood a viper’s egg, when it hatches a viper will come from within. When we harbor evil thoughts or hatred towards someone deep down in our hearts, it will be expressed in our actions.
Their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways; they have made themselves crooked paths; whoever takes that way shall not know peace. Isaiah 59:6-8
None of the things that come from within us, not even what we consider to be righteous, can ever be able to cover us effectively. We saw this through Adam.
All the sins you commit with your hands, and all the lies that come from your lips, indeed every sin, begins in your mind. You cannot say, “I am a sinner only to the extent of the sins I have committed.” Beginning with the thoughts that come from your mind, you are a sinner through and through, from the top of your head to the tip of your toes.
We are all complete captives of sin, inside and out. Do you think there is any part of your flesh or the thoughts within you that is worthy to be offered up before God? Do we have anything like that? The Bible says that people who think they are worthy in any way before God are blind.
Therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us; we look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, but we walk in blackness! We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as at twilight; we are as dead men in desolate places. Isaiah 59:9-10
In this chapter from Isaiah, the plural form of “you” is used from the beginning. God is telling us this is how we appear from His perspective. From verse 9, “us” and “we” are used. When “we” as individuals hear the word of God, we grope around like the blind. Here, God is not only speaking to us directly; this passage is also showing us that when we hear these words from God, this is the only way in which we can respond.
God condemns our hands, our fingers, our lips, our tongues, our feet, and our thoughts, leaving us no choice but to confess that we are sinners lost in darkness. When a certain blind man went before Jesus, He spat on the man’s eyes. Jesus then asked him if he saw anything, and the blind man replied, “I see men like trees, walking” (see Mark 8:22-24). Passages like this from the Bible present us with an image of ourselves so that we can see the kind of sinners we are.
They Have not Submitted to the Righteousness of God
The Bible says you are a sinner from head to toe, but how are you to deal with this situation? How can you cover the sins that pour out from your heart?
You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be case into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut if off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Matthew 5:27-30
Jesus said that if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, and if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Yet, God said in the Old Testament that we are all sinners from head to toe. In that case, will your sins disappear, if you were to cut off your arms and legs, and pluck out your eyes? Even if you were to cut off all your limbs, the nature of sin would continue to cascade like a fountain from your heart. What can we do about that?
This is why the Bible tells us we need the righteousness of God not the righteousness of the law. Nothing within man’s power can solve the matter of the sinful nature you have inherited, not even if you cut off all your limbs. God knew He needed to cover man with something in order to provide forgiveness for man’s sin.
Let’s turn to Romans chapter 10 and read from verse 1.
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. verses 10:1-3
When Jesus spoke with the Jews while He was in this world, His words were like a knife that pierced their consciences. They spoke about Him in undertones, and when they asked Him, “Are you greater than our father Abraham?”, He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (see John 8:53,58). Also
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