Quotes about Sin

The cross witnesses to the infinite worth of God and the infinite outrage of sin.

Always you renounce a lesser good for a greater; the opposite is what sin is. . . . The struggle to submit . . . is not a struggle to submit but a struggle to accept and with passion. I mean, possibly, with joy. Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy—fully armed too as it's a highly dangerous quest. FLANNERY O'CONNOR The Habit of Being

I know of no other way to triumph over sin long-term than by faith to die with Christ to our old seductions, that is, to gain a distaste for them because of a superior satisfaction in God.

We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us. But when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look at the suffering and death of Christ and say, "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

But not only does the pursuit of joy in God give strength to endure; it is the key to breaking the power of sin on our way to heaven.

The reason we need a ransom to be paid for us is that we have sold ourselves into sin and have been alienated from a holy God. When Jesus gave his life as a ransom, our slave masters, sin and death and the Devil, had to give up their claim on us. And the result was that we could be adopted into the family of God.

Nothing shows the direction of the deep winds of the soul like the demand for radical, sin-destroying, Christ-exalting joy in God.

The quickest way to the heart is through a wound.... Concealed sin keeps us from seeing the light of Christ.... Sin is like spiritual leprosy. It deadens your spiritual senses so that you rip your soul to shreds and don't even feel it.

I know of no other way to triumph over sin long-term than to gain a distaste for it because of a superior satisfaction in God." Desiring God, 12.

Conversion, then, involves repentance (turning from sin and unbelief) and faith (trusting in Christ alone for salvation).9 They are really two sides of the same coin. One side is tails—turn tail on the fruits of unbelief. The other side is heads—head straight for Jesus and trust His promises. You can't have the one without the other any more than you can face two ways at once or serve two masters.

Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." Concealed sin keeps us from seeing the light of Christ.

Jesus's solution to our love affair with sin is that we be mastered by joy in a new reality, namely, God.