Theology for Everybody: RomansSample

(Continued from Day 113)

Original sin explains:

1. My personal problem under my problems. We tend to blame anyone and anything, everyone and everything. But the real issue is always the same—the sin problem. You have pains, problems, and perils in your life because you are a fallen sinner in a broken world.

2. Struggles with my family. Since every family is part of Adam's sinful and broken human family, this explains why families are the source of so much frustration.

3. The first priority of parenting. Because children are born with a sinful nature, the first priority of parenting is to introduce them to Jesus so they can get a new nature from the Holy Spirit. The internal change in nature leads to external changes in behavior.

4. Why systems and institutions always fail. Since a broken sinner builds every system, every system is broken and eventually fails. And even if we had a perfect system, it would be run by a sinner who is flawed and would eventually ruin it.

5. Why history is not evolving. Since we are bad and getting worse, it makes sense that we do not have moral progress despite all our advancements in such things as technology and innovation. In fact, we seem to use our breakthroughs to drop more bombs, make more pornography, and criticize more people than at any other time in human history.

6. How gospel ministry is our only hope. If every human being is part of the problem, then we need someone not from this world to come into it and rescue us. His name is Jesus, and He makes it possible for us to be born again into a new family with a new destiny for all eternity.

Acknowledging original sin sends us down the path of understanding, where we discover Jesus, who is the solution to all our problems.

Today’s Reflection

How does original sin make sense of our lives and the world more than secular theories of human nature and progress?