We are not thinking about individuals we might find it difficult to understand or get on with!

· people can be so good or so bad; think of examples
· people can be such a mixture; capable of great good and great evil
· people can be so changeable
· we feel we can’t even understand ourselves
· we find we can’t live up to what we know to be right

"For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil that I will not to do, that I practice. (Romans 7:19)

Evil is present with me: "I find then a law, that evil is present with me" (Romans 7:21). Evil, or sin, is within us all; it is a factor which influences all of us in what we do: "But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." (Romans 7:17, 20, 23.)

This shows us what ‘sin’ is. Sin is a power for evil within us all.

We have sin within us from birth: "I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." (Psalm 51:5).

This affects the whole of our lives:

1. Our inner life: thoughts, desires, motives, attitudes, imagination, ambitions, reactions
2. Our outward behaviour: words and actions

1. It makes a person want to please self
2. It turns a person away from God

1. At the beginning the first people were made in the image of God: Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness… so God created man in his own image…’ (Genesis 1:26,27). What does this mean?
   • We have already seen the goodness of God; the reason why people often do good deeds arises from the fact that we are made in God’s image.
   • Many other things that are true of people as made in God’s image; we have minds, we can think and plan; we can be creative; we can enter into relationships and communicate with each other.
   • A great difference arose when Adam and Eve disobeyed God; they did not lose the image of God (James 3:9 says, "with [the tongue] we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God"), but it has been greatly defaced. We all fall short of reflecting the goodness and holiness of God: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23).
2. Look at Genesis 5:1,3: "In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. And Adam… begot a son in his own likeness, after his image…" In verse 1 we are reminded that Adam was made in the likeness of God; in verse 3 Adam’s son Seth is made ‘after his [father’s] image’. Adam is now someone who has lost his original innocence, he is a sinful person subject to death. His son is born after his image, and so are we all.

What does all this mean for us?

We are unable to help ourselves or change ourselves. If it was simply a matter of resisting temptation from outside us, this might be possible, but we cannot change ourselves because evil is a power within us. The person who tries to do the changing is the person who needs to be changed! Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin’ (John 8:34).

"And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:1).

We are responsible to God for our sin and the behaviour that flows from it. But if we are born sinful and can’t help ourselves, how can we be responsible?

1. We know that evil is wrong and that right is good. We all have consciences, we can all see the consequences that sinful behaviour leads to - consider some examples. We are self-conscious and can consider our lives.
2. We can turn to God and ask for his help. If we stop to think about our situation we shall see that this is the only sensible thing to do. Yet most people don’t do it; so we are responsible for our continuing condition.

We are all exposed to judgment for our sins, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." (Romans 1:18). God is just and is the judge of all people: "[God] will render to each one according to his deeds." (Romans 2:6). Look at Hebrews 9:27: "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment." What can we expect if we are judged with strict impartiality?

1. We are obviously completely unfit to go to heaven where God is at home: "These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." (2 Thessalonians 1:9). "But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life." (Revelation 21:27).
2. We are bound to receive the exact punishment that we deserve: "And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." (Luke 12:47,48).