One thing that should concern us about modern life, is how sin is constantly called sickness. A man commits some moral outrage and they say he is sick β they even tell him that.
I went to see a man some time ago who had fallen into unspeakable immorality and it had caught up with him. For years his sanctimonious life had been a sham; now the mask was torn off and he was in trouble β deep trouble.
I had been telling him that now his best course was to make a clean confession β to the courts and to God. But someone else had gotten to him first. While he stood by, listening, this man had told his wife: βYou must get Jim to see that heβs sick and needs help. Iβm not condoning what he has done, but Iβm hopeful that if he gets the proper help he can be cured.β
What a way to evade the sin question! Of course the man was sick β I imagine you and I would be sick too if we lived as he had been living! But letβs get this straight: His sick-ness came from his sin, not his sin from some sickness. He would have been far better off to sob out his heart in contrition before God for his sin than to excuse his conduct on the grounds of illness. Rom. 5:12 says: βBy one man sin entered into the world and death by sin,β and Rom. 6:23 says: βThe wages of sin is death.β
The sobering fact is that while there may be differences in the kinds of sins we commit, or in the degrees of our sin, Rom.Β 3:23Β declares that there is no difference in this, that βall have sinned and come short of the glory of God.β
This is why we are so pleased and proud to proclaim βthe gospel of the grace of God,β how Christ paid the penalty for our sins that we might have a perfect standing before a holy God, βbeing justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesusβ (Rom.Β 3:24). βThanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!β (II Cor.Β 9:15). source
