By Nick Bibile
God is perfect, holy, and good. So why is there sin in the world? Did sin originate from God? Absolutely not.
Because God’s character is infinitely holy and righteous, sin cannot come from Him. Scripture declares:
“He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).
“So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong” (Job 34:10).
James 1:13 also makes it clear that God is never the author of evil.
God created man in His own image. Adam was created perfect, righteous, and holy, living in fellowship with God. Yet God did not create Adam and Eve as robots. He gave them a real will—the ability to obey Him or disobey Him.
In Genesis 2:17, God commanded Adam:
“But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
But Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit. At that moment, the image of God in man was corrupted, fellowship with God was broken, and sin entered the human race. Man became unrighteous and unholy. Their first son, Cain, became a murderer—evidence of sin’s destructive power.
Sin created a great separation between God and man, a gap man is completely unable to bridge by himself.
Inherited sin is often called original sin.
He lost fellowship with God
He lost intimacy and communion with God
He lost the ability to stand righteous before God
The process of death began immediately. His body became subject to decay, aging, sickness, and eventually physical death. Sin corrupted the whole of human nature.
Romans 5:12 says:
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
When Adam sinned, humanity sinned in him because all mankind was represented in Adam.
If your great-grandfather had died at the age of seven, you would not be here today—you were in him by natural descent. In the same way, we were in Adam. When Adam fell, we fell.
Many think a sinner is simply someone who commits sinful acts. But Scripture teaches something deeper: we commit sins because we are already sinners by nature.
We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.
David confessed:
“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).
A child does not need to be taught how to sin. No one teaches a toddler to lie, to be selfish, or to rebel. Sin is natural because the sinful nature is inherited.
“Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!” (Job 14:4)
Because all humanity was in Adam, all humanity is affected by Adam’s fall.
Scripture repeatedly teaches this:
“Many died through one man’s trespass” (Romans 5:15)
“Death reigned through that one man” (Romans 5:17)
“One trespass led to condemnation for all men” (Romans 5:18)
“By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19)
“In Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22)
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
There are no “good sinners” and “bad sinners” before God. All stand guilty alike.
Everyone descended from Adam is born in the same fallen condition.
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
Also see Colossians 2:13.
This spiritual death results in what theology calls total depravity.
This does not mean man is as wicked as he could possibly be, but that every part of man—mind, heart, will, soul, and body—has been corrupted by sin.
God is infinitely holy, pure, and righteous.
Man is spiritually dead.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).
“Your iniquities have separated you from your God” (Isaiah 59:2).
“For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you” (Psalm 5:4).
God’s perfect standard is revealed in His Law, especially in the Ten Commandments. Yet Scripture says:
“There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10).
People often compare themselves with others and think they are righteous. But God sees deeper—He sees the heart, motives, and thoughts.
Jesus said that even looking at a woman lustfully is adultery in the heart.
How many lies make a liar? Just one.
We have broken God’s law and stand guilty before Him.
“There is no one who understands” (Romans 3:11).
A highly educated man may reject the gospel and think it foolish. Why? Because intellectual life is not spiritual life.
“The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him… because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
“There is no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:11).
Fallen man does not naturally seek the true and holy God. Like Adam and Eve after the fall, he runs from God and hides.
Many claim to seek God, but often they seek a god of their own imagination—a god who tolerates sin, compromises holiness, and fits human desires. That is not the God of the Bible.
“…There is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12).
From a human perspective, this sounds shocking. We see many people doing acts of kindness and generosity.
But Jesus said, “Only God is good.”
God judges not only actions, but motives.
Many good works are done for self-glory, reputation, pride, or selfish gain. Only God sees the hidden heart.
“All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).
“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8).
Horizontally, we compare people—good and bad, moral and immoral.
But vertically, before the holiness of God, all stand guilty.
“Who can say, ‘I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin’?” (Proverbs 20:9)
This is total depravity.
At first glance, Adam’s sin may seem small—simply eating forbidden fruit.
But sin is measured not merely by the act, but by the One against whom it is committed.
Jonathan Edwards said:
“The crime of one being despising and casting contempt on another is proportionately more or less heinous, as he was under greater or less obligation to honor him.”
To sin against another human is serious.
To sin against the infinitely holy God of the universe is infinitely serious.
God is infinitely worthy of obedience.
Adam and Eve’s sin was rebellion against infinite majesty, authority, and righteousness.
“If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?” (1 Samuel 2:25)
We have sinned against infinite holiness and therefore deserve just punishment.
“The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished” (Nahum 1:3)
God is love—but God is also perfectly just.
A judge who releases criminals without justice is not a good judge.
God is the Judge of all the earth. His righteousness does not allow Him to ignore sin.
This is why Christ had to bear criminal punishment.
If you borrow my car and destroy it, you are morally obligated to make restitution.
In the same way, God gave man His Law. Man was obligated to obey.
When man sinned, he violated that obligation. The offended party was God.
Man became morally indebted to God.
Because God is infinite, our debt is beyond what we can pay.
We owe a debt we cannot satisfy.
Jesus came to pay that debt—not with silver or gold, but with His precious blood.
“You were redeemed… not with perishable things such as silver or gold… but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18–19).
The Father was satisfied by the payment of the Son.
Sin also destroys relationship.
When people lie, gossip, or betray one another, fellowship is broken.
Likewise, when man sinned against God, peace with God was shattered.
“The sinful mind is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7)
Reconciliation was necessary.
Reconciliation restores a broken relationship.
Man once had peace with God in Eden. Sin destroyed that peace.
But through Christ:
“We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:11)