Two Sins Don't Equal Righteousness

Romas 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Two words in that verse always get my attention. The first word is all. Everybody has sinned. That means Me. I have sinned. I don't like to admit that, but I have sinned and I am a sinner. I praise Jesus that I am a recovering sinner.

The second word is sinned. There are three words in Scripture that mean sin. One is the word that we translate sin and it means to miss the mark. It means that we have missed the stardard that God has sit which is prefection. I have to be perfect to be acceptable to God and I haven't been so I have missed the mark or fallen short of God's glory because He is pefect. The second word is transgressions. I have transgressed or I have step over the line. God set boundaries and I have step over some of those boundaries and I am where I shouldn't be. The boundaries are not to keep me controlled they are for my good, my protection. The third word is iniquity. It means to disobey God and knowing that I am disobeying and not care.

Jesus hates all of these because that separate us from Him. Jesus died on the cross for all three of these. Jesus doesn't want any three of these to be part of our lives. We seem to want to keep them because we keep doing them.

The fact that we keep doing them brings me to the point that two sins will never equal righteousness. We seem to want to rationalize our sin, transgressions, and iniquities. The number one way we try and do that is to say either, well, so and so did it so I can too or well, what so and so did was worst than what I did or so and so did it so I have the right to do it. The problem with that thinking is two fold. One God defines what sin is and what transgressions are and what iniquity is, not us. We can say it wasn't wrong, but if God says it is then it is. Secondly, we don't just sin, we sin aginst God. We don't just trangress, we transgress against God. We don't just commit iniquity we commit iniquity against God. We are offending God with out wrong doing and as the offended party He has the right to decide what the puishment is.

When we use other people's action as an excuse to sin, we offend God. When we say our sin, defined by God as sin, is not sin, we make God a liar. Everyone has an excuse for sin and they are just like arm pits. Everybody has a couple and they stick. When others sin even if it against me I don't have a right to sin and then try to justify it based on what they did against me. Two sins never equal righteousness.

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls means I acknowledge my sin, confess it, and repent of it, that equals righteousness.

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
                            Joe