By Rony Kozman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University
The Nature of Sin
Isaiah 59:1–13
Sin is not just the deeds that we do. It is not simply an incident that we can isolate. It is not “less than” deeds that violate God’s justice and wisdom. It is more. Sin is a powerful ruler who enslaves and dominates all people.
Sin entered the world through Adam and became the ruler of the world. Death ruled with sin (Rom. 5:12, 17, 21). Sin is a powerful ruler that has enslaved all people and that has subjugated the whole person to its dominion.
All people are separated from God because of sin. (1–5)
Isaiah tells us that the reason Israel was in exile was not because God was too weak or powerless to rescue them; rather, God had hidden His face from Israel because of their sins. Because of their sins, God’s rescue was far off. God had hidden His face.
Why did God hide His face? He expected His people to be full of justice and goodness. Instead, they corrupted justice and they oppressed the lowly of society — the poor and the widows (Isa. 3:14–15; 5:7, 23; 10:1–2).
God did not find in His people the justice He desired (vv. 4, 15). Instead, God looked upon Israel and saw a body of injustice. He saw hands full of violence, fingers of guilt, lips of false witness, and feet that run to sin and to innocent blood (vv. 3, 6–7).
In Romans 3:10–18, Paul gives us a similar portrait of human beings whose throats, tongues, lips, mouths, feet and eyes are full of sin. In verses 15–17 Paul quotes Isaiah 59:7–8: “their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”
Like Isaiah, Paul’s portrait of the human being shows us a person whose whole body is ruled by sin. And this portrait is not only a likeness of Israel, it is a portrait of both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). As Paul tells us, “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin” (Rom. 3:9).
We cannot cover our sin with good works. (6–8)
Isaiah and Paul give us bleak portraits of ourselves. The problem of sin is radical and total. Sin consumes and engulfs us so that we cannot do the good that God requires of us. We know the good that God requires of us and the evil that we ought not do. But sin enslaved us into its service and keeps us from doing what is good and pleasing to God.
We cannot solve this problem ourselves (Rom. 7:14–20). We need God to intervene (7:25). We need a more powerful king to intervene and rescue us from the rule of sin and death, so that we can be the kings that God created us to be (Rom. 5:17; Gen. 1:26–28).
Unless God intervenes, we are without peace, hope and salvation. (9–13)
We are enslaved and ruled by sin. We have served sin as our master rather than the Lord. Because of our sin and our injustice, we cannot expect God’s justice and salvation to be on our side. God’s deliverance is far away from us (vv. 9, 11).
Our problem is not simply the commission of some sins. Isaiah tells us, “our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us” (v. 12). When God returns to make all things right, if He finds us as workers of injustice, oppression and deceit, we will not find God’s deliverance, but His vengeance (vv. 17–18). But to those who turn from their sins, the Lord is the Redeemer (v. 20).
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