Sin is any failure to measure up to what God requires or any disobedience to God’s commands. God is our Creator and our sin ruptures the relationship because God is good and holy. That is why Adam and Eve try to hide from God and twist what he had commanded them; and it is why they have to leave the Garden. Yet God is so gracious that when he drives them out they are not left without hope (Genesis 3:15). As sinners we try and get right with God by who we are or what we do, and even develop religions that teach this way. But trying to buy God’s favour or earn salvation by being or doing good doesn’t meet God’s holy requirements. We have to look to God’s promise and God’s provision of the Satan-crusher.
Rowland Ward born in Melbourne, Australia in 1945, is a lecturer in Church History and Research Lecturer at Presbyterian Theological College, Melbourne, and minister of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia. One of his favorite movies is the Sharp series set during the Napoleonic wars, he has a Shetland Sheep dog named Bonnie, his favorite smell is not coffee but fresh bread from the oven, his first job after leaving school, and before Seminary in the 1970s in Scotland, was a general insurance officer in Melbourne, and when not engaged in Spiritual disciplines he enjoys family history research.
