No One Is Exempt From Sin

NO ONE IS EXEMPT FROM SIN

Of course, many of us think we are exempt from this darkness, that it always belongs somewhere else and never enters into our lives. You often hear it on the news when something bad has happened, like a murder: the TV reporter interviews a resident, who says "Well, I never thought it could happen in our neighborhood." But it did and does. It can be a murder, a terrorist plot, a pedophile ring, somebody on a charge of tax evasion, benefit cheats, drug dealers, child abusers, family adultery, greed, lies, stealing, resentment, pain, suffering, and eventually death--it goes on in all our streets and in all our homes because darkness has entered into our world and into our hearts also.

You and I were born into that darkness. Many people don't believe that. In fact, in a Barna poll, 74% of people interviewed said that people were born neither good nor bad (Forward in Christ, Dec. 2002, p. 28). That illustrates how thick the darkness is. We don't realize how lost and helpless we naturally are, even though God's word plainly says, "Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5 NIV).