Understanding Sin: Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Biblical Perspective
Sin. A small word with profound implications for humanity. In today's culture, the concept of sin is often dismissed, redefined, or ignored entirely. Yet the Bible speaks with unmistakable clarity about the reality and consequences of sin in human life.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the 20th century's most influential preachers, devoted significant attention to explaining the biblical doctrine of sin. His careful exposition helps us understand not only what sin is, but why recognizing it is essential for experiencing the fullness of God's grace.
What Is Sin?
Before we can appreciate the remedy for sin, we must understand what sin actually is. Dr. Lloyd-Jones defines sin as being in opposition to God's righteousness. He explains:
"To be righteous means to be upright in heart and in life. It's a very important term. To be upright means that you are blameless with respect to God. And with respect to your fellow men. To be righteous doesn't just mean to be good. It doesn't just mean to be moral. It doesn't just mean to be respectable. Righteous, as the term is used in the scripture, means, I say, that you are blameless as regards God and as regards your fellow men."
Sin, then, is the absence of this righteousness. It is a state of being, not merely isolated actions. Dr. Lloyd-Jones emphasizes this point when teaching from Romans 3:
"Here is a tremendously important term. First of all, you notice that it is indicative of a state or a condition. And that is the way in which the Bible looks at us and looks at men as the result of the fall. According to the Bible, every human being is in one of two positions. We are either under sin or else we are under grace. That's the only division which is recognized in the Bible."
The Universal Condition of Humanity
One of the most confronting aspects of the biblical teaching on sin is its universal scope. No one is exempt. Dr. Lloyd-Jones points to Romans 3:10-12 as the definitive passage that establishes this truth:
"There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one."
He emphasizes the repetition in this passage:
"What a good preacher this man was. The test of a good preacher is repetition. A preacher who doesn't repeat himself is a very poor preacher. He doesn't know his congregation very well. There it is for you, the first time. 'There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one'. Have you got it now? The universality of sin."
This understanding challenges the common notion that people are fundamentally good or that some are "good enough" to earn God's favor. According to Scripture, and as Lloyd-Jones consistently taught, sin has affected every human being without exception.
The Power of Sin
Sin is not merely a theological concept but a destructive force in human experience. Dr. Lloyd-Jones describes how sin warps our thinking and corrupts our desires:
"What is it that makes mankind, in its need of pain, refuse and reject such an offer? Well, the whole case of the Bible is just to say this. It is due to what the Bible calls sin, nothing less than that. What is sin? Well, there are many today who'd say that sin…does affect us, but it's nothing very serious and nothing very profound. There are those who even say that sin is some kind of negation, not something positive, just the absence of qualities. But all that's not the teaching here, and it's not what mankind is showing and manifesting. Sin is a terrible power. It's a mighty power. It's so powerful that it affects the whole of our being and vitiates our greatest powers."
This power of sin manifests in our natural hostility toward God. Lloyd-Jones explains:
"The apostle Paul says that this is true of all natural men. 'The natural men receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. The carnal men receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them'. And again in Romans 8:7, he says, 'the carnal mind is enmity against God' He doesn't merely say that they don't believe in God. It is enmity against God, [it] is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be."
Conviction of Sin: The First Step Toward Salvation
Before one can experience God's grace, there must be a recognition of sin. Dr. Lloyd-Jones calls this "conviction of sin" and argues it is the essential starting point of genuine Christianity. Speaking about the woman at the well in John 4, he notes:
"If I were asked to say what, in my opinion, is most lacking in the life of the christian church at the present time, without any hesitation, I should answer that it is just this. This is the thing that is most lacking, conviction of sin, a sense of our unworthiness and a sense of the glory of God. We are too healthy, we are too satisfied, we are too pleased with ourselves, we are not sufficiently humbled. And therefore, if we are to know individual revival or general revival, we've got to start with this."
This conviction of sin distinguishes true Christianity from both religious systems and psychological approaches:
"The great difference in the last analysis between the cults and the christian faith and the christian teaching and the christian life is just this very thing. Has that ever occurred to you?...There is one thing a cult never does. It never produces in anybody a sense of guilt."
He continues:
"If the Christian message has never made you feel worse than you were before you first heard it, you've never really heard it. If it's never made you feel hopeless, you don't know it. This is the very essence of the Christian religion, Christian faith."
The Remedy for Sin
The recognition of sin leads not to despair but to the only true remedy—the saving work of Jesus Christ. Lloyd-Jones consistently pointed to Christ as the exclusive answer to humanity's sin problem:
"God's way of salvation is perfectly plain and perfectly clear. It is in Christ Jesus and in him alone. It's absolutely exclusive... 'Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved.' This is the Christian message. This is God's way of salvation. It is all in this one person and in him exclusively."
The remedy comes through Christ's death on the cross:
"It even narrows that down by telling us that he saves, specifically by dying for us on the cross…And this is, of all points, the point at which the modern man not only displays his resentment against this gospel, but his hatred of it. The blood of Christ. The blood of Christ. And yet this is the message that the Son of God came into this world to save us, and that the only way whereby he could save us was by dying in our stead, who his own self took our sins in his own body on the tree."
Living in Victory Over Sin
For the Christian, sin remains a struggle, but there is now a path to victory. Dr. Lloyd-Jones addresses how believers should approach the ongoing battle with sin:
"The Christian is a man who is born again... You can't be a Christian without being born again. Nothing makes a man a Christian except he be born again. No decision of his makes him a Christian. It is the operation of the Holy Spirit that makes Christians. There is no such thing as being a Christian without being regenerate - born of the Spirit."
Yet, he acknowledges the ongoing struggle:
"The old man is already dead in every Christian. The old man has been finished with. He's gone knowing this, says Paul in Romans 6:6, that our old man was crucified with Christ. Now that's the man that we all were by nature in Adam, that's gone, that's finished. The old man is dead and has gone. But that does not mean that the old nature has therefore gone, for it hasn't. We are still in the body, and the old nature remains in the body."
Lloyd-Jones rejects both legalism and passivity as solutions to this struggle. Instead, he advocates for active cooperation with the Holy Spirit:
"If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live... You don't do it all. You're not passive. What is it? Well, both are involved together. You act in the power of the spirit, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God that worketh in you. That's the scriptural method."
Conclusion: The Path Forward
Understanding sin is not merely an academic exercise—it's the doorway to experiencing God's grace. Dr. Lloyd-Jones consistently emphasized that we must first see ourselves as we truly are before we can appreciate the remedy God has provided in Christ.
The Bible doesn't minimize sin to make us feel better about ourselves. Rather, it exposes sin in all its seriousness so that we might understand the magnitude of God's love and the power of Christ's saving work.
As Lloyd-Jones reminds us:
"May God have mercy upon all who have not submitted to him as their only savior and redeemer, their all sufficient savior and redeemer. May God the Spirit open eyes, that we may see him in all the plenitude and the fullness of his divine saviorhood, that we may fall at his feet and say, thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all, in thee I find thou art enough."
For those seeking a deeper understanding of the biblical teaching on sin and its remedy, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' sermons provide profound insight. His clear exposition helps us see not only the seriousness of our condition but the glorious hope found in Christ.
Explore Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Sermons on Sin
Dr. Lloyd-Jones preached extensively on the topic of sin, offering biblical perspective that remains relevant today. Whether you're wrestling with questions about what constitutes sin, the unforgivable sin, or how to find forgiveness, his sermons provide clear, scriptural guidance.