But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Galatians 3:22
So does the Bible talk about sin so much to fill us with a sense of guilt? Is God just trying to bash us into depression? In other words, is it a bad thing that scripture has so much to say about the bad things humans do… things that displease a holy God? Not really. It is a good thing. But there needs to be some explanation, which Paul masterfully teaches in Galatians three, despite faithless attempts to paint Paul as some sort of warped, puritanical killjoy. You see, when the Bible shows us sin, it is NOT to make us holier-than-thou or judgmental of others. Self-righteousness is one of the worst symptoms of faulty biblical interpretation. Sadly, many get it wrong and so those outside of Christianity and some within it suffer with the delusion that Christians are always prudish, unyielding, and finger-pointing hypocrites. We are not to become self-righteous when reading what the Bible says about human evil.
But it is also a horrendous hermeneutic to internalize guilt over sin and fill my self with self-loathing when God confronts sin as we read the scripture. That self-loathing is just another type of judgmentalism and legalism that twists the gospel and corrupts the truth. God never meant for us to beat ourselves up over our sin. It would change nothing, Yes, I should feel guilt, but I also have hope in God. He had to change it all, but His grace!
Paul insists here that Scripture makes strong, declarative pronouncements against our sin, not because God is a stern judge wanting to throw the book at us, but instead, it highlights the beauty of the sweet offer of forgiveness He brought us in our Savior. We have to have bad news (we are powerless and locked-up in our sin) before we can embrace the good news (there is deliverance from the penalty of sin, the pervasiveness of sin, and the power of sin in Jesus! In eternity He removes us from the presence of sin forever).
And that really is a good thing. The way the Bible shows the enormity of my offense against God magnifies the greater glory of the amazing grace that lasts forever in my great eternal salvation brought about by the atoning death of Christ and the declarative, authoritative, delivering resurrection of Jesus from the dead! The promise is now given to those who believe: Sin is forgiven! We are no longer imprisoned because Jesus is the Risen Savior! Amen!
