What is Sin?
Sin is anything that displeases God and transgresses His law. It is not just crimes like murder, rape or robbery. There are sins in DEED, for instance: cheating, losing our temper, stealing and immoral behaviour; and sins in WORD such as lying, gossiping, cursing and swearing; as well as sins in THOUGHT such as lust, pride, bad thoughts and hatred. Sins of COMMISSION are things we do that we should not. As well as these, there are sins of OMISSION, such as failing to love God, to pray to Him and worship Him, as well as failing to love our neighbour as ourselves.
All these sins show that each of us is a sinner by nature and undeserving of eternal life in heaven. Even if I am really good and only commit three sins a day, then in one year that would be 1000 sins! In a lifetime, 70,000 sins. In fact it would be worse than this. What do you think would happen to an habitual offender in a court with 70,000 transgressions on his record?
This means that MAN CANNOT SAVE HIMSELF. YOU CANNOT SAVE YOURSELF. No amount of good works, religious rituals or trying hard will impress God enough to allow you into heaven. You cannot earn your way into heaven.
