For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

The bow and arrow was an ancient weapon of war. When an arrow would miss its target, the words chata in Hebrew or hamartia in Greek were used. These textual renderings of “missing the mark” are used to describe sin as it relates to the person who has missed the mark God has established. All people have missed the mark of God’s standard and continue to fall short of that standard (Romans 3:23).

Falling short involves rebelling against God. Rebellious sin is compared to “the deadly poison of cobras” (Deuteronomy 32:33) and the contamination of the body and spirit (2 Corinthians 7:1). Because we are born with this defilement, we cannot cure it ourselves any more so than can the “Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots” (Jeremiah 12:23). If gone unchecked and unrepented, sin will finally send the unsaved soul to Hell, “for the wages of sin is death.”

Being rescued from the slavery of sin (John 8:34) involves being enslaved by righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. This surrender means you are no longer under the rule of sin, but are now under the rule of righteousness. Unless you take up the shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16), His arrows will never miss the mark, for they are to be considered “instruments of death.”

“All sin begins with sinful thinking” – Billy Graham