Why Good Deeds Cannot Save Us: The Real Problem of Sin

I promised that in my next post I would be addressing the problem of sin, but before diving in, I wanted to begin with a thought that formed during a walk yesterday with my husband and our dog “Poppy” through the wooded area of our local park. As we wandered beneath the trees, I spent the time reflecting on how best to approach this post. The woods were peaceful — quiet and still beneath the light rain, aside from our springer spaniel’s sudden bursts through the undergrowth. Yet even then, we felt a deeper silence inviting us to linger in prayer and listen for God’s response.

Before our walk, we had watched a video from Joe at Off the Kirb Ministries: When God Tests You: You’ll Notice These Signs. Given the devastating flood in Nepal — where my sister in law and her family live — the message felt especially timely. I had already planned to write about the problem of sin after my last post, but as I write this, I ask anyone reading to pray for those who lost their lives, that in their final moments they may have found Christ. To also pray for those who survived, that they may find comfort, strength and hope in the days ahead. If you are going through a season of difficulty, then please do watch Joe’s video.

As we walked through the woods, signs of death were everywhere: snapped branches, yellowing leaves scattered across the path and grass dried to almost nothing after the recent heatwave. It made me think of our previous walks — coming across a baby fox lying still by a tree, and on another day, Poppy grabbing the bone of a dead animal, leaving me to run after her until she let go. It was a disturbing moment, yet one that has quietly guided the heart of this post.

Later that day, after our walk, I watched another Christian content creator Whaddo You Meme??, responding to an atheist Physicist, Brian Greene being interviewed by Stephen Bartlett on Diary of a CEO. Brian claimed that God, morality and even love are nothing more than human constructs — mere electrical impulses. It was an interesting watch, especially because he openly admitted that his worldview was inconsistent with how he lived his life, particularly in his commitment to veganism. If you want the full context behind what I’m about to discuss, I would really encourage you to watch the video: No 1 Physicist Tells Millions this LIE About God.

It made me think about my journey to becoming a follower of Christ and how it changed the way I see the world. I’ve said many times that atheism seems completely foolish — not merely impractical, but empty of any moral grounding. If atheism is lived out to its logical conclusion, everything becomes a matter of preference: one person’s preference against another, and ultimately whoever is strongest wins. What I find even more striking is that many who reject the idea of God are often the loudest voices in social justice movements, passionately defending animals or the environment, even though their worldview provides no foundation for caring about either.

In contrast, Christians — and those faiths that recognise an objective moral arbiter outside of humanity — believe that right and wrong are defined by Someone beyond us. This gives a foundation for morality that does not shift with human desire or cultural change.

When I became a Christian, one of my early struggles was learning how to live in the world without being shaped by it. As God changed my heart, He changed my perspective. I began to “see” sin — or at least its consequences — everywhere around me, especially in pop culture: the films I used to watch, the music I used to listen to. I began to recognise echoes of the original sin woven through them. So let me explain from Scripture the concept of the fall and original sin as I understand it, with the hope it will help you understand it too. For this, we need to go back to the beginning.

The Original Design

In Genesis 1:27–31, we are told that God created humanity in His own image — male and female — and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, giving them dominion over every living creature. By dominion, Scripture does not mean harsh subjugation, but stewardship. God’s original design included plants for food, not only for humans but for all animals. And the Lord declared this creation to be “very good.”

From this we see the original design: even the animals were vegetarian — including even the dinosaurs — because this was before the fall.

This brings us back to Brian, the atheist. He recognised that his desire to be vegetarian was inconsistent with his worldview, yet when asked why, he simply said, “Because it just doesn’t feel right to me.” As Christians, the reason is clear. When we read the creation narrative, we see that this instinct reflects something deeper — a memory of God’s original design, etched into the human heart.

This inner moral awareness — even in those who deny God — leads us back to the first moral command ever given, the moment when God Himself set the standard.

The Command and the Fall

God sets a clear boundary for Adam — one restriction among many freedoms — and explains the consequence. Out of all the trees in the garden, only one was withheld:

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” — Genesis 2:16–17 (ESV)

Then, through the lens of Genesis 3:1–7, we see the crafty serpent purposefully approach Eve rather than Adam — the one who had received the command first hand from God:

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?”

From the very beginning, the serpent’s intent was to plant suspicion. He deliberately targeted Eve, who had received the command second hand from Adam, making her more vulnerable to deception. When Eve responds, he counters with a direct contradiction of God’s word:

“You will not surely die… you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

And there was the deception — subtle, yet devastating — the original temptation that led to the original sin: “We do not need God.”

By disobeying God, Adam and Eve cut themselves off from the source of life allowing death to enter the world. This single moment turns the whole biblical story, drawing us into God’s response — the consequences of the fall.

The Consequences

In Genesis 3:11–19, God confronts Adam:

“Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent. God pronounces judgement, beginning with the serpent:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” — Genesis 3:15 (ESV)

To Adam, God says:

“Cursed is the ground because of you.”

Adam ultimately bore responsibility as Eve’s representative. So before we say it’s unfair that we share in the consequences of their sin, remember this: neither of them had ever experienced death, so they could not grasp the weight of disobedience. If you or I had been the first humans, we would have done the same — we learn through experience, and we cannot truly fathom consequences we have never encountered.

And so, sin and death entered the world. As generations grew, sin multiplied and humanity drifted further from God.

But God, in His infinite wisdom, already had a plan to save us. Genesis 3:15 is the first glimpse of that plan — the promise of the One who would ultimately defeat the serpent. The entire Bible traces the fulfilment of that promise, the undoing of what Adam’s disobedience set in motion.

The Fear of Death

Returning to Brian’s claim that humans invented God because we fear death: what if the answer is simpler?

Rather than wishful thinking, what if it is actually the recognition of reality — a reality distorted by sin. Death was never part of the original design. It entered the world only when sin separated us from the God who is the source of all life. It’s why we feel that something is wrong. It’s why people choose veganism. It’s why we grieve death. Because God did not create the world with death in it — these instincts are echoes of what was lost.

So you could say that the fear of death was instituted by God, not the other way around. Without God, death would simply mean non existence. But Scripture reveals that death is the consequence of sin — not part of the original design — and therefore something rightly feared. The good news, however, is that Christ is the answer to it.

For God so loved the world that He entered creation as Jesus Christ, taking upon Himself the punishment for our transgressions so that we might be reunited with Him and receive eternal life — restoring what was intended from the beginning.

And from the very beginning, Scripture shows us how God began to reveal this rescue — a pattern that starts in Eden itself.

Why Blood Atonement?

After the fall, Adam and Eve realised their nakedness and tried to cover themselves with leaves. But God Himself shed the first blood to clothe them — to cover their shame. This became the foundation of Israel’s sacrificial system, pointing forward to the Messiah whom Isaiah foretold:

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” — Isaiah 53:5

As Christians, we are not under the law, because Christ — the ultimate sacrifice — secured eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12).

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” — Romans 5:19 (ESV)

A Closing Thought for Muslims Seeking Truth

As I continued to study Islam, I realised something that I could no longer ignore.

Islam teaches that humankind is born morally capable and can attain righteousness through obedience. A person’s good deeds must outweigh their bad in order to enter heaven — though even then, there is no assurance, for entrance ultimately depends on Allah’s will. On the surface this may seem harmless, but the underlying message is clear:

“You can earn your salvation through your own good works — you can save yourself.”

This is the same spiritual pattern we see in Eden: the serpent’s lie that humanity can stand on its own, shape its own destiny and reach righteousness apart from God. It is the ancient promise of self‑achievement, repackaged. Yet this view struggles to explain the world we actually experience — the deep sense that something is not quite right, the love we have for our families, and the instinct to sacrifice ourselves for others. These things point beyond self‑effort to a relational God whose love is eternal and personal.

In Islam, Allah is understood to be one in every possible sense — a solitary unity with no plurality of persons. But if God is eternally alone, then He cannot be eternally loving in the way Yahweh is. Love requires relationship. The God of the Bible has always existed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit — an eternal communion of love. I have gone into more detail in an earlier post Understanding the Trinity and Why it matters explaining in more detail why Christians can say that love is not merely something God does; it is who He is.

Interestingly, Muslims do believe strongly in predestination, though not in the same way Christians do. According to the Quran, Allah is the one who decrees both good and bad that befall a person. For example, Surah An Nisa 4:78 says:

“All is from Allah.”

Classical Islamic theology understands this to mean that everything — including human actions, whether good or evil — ultimately comes from Allah’s decree. This theme appears again in Islam’s teaching about Jesus. Surah 4:157–158 states that Jesus was not crucified; instead, Allah made it appear as though He was, raising Him up to Himself. In other words, Allah allowed a false perception — a form of divine deception — which aligns with the Quranic language describing Allah as the one who “schemes” or “outwits” (makr).

This stands in sharp contrast to the God of the Bible, who cannot lie, cannot deceive and whose nature is perfect truth. Scripture teaches that Satan tempts and while God may permit temptation for His purposes, He never tempts anyone to do evil:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” —James 1:13–15 (ESV)

If you haven’t done so already, please also visit my prior post on the sovereignty of God, in which I attempt to explain the biblical concept of predestination: A Call to Spiritual Discernment and understanding God’s sovereignty, as this difference truly matters. Research among hundreds of former Muslims — recorded in The Dark Side of Islam by Abdul Saleeb and R.C. Sproul (Crossway, 2003) — found that the greatest factor drawing them to Christ was the Christian assurance of salvation through relationship with God. It stands in stark contrast to the uncertainty built into any worldview (not only Islam) where righteousness depends on human effort — always fragile, always shifting and never guaranteed.

The world around us reminds us daily that something is not as it should be. And this is precisely why the Christian explanation of sin, death and redemption fits the world we actually live in — a world where love is real, sacrifice is meaningful, and our hearts recognise that something has gone terribly wrong and must be put right by God Himself, not by our own efforts. This truth is unique to Christianity, where the gospel assures us that God has not left us in our brokenness. In Christ, the story does not end with sin or death, but with redemption, restoration and everlasting life.

As you finish reading, may your heart be drawn to the One who loves you, who sees you, and who gave Himself for you. May His peace settle over your thoughts, and may His presence be near to you today.