What does the Bible say about sin?

Key Bible verses about sin

1. 1 John 3:4

   Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.

2. Romans 3:23

   for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

3. Romans 5:12

   Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned.

4. Romans 6:23

   For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

5. Genesis 3:6

   When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate. Then she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.

6. Psalm 51:3-5

   For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.

7. Isaiah 53:6

   All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

8. Isaiah 59:2

   But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

9. Jeremiah 17:9

   The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?

10. Ephesians 2:1-3

    You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

11. James 4:17

    To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

12. 1 John 1:8-9

    If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Scripture: World English Bible (public domain). Short quotations in the introduction are from the ESV. Read each passage in its chapter for the full context.