Sin is far more than the particular acts we commonly list lying, stealing, murder, or adultery for these are merely the fruits, not the root; sin itself is the deeper condition of man’s nature, the will to be his own god, determining good and evil apart from God. As the Catechism teaches, sin is any lack of conformity to God’s law, and instead of delighting in obedience, fallen man demands that God conform to him. We may conquer individual sins, yet remain utterly defeated by sin itself, because it is woven into our nature and cannot be overcome by human effort. Only God can deliver us from its power and penalty, and He does so by giving us a new nature in Jesus Christ. Though sin dies hard within us, our salvation does not rest on our struggle but on God’s grace, so that in Christ we are truly free, able to rejoice that the law of the Spirit of life has made us free from the law of sin and death, and that this faith is the victory that overcomes the world.