What is Sin?

When God created man He created Him in His likeness and image.
God’s Spirit of love was in man and empowered him to walk with God and to love one another.
God placed two trees in the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
He told Adam not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
He told Adam if you eat from this tree you will surely die. Adam committed the first sin when He disobeyed God by eating from the forbidden tree.

Sin is simply lawlessness. God’s word is His law. If you break His word you are lawless and have sinned against Him. God gave His people Israel His laws through Moses. The Laws of Moses reveal the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that Adam chose to eat from. Everyone would eats from this tree will surely die. The cornerstone or foundation of the Law of Moses was the Ten Commandments. If you obeyed these commandments you would be considered righteous before God and you would get to enjoy the great blessings of righteousness. However if you broke any of these commandments you would be considered unrighteous before God and you would be cursed with horrible curses. The blessings for keeping the Law of Moses and the curses for breaking them are recorded in Deuteronomy 28.

Jesus condensed these Ten Commandments into two. He said if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and if you love your neighbor as yourself you would fulfill the entire law. God is love. His commandments are to love Him first and foremost and to love one another. The definition of God’s love is to prefer others above yourself. The greatest act of love is to lay your life down for someone else. You obey God’s commandment to love by making yourself a servant to others. When you exalt yourself above God and others you are sinning against God. The result of sinning against God is always death.

When Moses first gave these commandments to the Israelites they said they would obey them. However within just a few shorts days they had made a golden calf and began to worship it. They never did, nor could they, obey these simple laws which commanded them to love God first and to love others as themselves. These two laws to love were impossible to keep. Even to this very day they are impossible to keep. Remember all who eat from the Law of Moses will surely die.

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden he was separated from God. Sin entered into man. God’s Spirit of love left man. Man’s entire being (spirit, soul and body) was filled with a void after God’s Spirit left him. All people are now born with a great void in their heart to be loved, accepted, and to have a sense of value and purpose. This void in man’s heart drives him to try and fill it. This void causes man to exalt himself. The wisdom in man’s heart that is caused by this void is called the sin nature. The sin nature in man deceives him. The wisdom of sin in man deceives him into thinking something or someone can fill this void. He looks to things, possessions, money, people, power, etc. to give him love, acceptance, an identity, value and purpose. The problem is none of these things can fill the void. Everyone is looking to get this void filled. People look to someone to make them happy. When they fail they blame each other for their misery.

When Adam sinned he also lost the dominion of this world to Satan and he became, and still is, the god of this world. Satan can easily control man and manipulate him by tempting him with the material possessions, comforts, pleasures, wealth and people of this world to fill the void in his heart. However all these temptation violate the law to love and therefore only produces death. The Bible calls the sin nature in man, the “flesh”. It is impossible for your flesh to put God first and prefer others above yourself. Man is in a horrible condition. He has a great void in his heart that he cannot fill and he has the devil constantly deceiving him by tempting him the fill the void in his heart with the things and people of this world.
The good news is God has a solution to man’s horrible dilemma. When God gave the children of Israel His commandments He knew they could not keep them. He knew man’s flesh would deceive Him to always exalt himself and make himself first. He instructed Moses to build a Tabernacle, establish a priesthood, and to offer animal sacrifices. In His great mercy He allowed man to bring an animal, to the priest, to stand in his place as a substitute when he committed a sin. God’s law requires innocent blood to atone for sin. When someone committed a sin they could bring an animal to the priest to stand as their substitute. The offender would lay his hands on the animals head and the sin he committed would be transferred to the animal. The innocence of the animal would be transferred to the offender. God’s judgment for sin would fall on the animal and it would be killed. The innocent blood of the animal testified to God that an innocent death has taken place to pay for the offender’s sin; therefore the blood of the animal justified the sinner. However the blood of animals could not permanently forgive sin but could only cover the sin until the next time you sinned. God did everything He could to keep His judgment from coming on His people. He established a daily sacrifice, a weekly sacrifice, a monthly sacrifice and a yearly sacrifice. However the children of Israel would not keep the laws that governed the sacrifices and the entire system fell apart and God’s wrath eventually fell of the people and they were carried away into bondage.
This entire system was only put in place until Jesus came. It was only a type and shadow of what would take place on the cross.

God demonstrated His great love for you and all mankind by sending His only begotten Son to become your substitute. Jesus was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the whole world.
God needed innocent human blood to pay the debt for human sin. The problem was no one was perfect. God loved you so much He sent His perfect Son. He was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life making Him the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of man once and for all. Adam’s sin was not passed down to Jesus for His Father was God. Jesus was God in a human body. He revealed God’s great love and compassion for man by forgiven them, healing them, delivering them, etc. He demonstrated His great power and dominion in the world by the many signs and wonders He performed. He completely obeyed the Law of Moses. He fulfilled all the prophecies foretelling His coming and what He would do. But the whole reason He came was to give His life for you. On the cross God placed all your sins and the sins of the whole world on Jesus. Your sins were transferred to Jesus and Jesus’ righteousness was transferred to you. Then God judged Jesus for you sins. Jesus died on the cross and shed His innocent blood. Jesus’ blood now testifies to God that your sins have been paid for in full. Therefore Jesus’ blood forever justifies you before God. God will never impute (count) your sins against you. When you do commit a sin and God’s judgment comes to you it sees the blood of Jesus on your heart and passes over you. You are now forever forgiven and made righteous in God’s sight.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. All who believe this gospel become born-again. Your sin nature that ruled your spirit and soul died with Christ, was buried with Christ, and you resurrect with Christ a brand new person. God’s Spirit of love comes into your heart. The void to be love, accepted, and have a sense of value and purpose is filled. Your relationship with God is restored. Just as the Law of Moses was the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the Tree of Life. All who eat from the Tree of Life have eternal life and will never die.

The truth of the gospel fills the void in your heart. Sin loses its power to deceive you. You no longer have to yield to sin’s lies because you know that you are loved, accepted, and have sense of value and purpose.
Sin is no longer an issue with God. Jesus paid the price for all sin to be forgiven for ever. Now that you are born-again you have much to learn about who you are In Christ, what you can do In Christ and what belongs to you In Christ. However sin still produces death when you yield to it. The good news is God’s amazing grace empowers you not to sin. However because our bodies have not been redeemed yet, only our spirit and our souls, we still have to deal with the flesh. We can still hear its wisdom in our minds. We are instructed to renew our minds with God redemptive truth so that we can discern our thoughts and not listen to the wisdom of our flesh. However we will not be perfect at doing this, so when we do sin, we are instructed to remember the cross and our redemption In Christ. When we do sin against God we are to simply receive our forgiveness that has been provided for us. You are now a  son of God and an heir of God. You are loved by God, accepted by God, very valuable to God and you have a great purpose and destiny in God’s kingdom and as His representative on this earth. When you sin simply repent, receive your forgiveness, learn from it, forget it and move on with your Heavenly Father who loves you so very, very much.
If you have never invited Jesus to come into your heart pray this prayer from your heart and you will become born-again.

Heavenly Father I believe Jesus came to this earth to become my sacrificial Lamb, my substitute. I believe He bore my sins and gave me His righteousness. I believe after three days He rose again from the dead. I invite you Jesus to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

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