Daily Friendship with God Sin #25 Sin
There are many words in the bible for the word sin. All of them have the idea of something that it is destructive to our self and to others. Just because you can do something it does not mean that it is write or productive for our self or others. The end game of sin is as follows.
The soul who sins shall die
(Ezekiel 18:20)
Interestingly enough everyone dies and that is because…
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
(Romans 3:23)
Let’s look at what the meaning for the word “sinned” is in the original Greek language in order not to turn this into a manmade religious misunderstanding.
1. to be without a share in
2. to miss the mark
3. to err, be mistaken
4. to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go wrong
5. to wander from the law of God, violate God's law, sin
To understand the five points of the above definition we must first deal with something that is known as Moral relativism which is the view that moral judgments are true or false only relative to some particular standpoint (for instance, that of a culture or a historical period) and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others. To put this in a simple way “your truth is yours and mine is mine. What I say is right for me is right for me and if it is wrong to you then I will live by what I think is right in my own understanding and you can choose to live by what you consider right and wrong”.
If all societies and people of the world set all their laws to live by that standard the world would be a terrifying place to live in.
It would mean that if my truth is that I can murder, rape and steal (just to mention a few topics) then even if your truth is that it is not right to do those things then I could do those things and there would be nothing to keep me from taking those actions toward you and others. That certainly would turn this world into a living night mare.
The point being here is that we all have a conscience (the part of the mind that makes you aware of your actions as being either morally right or wrong). Culture, historical time periods and personal choices do not change the foundations of knowing right from wrong. If and when those things influenced right and wrong it always leds to a break down in society and ends in destructive behaviors like murder, rape and stealing (just to mention a few destructive topics) . Let’s face it, even with laws in place to try to stop those destructive behaviors people still choose to commit those actions.
This all leads us back to the Greek definition point number four “to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go wrong”. I will be the first to admit that I know I have done things that are wrong even though I knew they were wrong, yet I did them anyway. The second part of the definition is “to miss the mark” this has the idea of I tried to do good and did not do it perfectly and again I can say that I have done that as well. The third point is to err or be mistaken. It should not be hard to take a look at our lives an see where we have all done this as well.
In taking in to consideration the United States Law that states “ignorance of law excuses no one” (Thomas Jefferson) point five makes sense “to wander from the law of God, violate God's law, sin”. This means even if we did not know God’s law if we brake it we are guilty as noted in the following verse.
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
(James 2:10)
All this leads us back to the first point “to be without a share in”. When we take the action of doing wrong we do not get to share in being without a clean conscience. We have all experienced doing wrong and then not being able to share in a relationship with the person that we have wronged. The amazing thing about the wrongs that we have all done is…
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Even though..
The wages or payment of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Eternal life is found in a relationship with Jesus as He noted “this is eternal life that we would know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. Why did God send Jesus His only Son born of our Heavenly Father?
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16)
This leads us to the good news of the Gospel which lets us know that Christ died for our sins, as written to us by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Paul also wrote of the importance of staying true to this Gospel earlier in the letter he wrote to the Galatians in the first chapter.
I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!
This is the meaning of the Greek word anathema which is translated “cursed”. Or you, let him be condemned, or you, let him be condemned to hell. This makes it really clear as to what the Gospel of salvation is and to its importance. Jesus said the following:
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.”
As I noted we will be looking into the understanding of who the Holy Spirit is in another Daily Friendship with God. At this point to understand the above verse we must let the Bible explain it to us.
When He (the Holy Spirit) comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in me. (John 16:8-9)
When Jesus said what was recorded in John 16 it was the night before He would die for the sins of the world. Jesus knew what He was going to do when He said to them. “A little while and you will no longer see me; again a little while and you will see me.” He was going to die and be buried in that He would not be seen by them. Next He knew He was going to rise from the dead so He said “again a little while and you will see me” and that they did on the third day when He rose from the dead.
To summarize all sin is bad for us and is destructive to relationships. We in and of our selves did not and do not have the power to overcome sin apart from Jesus. Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead on our behalf in order to set us free from the power of sin and death. When we trust and agree with the Gospel of Jesus then we can enter into a personal relationship with Him being the Lord of our life.
Please read Romans six and ask God to explain it to you and then discuss it with another friend of God.