"Sin wants to destroy you, but don't let it.." (cf. Gen. 4:7).
"... Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it" (Gen. 4:7, ESV).
Ever since Adam, we have inherited the old man himself, known as the old sin nature. It is a virus, and if it were yellow, we'd be all yellow! Someone said that sin is man's declaration of independence from God; true, we try to be good without God in the picture and in our belief system. When we fail to account for God in our reckoning we become corrupt and there is no limit to how corrupt; for "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?" says Jeremiah 17:9. It doesn't matter how bad we are but how bad off we are since all have sinned and it doesn't matter whether you drowned in six feet or six hundred feet of water, you're dead in sin! God simply doesn't grade on a curve, though we may seem like saints compared to the likes of Saddam Hussein or Adolf Hitler. A scientist extraordinaire, Albert Einstein, who instigated the Manhattan Project, said that it is "easier to denature plutonium than the evil nature of man!"
It is said that nature forms us, sin deforms us, schools inform us, prisons reform us, but only Christ can transform us--that's the wonder of the gospel message, in changing lives. We all share solidarity in Adam and must be set free from the power of sin by the cross of Christ. In salvation we are free from the power of sin by the living Christ, the penalty of sin by the crucified Christ, and the presence of sin by the coming Christ, it is said. We get a new birthright in Christ as members of the family of God in salvation. We are not as bad as we possibly can be or utterly depraved as unbelievers, but as bad off or totally depraved, meaning every part of our nature--our will, intellect, and emotions or heart--are affected by this sin virus. We have no power over sin, except through the Holy Spirit.
What is sin? When we fail to do what is required and leave God's will undone, and do what is forbidden! When we miss achieving the standards of God's law and fall short we sin--sin is universal--as they say, "Nobody's perfect!" or "To err is human!" Sin is defined as a want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God. It is further added that it is any thought, word, action, deed, or omission contrary to God's nature and incompatible with it.
Sin is lawlessness, it's faithlessness, it's trespassing, and we must call a spade a spade; if we call it by any other name we make it more dangerous, such as labeling poison as "Essence of Peppermint!" Paul lumps all men to together in that they are all in the same boat, as it were, and have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God (cf. Rom. 3:23). It is because of sin that we deserve to die and the death principle is already a work in us.
It is important to understand that we are still sinners as believers per Gal. 2:17 and we are not basically good, but we are evil in our natures through and through with no vestige of good remaining from the fall. It is assumed people are inherently good, but we are all flawed and have feet of clay. There is no sliding scale and we are all in the same boat of condemnation, in that we are at the mercy of God and there is no hope but by His grace. It is important to note that sin is only possible if there is a God because it is defined in terms of God: as Albert Camus said, "The absurd is sin without God."
It is ironic that the more lively sensed of sin, the less sin, and the closer you approach God, the more aware of it you become! C. S. Lewis observed: You must see how bad you are to be good, and you don't know how bad you are till you've tried to be good! It's like quitting cigs, you don't know how addicted you are till you try to quit! The evil of sin is that it enslaves and estranges for a double whammy! In conclusion, we must realize that we are not sinners because we sin; no we sin because we are sinners [it's our inherent nature to sin], as theologians like to say. Soli Deo Gloria!
"... Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it" (Gen. 4:7, ESV).
Ever since Adam, we have inherited the old man himself, known as the old sin nature. It is a virus, and if it were yellow, we'd be all yellow! Someone said that sin is man's declaration of independence from God; true, we try to be good without God in the picture and in our belief system. When we fail to account for God in our reckoning we become corrupt and there is no limit to how corrupt; for "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?" says Jeremiah 17:9. It doesn't matter how bad we are but how bad off we are since all have sinned and it doesn't matter whether you drowned in six feet or six hundred feet of water, you're dead in sin! God simply doesn't grade on a curve, though we may seem like saints compared to the likes of Saddam Hussein or Adolf Hitler. A scientist extraordinaire, Albert Einstein, who instigated the Manhattan Project, said that it is "easier to denature plutonium than the evil nature of man!"
It is said that nature forms us, sin deforms us, schools inform us, prisons reform us, but only Christ can transform us--that's the wonder of the gospel message, in changing lives. We all share solidarity in Adam and must be set free from the power of sin by the cross of Christ. In salvation we are free from the power of sin by the living Christ, the penalty of sin by the crucified Christ, and the presence of sin by the coming Christ, it is said. We get a new birthright in Christ as members of the family of God in salvation. We are not as bad as we possibly can be or utterly depraved as unbelievers, but as bad off or totally depraved, meaning every part of our nature--our will, intellect, and emotions or heart--are affected by this sin virus. We have no power over sin, except through the Holy Spirit.
What is sin? When we fail to do what is required and leave God's will undone, and do what is forbidden! When we miss achieving the standards of God's law and fall short we sin--sin is universal--as they say, "Nobody's perfect!" or "To err is human!" Sin is defined as a want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God. It is further added that it is any thought, word, action, deed, or omission contrary to God's nature and incompatible with it.
Sin is lawlessness, it's faithlessness, it's trespassing, and we must call a spade a spade; if we call it by any other name we make it more dangerous, such as labeling poison as "Essence of Peppermint!" Paul lumps all men to together in that they are all in the same boat, as it were, and have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God (cf. Rom. 3:23). It is because of sin that we deserve to die and the death principle is already a work in us.
It is important to understand that we are still sinners as believers per Gal. 2:17 and we are not basically good, but we are evil in our natures through and through with no vestige of good remaining from the fall. It is assumed people are inherently good, but we are all flawed and have feet of clay. There is no sliding scale and we are all in the same boat of condemnation, in that we are at the mercy of God and there is no hope but by His grace. It is important to note that sin is only possible if there is a God because it is defined in terms of God: as Albert Camus said, "The absurd is sin without God."
It is ironic that the more lively sensed of sin, the less sin, and the closer you approach God, the more aware of it you become! C. S. Lewis observed: You must see how bad you are to be good, and you don't know how bad you are till you've tried to be good! It's like quitting cigs, you don't know how addicted you are till you try to quit! The evil of sin is that it enslaves and estranges for a double whammy! In conclusion, we must realize that we are not sinners because we sin; no we sin because we are sinners [it's our inherent nature to sin], as theologians like to say. Soli Deo Gloria!
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