Per the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary the definition of sin is:
1 a: an offense against religious or moral law; b: an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible <it's a sin to waste food> c: an often serious shortcoming : fault
2 a: transgression of the law of God; b: a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God
For all intent purposes the truest definition of “sin” is that we have gone against God’s request for us to do what is best for us and those around us which means that we have not followed His will in our thoughts and actions, we followed our own. From our following our own will instead of God’s will, we have causes a riff between our relationship with God in that God’s standards do not allow for anyone not following His perfect to have a personal relationship with Him. So from the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary definition, its number two is the definition closest to that we are going to be talking about in this blog.
How many times do you do what you want to do without ever thinking about it, not even thinking to ask God for direction and understanding of what to do but just doing whatever it is on your own? I know that I do it a lot and even though I do pray and ask God for direction and guidance for my actions sometimes, I do not always do it. So if you are anything thing like me, you too do not always ask God for direction for your actions. So in our not asking God for direction for our actions and waiting on His answer and then following His answer, we without doubt go against God’s will in our following our own understanding and which causes us to sin that in turn creates a division between the relationship we have with God.
Wow, it is really just that easy for us to sin. All it takes is for us to not follow God’s will for any one simple thing such as in our looking at someone with lust (Matthew 5:28) or for us to get overly upset with someone who cuts us off on the freeway (James 1:20). If it is that easy for us to sin, how could we ever overcome sin?
It seems as though there is no way for us to ever overcome sin because it is so very easy for us to sin. Even with us not even trying to sin, we sin because in our nature we want to do things our way and with us doing things our way, it is against God’s way which is sin. Sin causes us to not have a relationship with God and without a relationship with God we do not have God’s favor and without God’s favor we do not have the blessings from God for us to have eternal life with God in Heaven.
Wow, that just seems as though it is not right doesn’t it? For sin to be so easy for us to do and that God’s standards are so high that for even the smallest of sin such as for us to not want to share with someone what we have that they need would cause us to not have a relationship with God which then keeps us from being able to have a personal relationship with God and causes us to not be with God in Heaven for ever and ever, just seems unfair.
It would be unfair if God had not given to us a way of salvation from our sinful ways. Even though God had planned from the very beginning (Genesis 3:14-15) an ultimate way for our salvation from sin, He had to first teach us what true sacrifice is and of how difficult it is for us to give an offering worthy enough as a worthy sacrifice is the foundation of us being forgiven of our sins.
We do not know why God did not accept Cain’s offering (Genesis 4:3-5) but from Proverbs 21:27, we know that, “The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable – how much more so when brought with evil intent!” So it could have been Cain’s motives or the quality of his offering yet we can learn from this that God evaluates not only what we offer but how we offer it. When we give to God and others, we should do so with a joyful heart knowing that we are able to give because we are able to give. We should want to give freely because all things are God’s in the first place and we are only stewards of what He has given to us. Be it our time, money, possessions, and talents, we should give freely and with joy the best that we can give.
To help us better understand sacrifice, God gave Moses the Old Testament book of Leviticus which outlines exactly how one should and should not give offerings and sacrifices as well as what should and should not be offered. Five kinds of offerings fulfill two main purposes: one to show praise, thankfulness, and devotion; the other for atonement, the covering and removal of guilt and sin. Through the book of Leviticus, we learn the cost of our sin and that we cannot forgive ourselves.
The main thing learned from the book of Leviticus is that God’s system of sacrifice calls for a life must be given for a life. Animal offerings demonstrated that the person was giving his/her life to God by means of the life of the animal sacrificed so to save their life from the sins he/she committed. Not just going out and killing any animal would suffice as the whole rules and laws described in the book of Leviticus had to be followed to the exact letter of how it was written to be correct. Not only that, remember that you have to do it with the proper intent and with a joyful heart.
Wow, now that had to be tough to do! Following exactly the directions given in the book of Leviticus to obtain salvation for the sins you commit because it is so easy to commit sin seems to me that it just isn’t fair that to overcome your sin is so hard to do! It’s easy for us to commit sin yet to overcome it via the hundreds and hundreds of specific directions in the book of Leviticus clearly makes it seemingly impossible for us to overcome our sin through anything that we could offer God for atonement of our sins. It just seems unfair of God to make it so easy for us to sin and yet so difficult for us to overcome our sins.
We know however from Psalms 111:7 that the works from God’s hands are truth and justice and as such God’s ultimate solution for our overcoming our sins was in place from the beginning we learned in Genesis 3:14-15. Without having the book of Leviticus outlining just how difficult it is for you and I to pay payment for our sins through a perfect sacrifice we would not have any foundation to understand God’s ultimate perfect sacrifice to atone for your and my sins which He offers to us freely.
You see, God knows you and me intimately and He understands our strengths and weaknesses, our level of knowledge and understanding, our stubbornness and willingness. Knowing all of this and so much more about you and me, God knew that for us to follow the book of Leviticus was not the optimal path for our salvation from our sins. This is why He from the very beginning had an ultimate perfect sacrifice planned which would cost you and me nothing that would be by far way more easier for us to do than what is described in the book of Leviticus.
Yet God used the book of Leviticus to educate us on what a perfect sacrifice would be, He never planned for it to be “the” path for us to follow to atone our sins. God’s ultimate perfect sacrifice we learn from the New Testament book of John chapter three, verse sixteen: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Summing up it all up we find that sin is something easy for us to do and that our sin is a gap that keeps us from being with God. We learned that you and I cannot overcome our sins on our own as doing so comes at a cost too great for you and me to pay. To overcome our sins we only need to place our faith into God’s ultimate perfect sacrifice (His Son, Jesus) which He had planned from the beginning which doesn’t cost you or me anything yet came at a great cost to God.
There is no other way to overcome your sins and be with God other than to place your faith into His only begotten Son. John 14:6 - (Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”)
No one but you can make the choice only you must make and not making a choice now is making the choice to not accept God’s free gift to you to receive for atonement of your sins and be with Him forever.
Please decide today to accept Jesus as your savior. Once you do, please email us and let us know so that we can celebrate with you your acceptance of the greatest gift anyone can ever receive.
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Matthew 5:28 - [Jesus said:] but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
James 1:20 - for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
Genesis 3:14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; (15) And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."
Genesis 4:3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. (4) Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; (5) but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
Psalms 111:7 - The works of His hands are truth and justice; All His precepts are sure.
John 3:16-21 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."
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