Sin

Fairly recently my intellectual curiosity about biblical prophecy was transformed into a passion for personal evangelism. What started out as something which was going to happen in the unspecified future became an urgent message for the present. Prophesy is the fuel for the fire of evangelism. I hit a roadblock after that when I began trying to communicate the concept of sin to others. In this society, where there is relative peace and wealth, the predominate moral teaching seems to be that of tolerance. Superficially, it seems that only by accepting that everyone has their own truth (as the only truth) can everyone then be able to get along. When God attempts to interrupt this pleasant seeming fiction with our accountability, we interpret His efforts as just so much egotistical bullying. Some just live in denial, and say there is no God (and think that saying it ends the issue).

God wants to work with us, to bring us back from death and our own destruction. He's gone to a great deal of effort to explain things to the unwilling. Despite His all encompassing power, His way and His character is to choose to work through love, His support, and humble service. The example Christ gave us was to empty Himself of His rights as our creator and submit all the way to His own death. The meek are a reflection of this, Christ's character. How did Jesus say others would know who are His disciples? They would know because of the love we have for one another! Even adversity is given to increase our love, patience, and humility!

This type of character cannot be found anywhere but with God! Only following Him and doing what He says will give us the proper orientation and strength to be able to do what is right. If we have any other motivation, then we sin by murdering the image of God's character, either within ourselves, or in others. Since God is perfect in all things, we have to follow His example in order to not sin.

Normal people have a hard time seeing sin from God's perspective. (If He showed up in person we would be able to see His holiness and have a comparison, but we would die if He did.) A sinner, to God, is like a small child at an expensive resturant that insists on having a screaming temper tantrum! If you have very sensitive ears, like I do, then that is an extremely ugly noise! It ruins dinner for anyone within hearing distance. Consider also as an example the loud, foulmouthed, and unwashed person that comes into an establishment playing soft strains of beautiful music. He is, of course, at painful odds with the atmosphere into which he has introduced himself. These instances might inspire understanding of what sin looks like, but would not even begin to include the elements of agonizing betrayal that are part of it. Think of a soldier, responsible for protecting life and property from violence, selling out to the enemy and becoming a traitor. Sin is betrayal because we turn against the One who has given us everything that is good.

Satan introduced this whole concept of turning against God as his own pilot program to find a replacement for God. Satan has put himself forward as the next candidate. He tells us lies about God to induce us to follow his error. Satan tries to tell us that following God means that we are prohibited from having a will of our own. Satan says that worshiping God will make us religious bigots who think that we are better than anyone else. If he can convince us that there is nothing wrong with us in the absence of God, then he will take us with him to the quarantine which is the destiny of all evil.