What's Wrong With Sin?

Something you may not have thought of just exactly in this way, but why is there such a thing as sin? You know, if there wasn't sin, you and I wouldn't have to worry, would we? Or would you? Why is there good and evil? What makes something a sin? Or, why are some actions good and other actions are considered evil or bad?

I think the history of mankind, when you look back over it, demonstrates that different societies consider different lifestyles, different actions, obedience or disobedience to establish religion in that culture, that society, or secular laws or ways of life as sin. Yet, many times, they contradict one another. You can have a society in Asia, as an example, that has certain standards that they think are wrong, and yet in the Western world, we would think that those are right and theirs are wrong. So you have this conflict. When you look around, what about different sexual lifestyles? We know there's a big argument in this country that certain lifestyles are wrong, certain aren't. What makes one wrong and one right? There are different days of worship, and people don't believe, in many cases, that it matters.

There are different standards of morality and values, different definitions of what constitutes marriage. And so, we find, even Congress, the president, getting into the debate over what is a family.

There are different penalties for law-breaking in various countries. In some countries, warfare is okay, other countries it's not. There are whole nations and millions of people who believe that jihad is okay, and that you can go out and kill others in the name of your religion.

Why does the Bible require death when sin is committed?

Why does God say that the wages of sin is death? Is God's law and the penalties that are connected with those laws arbitrary? And when I say arbitrary, I mean half-pastered or random, that God just establishes a law, and he says, okay, here's a law, if you break it, you're going to die. And you ask the question, why? And he says, because I say so. Is that the only reason why a law, if a person breaks it, would die? It's sort of that way in our society, is it not? Man establishes a law, he says, if you run this stop sign, you've broken the law. Now, what's the penalty? Well, he decides what the penalty is. And it could be $50, it could be $100, if they need a lot of money, it could be $200. And so, what man does many times is arbitrary. Is God right only because he's more powerful than anybody else? And so therefore, he can say, I'm right. Is that why God is right? What's wrong with sin? Why is there a death penalty when sin occurs? And again, is this arbitrary? And how does all of this tie in with the plan of God, the purpose of God, that God's working out, and especially with the spring holy days and the Passover, that is coming up? Well, we want to take a look at that today, and perhaps look at this in a little different perspective than maybe we thought of it. The potential for sin existed when? God has always existed. There have been two beings. They are eternal, co-equal, co-eternal. They have always existed.

Was the potential back when there were only two God beings? Was the potential there for them to sin? And the answer is no. God does not sin. So when did the potential for sin come into existence? It came into existence ever since God created other beings.

When God created the angels, then the potential for one of them, or some of them, or all of them to go wrong, was there. We know that that's true, because all you have to do is go back and take a look at what the Bible says about Lucifer. Let's go back to Ezekiel 28, Ezekiel 28, and verse 14. Notice what the Bible reveals about the fact that God created these angels. Each one of the angelic creations was a separate creation. It wasn't a matter of creating a few angels, and they had baby angels, and they had baby angels, and all at once their whole universe populated with angels. Each angel was a separate creation, and some were created, apparently, of more powerful different abilities and talents than others. One of the greatest that God created was an angel by the name of Lucifer. Notice the last part of verse 13 talks about, on the day that you were created, so this was a created being, you are the anointed carob who covers. Apparently, at one time, he covered God's throne. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways. The word perfect there can be translated, and is, in many of the modern translations, as blameless. You were blameless in your ways. Perfect in your ways. He didn't sin. It says, from the days that you were created until a certain time, and when was that time? Till iniquity was found in you. So, at some point, iniquity was found in him. Then it goes on to say, by the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within. So, he became a violent being. And you sinned. So, this Lucifer sinned, and I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God. And I destroyed, word in the Hebrew means, I banished you, O covering care, from the midst of the fiery stones. So, he sinned. Now, the word sin here implies something.

Hebrew definition of sin here means to miss, miss the way, go wrong, incur guilt, to sin, miss the goal or the path of right and duty. So, he went wrong, he missed the way, he missed the path that leads in the right way. And so, he became a violent being. And I want you to notice here that it says that he was filled with violence and sin.

Now, notice in verse 17, it says, Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom. He became a corrupted being.

Now, sin did not exist until God created other beings that had to choose to go his way, to go the way of God, to go down the path of God forever, to live that way forever. The angels did not sin immediately after they were created. Here was this Lucifer. He covered God's throne. He was right there at the very heart of the universe, of God's government. And he didn't sin. And yet, there came a point when he sinned. Created beings can obey that way for a period of time, but at some point, they must choose to go that way forever. And one-third of the angels chose to follow Lucifer. Two-thirds stayed with God. Now, the angels were created without the lust of the flesh and without the lust of the eyes, the problems that you and I as human beings have. They did not have physical bodies that pulled them down. They were created as spirit beings. You and I have physical bodies. And those physical bodies can have certain lust, certain desires, certain pulls connected with them. As far as we know, that's not a problem with spirit beings. So where would the problem have developed with the angels? Where was their problem if they sinned? Well, again, let's go back and read verse 17. Notice, verse 17, Your heart was lifted up. So what was his problem? He had a heart problem. And the heart problem, his heart was lifted up, would indicate a problem of pride, a problem of vanity. As verse 2 says, Son of Man is talking here about the Prince of Tyre that blends up into Lucifer. But says, Son of Man, say to the Prince of Tyre, thus says the Lord God, because your heart is lifted up. And you say, I am a God. You find that Lucifer was lifted up with pride. Now how do we know that? Well, let's go back to the New Testament in 1 Timothy chapter 3. That gives a little clearer explanation. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 6. And notice the story here. 1 Peter 3, 6.

This is talking about ordain. A man is an elder. And it says, Don't ordain a novice. Novice is one who's been newly converted to the faith, somebody who's a new Christian. Why? Less being puffed up with pride. You know, he could say, look at me, I've only been in the church two years, and I'm already an elder. This person's been in the church for 40 years, and they've never been ordained. You could get puffed up. So here in verse 6, not a novice. Less being puffed up with pride. He fall into the same condemnation as the devil. So what was Lucifer's problem? He was lifted up with pride. And as we read back in Ezekiel 28, he became corrupted. His wisdom was corrupted. His knowledge, his whole approach, became corrupted. He was filled with violence. And he rebelled against God. Now, when God created mankind, he knew that the potential for sin existed for man. And he prepared for it. God wasn't just caught by surprise when Adam and Eve sinned. Now, God, as I said, prepared for it. You and I do not possess a spirit body, do we? We possess a physical body. And having a physical body creates certain problems for us. Because, as we read back in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15, this says, Love not the world nor the things of the world. For all in the world the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life are not of the Father. You and I were not created with spirit bodies that are not subject to the lusts of the flesh. We were created with flesh that is subject to the lusts of the flesh, to the lusts of eyes, to pride and vanity and ego and selfishness. We're in the process of developing a spiritual mind, are we not? Isn't that what conversion is all about? You and I are in the process of developing the character of God, the mind of God. Philippians 2, 5 says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So you and I are to have the mind that Jesus Christ had. Now, in Revelation 13, in Revelation 13, 8, we read this Scripture. All who dwell on the earth will worship Him, whose names have not been written in the book of life, the Lamb, slaying from the foundation of the world. So Jesus Christ was slain from the foundation of the world, meaning simply that God prepared, if man sinned, man went against Him, which he knew that he probably would, that God provided a way for man to be brought back to God for man to have eternal life. God did not create man, put him on the earth, and all at once Satan comes along and tricks man, and therefore God's plan of salvation is over. God had to scramble and figure out what to do. Now, God knew what He was going to do. Christ knew what He was going to have to do. You see, when I said that when God created the angels, the potential for sin began to exist. Let's go back to James 1 and verse 13. And I want you to notice something that James wrote about God. James 1.13 says, Let no one say, when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil. It's impossible for God to be tempted for evil, for God to do what is wrong to sin, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But everyone is tempted when He is drawn away of his own desires, King James says his own lust, and enticed. And when desire or lust has conceived, He gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's full grown, it was no longer a baby, it grows up, brings forth death.

So this, verses 12, 13, and 14, especially verses 13 and 14, explain the process that we go through and how sin occurs. But I want you to notice that it's impossible. God is not tempted by evil. And so, the one we know as the Father and the Son, who had existed for all eternity, they'd never been tempted to go in a wrong way, to sin, to do evil, to do wrong. There is something that when God created the angels, when God created us, that's missing. Now God created the angels perfect, as we read. Lucifer was blameless or perfect, but you have to make a choice when it comes to character. Character is developed by making choices. You have to choose to go the right way.

Now let's notice also in 1 Peter 2, verse 21, that Jesus Christ, even as living in the flesh, as God in the flesh, did not commit sin.

It says, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps, who committed no sin, nor was the seat found in His mouth. So even when God came in the flesh, He did not yield to the lusts of the flesh, and to the lusts of the eyes, the pride of life. You might remember Jesus Christ went out many times, prayed all night. He cried out to God before His crucifixion with tears. He prayed so hard that His perspiration had blood mingled with it. So He had to stay close to God. He had to walk close to God. He realized that His strength and His power came from and through God. So He stayed close to God. Why does God not sin? Well, first of all, He has a spirit body, not subject to the lusts of the flesh, the things that are physical. God does not sin for many reasons. He has set His will never to go against His nature. God's very nature is a nature that is law-abiding, that is obedient. God's very character is a character of love, of outgoingness, of grace. God is love, as the Bible says. That's mentioned so many times in the Scripture.

He is love, and that love is manifested through His very nature, His grace, His giving. God's character is set. God's character is there. He will never go against His way of life. It is the way He is. He's not going to go in an opposite direction. Now, God revealed to man from the very beginning what is right and what is wrong, what is sin, what is not sin, what is evil, and what is good. Did He not tell Adam, do not touch, do not partake of that tree, from the day you do it, you will die?

He pointed out to him the right way, and then the snake came along and said, oh, you won't die. God knows when you take of it, you'll be like Him, you'll know good and evil. Yet, we all know in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 4 the definition of sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. So sin is involved with God's law, as we will see. The ESV translation says, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness. Sin is going against God's law. And let's notice in Romans chapter 4, Romans 4 and verse 15, Romans chapter 4 and verse 15, it says, because the law brings about wrath, for where there is no law, there is no transgression. No law, no transgression. If there's not a speed limit, you're not breaking the law. If you do 100 miles an hour. Now, there used to be, in the early days, certain states when there were no speed laws, no speed limits, you'd go into a town and it would say, slow down. You exit would say, speed up. And, you know, you could go as fast as you wanted to.

So, if there's no law, there's no transgression. Now, when God created the angels and they sinned, and God said that Lucifer was perfect or blameless in his ways, there had to be revealed to them a way of life that they had to live, and that God required them to live. And they lived that way of life. Who knows? We don't know how long they lived that way. But, at some point, Lucifer sinned and a third of the angels sinned likewise. What makes breaking the law a sin?

What makes it a sin? Why is God's law better than the codes of men? You know, man comes up with all kinds of codes all the time. If mankind had all power, you know, if there was a man who had all power, could they not force their will and their penalty on everybody else? And so, therefore, you know, is that just what God did?

Well, we'll find no, that's not true. Let's go back to James 4, verse 12. James chapter 4 and verse 12. Now, let's ask the question, who created the law? Who created God's, or let's say, the spiritual law? James 4 and verse 12. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.

Who are you to judge another? So, there's one lawgiver, and that lawgiver is God. God is able to save. God is able to give eternal life and to save mankind, and he is able to destroy. When did God bring his law into existence? If you ever stop to ask yourself, when did he bring it into existence? We can understand the origin of sin if we understand when the law came into existence. So, let's define what do we mean by law? What do you mean by law?

God's law represents the eternal, true way of God. It is the way that he thinks, the way that he acts, the way that he lives, the way that he functions. It is the way of God. It is how he thinks acts, lives, and functions. His law mirrors something. The law mirrors what God is like. It mirrors love. It mirrors loyalty.

It mirrors holiness. It mirrors the righteous character of God. It is a way of life to God. Let's go back to Acts chapter 18, verse 24. There are a number of these we could read, but let's just take a look at this one. Scripture, Acts 18, verse 24. We read here, now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. The man had been instructed in the way of the Lord.

Notice, it is called the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue when Aquila and Priscilla heard him.

They took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. So there is a way of God. Now, I think this is the key for us to understand the origin of sin. The definition of sin I read to you, you might remember, back in Ezekiel 28 states, that sin is missing the way, or to miss the goal or the path that is right.

There is a right way to live. God has always lived that way. It is the way that expounds or exemplifies, shows His nature, which is the way of love. The Father and the Son always treated one another with love, with respect, with honor. They always treated each other in that way. And yet, you find it is a way of life. When the angels were created, they were introduced to that way of life. They were taught that way of life. They were told, this is the way, walk you in it.

This is the way to live. This is the way to happiness, peace, prosperity. This is why God had always lived and existed in exhilarating happiness, excitement, joy, peace, because of His very nature. His nature of love and outgoing concern. God enjoys life so much that He then thought, I want to share this with others. How can I go about doing that? First of all, He created the angels. Later, we know His whole plan revolved around creating man, and for man to develop His very nature and character.

So, how was God going to put His character in man, His nature in man? The angels demonstrate that you've got to make a choice, and so God devised the plan of salvation. Let's go back to Psalm 25. Turn back to the book of Psalm, chapter 25, verse 8. Look at verse 8 here. Psalm 25, beginning in verse 8. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore He teaches sinners in the way. So there is a way that God teaches. It is His way. The humble He guides in justice. The humble He teaches His way. In verse 12, who is the man who fears the Lord?

Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. So God's way is the way that God teaches. The law is a reflection of the way of life with God. It puts us on the path of righteousness. Satan revolted from that way, the way of God. He became curious about what was on the other side of that way. Lucifer came up with a different way. And as a result, he rebelled against God. In chapter 27 here, verse 11.

Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a smooth path because of my enemies. There is only one right way to live. Otherwise, we do our own thing. We go our own way. Remember the song that Frank Sinatra is saying? I did it my way. Well, mankind has done it his way all of his life. The Bible clearly states in Proverbs 16, verse 25, that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof of the way of death. And so man goes on what he thinks is right.

Satan has convinced man to think that whatever he can reason, come up with, that that's right. And so, therefore, man keeps trying every way you can think of. Psalm 119, verse 33. Psalm 119, we'll begin in verse 33. We find that the way of God's law is described here. Teach me, O Lord, verse 33, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Indeed, I will observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it, incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to covetousness.

Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in your way, so you and I are to live the way of God. The law of God shows that if God were on the earth, how He would live, how He would treat His neighbor, how He would respond to the Almighty God, and guess what? God came to the earth. He was God in the flesh.

And how did Jesus Christ live? How did He treat His neighbor? How did He worship God? Well, we have His example in the Bible to show us. God's way of life has always existed, because God has always existed. God's total life is summarized through love, through His way of life, and He has given us His law to show us how to apply that way of life. His way of life and action is not to murder your neighbor, is not to commit adultery with your neighbor's wife, is not to steal your neighbor's goods, is not to murder somebody, or lie, or cheat, or whatever it might be.

So God's way of life that He's always lived is a way of love, a way of joy, a way of peace, a way of doing what is right. What are the fruits of the Spirit?

Galatians 5, 22. Go back and read them. Those fruits are how God lives. That's why when God gives us His Spirit, He imparts those to us, because we begin to experience a little of the way that God lives. Let me quote to you from Unger's Bible Dictionary, page 1028, under the article of sin.

The underlying idea of sin is that of law and the lawgiver. The lawgiver is God, yet sin is everything in the disposition and purpose and conduct of God's moral creatures that is contrary to the express will of God. The sinfulness of sin lies in the fact that it is against God, even when the wrong we do is to others or to ourselves. The being and law of God are perfectly harmonious. God is love. See, this is where we run into a problem. We're not totally harmonious, are we? We know the right way, we don't always do the right way. We know God's law, we don't always keep God's law. But God, as a spirit being, is totally harmonious with His way of life. The two of them are together.

The sum of all the commandments, likewise, is love. Sin, thus, in its nature, is egotism and selfishness. Self is put in the place of God. Selfishness, not pure self-love, not the exaggeration of it, or really the opposite of it, is at the bottom of all disobedience, and it becomes hostile to God when it comes into collision with His law.

Why is the carnal man hostile and enmity against God? Because the carnal mind, once it has its own self-will, wants to do what it wants to do.

And here is God saying, no, that's not right. Do my will, and man doesn't do it.

So, after looking at all of that, let me give you a basic definition of what is sin, from what we've covered.

Any lack of conformity to the character of God is sin, whether it be an act, a disposition, or a state.

I'll read that again. Any lack of conformity to the character of God, whether it be an act, or something you do, a disposition you're disposed to do or do something, go a certain way, or a state.

Sin is sin because it is different from what God is. That's why it's a sin. And God is eternally holy. Sin is always against God.

Remember, when David sinned, back in Psalm 51, he said, against you, you only have I sinned on this evil in your sight, even though he had committed adultery and murdered Uriah.

Sin is always against God, even though it may be directed against human beings. A person whose sins is unlike God and subject to God's judgment.

The basic idea is a lack of conformity to God's character, or will by acts of omission or commission.

So we can commit an act, such as breaking the Sabbath, or we can omit an act, which is not to keep the Sabbath.

The essential idea is that man comes short, misses the mark, fails to obtain God's own standard of character and holiness. He does not go in God's way.

See, it's not just good enough to say, well, we keep the law of God. That's not good enough.

The Pharisees and Sadducees also kept the law of God, did they not? They fasted twice in a week. They tithed, meant in common.

They measured out leaves. They kept the Sabbath. They kept the Holy Days. But there was something wrong with their mind and their attitude, was there not?

Something wrong with their approach. They did not have the mind of God. But they tried to keep the law with a physical approach or fleshly approach.

They were not motivated by the love of God, God's grace for others. So in order to keep God's law the way God wants it to, there must be a change of heart.

And how does that change of heart take place? Where does it begin? Where does it start?

Well, we've already read that Jesus Christ was slain before the foundation of the world, of the earth.

Man's sin was not a surprise to God. He prepared to deal with it. God revealed to mankind immediately how this would happen.

If you remember back in Genesis chapter 3, let's go there quickly.

Genesis 3, beginning in verse 14. God talking to the snake, the serpent. He cursed it. Verse 15. I'll put in Matthew between you and the woman.

Between your seed and her seed. And he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

So right away, God revealed to Adam and Eve that a future seed of the woman would overcome the devil, would triumph over him.

Genesis chapter 4 reveals Cain and Abel's sacrifice.

And what does a blood sacrifice tell us? What does it show? Well, it shows that there would have to be a death, an atonement for sin.

So God revealed very quickly to Adam and Eve, to Cain and Abel, about sacrificing that there would be a death for the sins of mankind.

There was to be an atonement, a covering of sin, a need for reconciliation, a need to be brought back into oneness or harmony with God.

With ancient Israel, God had a constant round of rituals, constant round of sacrifices, five major sacrifices to teach them this lesson.

He also set up a tabernacle. That tabernacle is an approach to God.

First of all, you come to the altar where the sacrifice takes place.

And then you have a labor where you're washed and you're cleaned.

Then you're able to enter into the tabernacle, which is the type of the church where you're fed every Sabbath. Twelve loaves of bread were changed out, and they had new bread each week.

And then you have access to the Holy of Holies through Christ's sacrifice.

Remember when He died, the veil in the temple was split apart.

Symbolic of through Christ, we now have access to God the Father. And so the tabernacle, the temple worship was established to show us how we can approach unto God.

The Passover was ordained, and a Passover lamb was killed to remind the people of Israel.

All of these pointed to Jesus Christ and His ultimate sacrifice. Remember in John 1, John 1, when John saw Jesus, he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He's referred to as the Lamb of God, the sacrifice of God.

This symbol pointed to Christ, who His perfect sacrifice.

It conveyed His meekness, His willingness to submit to suffering and death.

In Romans chapter 5, verse 12, let's notice.

There are those who say that you and I will die because of Adam.

Well, let's notice, Adam did sin, he was the first to sin.

And we find in verse 12 here, Romans 5, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, Thus death spread to all men, so we all will die. Why?

Because all sin, all have sin, and come short of the glory of God.

In verse 23, we've all sinned and fallen short.

So, brethren, you find that God revealed throughout the Old Testament, if people had eyes to see, ears to hear, understanding, that there would be a substitute for sin, that there was a need for a Savior, there was a need for someone to come along who would be there to forgive their sins.

Jesus Christ could not be slain as a spirit being.

You know, God is spirit. You don't go around killing God. He's spirit. He's all-powerful. He's the Almighty.

So how was God going to bring about the forgiveness of all sins, of all mankind?

Well, there had to be a perfect sacrifice to pay for those sins.

And in order to do that, Jesus Christ had to come to this earth as a human being.

And so as we read back in Philippians 2, he was willing to best himself of the glory, the existence on a spirit level, come as an essence, a sperm cell that was placed into a egg.

And nine months later, there was a baby born. That baby grew up, matured into adulthood.

Never sinned, died on the state for our sins. He was God in the flesh.

Notice a number of scriptures that tell us exactly what Jesus Christ did and why He did it.

Isaiah 53 verse 6 to start with. I'll go over these very quickly.

Isaiah 53 verse 6. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned every one to his own way. Notice how that's put.

We have all gone after our own way, not God's way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

So all of our sins were placed on Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 20 and verse 28, we read, Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

So his life is like a ransom that is paid so that you and I could have our sins forgiven.

2 Corinthians 5.21 2 Corinthians 5.21 For he hath made him to be sin for us.

He never sinned, but he was made sin for us, who knew no sin.

That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

All of our sins were placed on him.

1 Peter 2.24 1 Peter 2.24 says, Who, his own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree.

That we, being dead to sins, should live under righteousness.

So God wants our sins to be buried, to be covered, and that from that time forward you and I should live under righteousness.

1 Peter 3.18 For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.

So, brethren, our minds have difficulty comprehending the depths of the love of God and the grace of God, that God was willing to give his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

So God was willing to give his Son, and Jesus Christ was willing, as a member of the Godhead, to come from that exalted position down to this earth and live as a human being for 33 and a half years, and never sin, to make it possible for us to have our sins forgiven, so that our sins could be covered. That's what Atonement means in the Old Testament, of covering.

So our sins are covered, and then we rise up, and then we receive God's nature placed within us.

His Spirit is placed within us through the laying on of hands.

And from that time forward, we are to grow, we are to overcome, we are to be righteous.

His sacrifice covers our sins, but that's only possible if we repent and are baptized.

We cannot continue in our own way any longer.

Now we strive to go God's way, do we not, brethren? But we don't do it perfectly. We stumble, we fail. But we pick ourselves up, we repent, and whenever you repent, God forgives those sins. He washes them away. They're covered again. And then we go forward to obey God.

I think from these and many other scriptures, it's clear that Christ was our substitute in bearing our sins on the cross.

We are exactly like a man in death row, who's about to be electrocuted.

And along comes someone else and says, let me die in his stead. He can go free.

And so Christ came, and he was willing to die. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3. We'll turn over and read that. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3.

For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also receive, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. So all of this is according to what God had written. If you back up to Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, we find this even more clearly stated.

Romans 5, 8. God demonstrated his own love toward us. So this shows the love of God, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Even while we were still sinners, you and I hadn't been born yet. We hadn't yet sinned, and Christ has already died for us. He died for all of those who sinned prior to his coming.

So while we were still sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified, or was made right in God, brought into a right relationship with Him.

By His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, brought into a right relationship with God.

Through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

We're not saved by His death, but by His life, by His Spirit dwelling in us. His sacrifice forgives our past sins, makes it possible for us to receive the Holy Spirit, and it is Christ living in us that will eventually give us eternal life.

You and I have the gift of eternal life dwelling in us.

It is obvious, according to the Scriptures, that Jesus Christ did not bear His own sins. He never sinned.

1 Peter 2, verse 22, says, Who committed no sins, nor was deceit found in His mouth. So Jesus Christ never sinned. We sinned. He did not.

In John 846, Jesus Christ was accused. Let's notice it here. John 846.

He said, Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? So they were trying to say that He was a sinner, and He was not.

When He died, He died for the sins of others, not for His own sins, because He did not sin. All of our sins were placed upon Christ.

And I think when Jesus Christ cried out to the Father, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? But He did so, because God had placed sin on Him, and He turned His back on Christ. And He was a sin sacrifice at that time.

As Hebrews 2.9 says, He tasted death for everyone. Hebrews 2.9 So you might ask the question again, what is wrong with sin, and why is it wrong?

Well, it comes back to one simple fact. There is only one way in the universe that works.

You might remember the catchphrase we used to have, God's way works.

But you know, that's true. That's sort of a simplification of what I've covered today. That God's way works, and only it works.

Why does it work? What about God's way makes it the right way, the good way? Because it always produces love in people, peace in people, joy in people, grace, forgiveness, the way of sin, in other words, any other way that a person might go, produces misery, suffering, heartaches, rebellion, war, anger, jealousies, hurt, harm, broken marriages, murders, lying, so on and so on and so on.

Now, someone might say, well, who says that's wrong? But people who suffer broken marriages are people who go to war and have a leg blast at all, or someone who has a loved one who is murdered or killed, or if you're robbed and beaten to death. You don't think that that's good.

Now, only God's way produces good in the right sense, without kickbacks. Man does good.

Man partakes of the tree of the knowledge good and evil, but there are always wrong motives and wrong approaches.

This human experience, brethren, the reason why we've been placed on this earth and allowed to live our lives out, is so that we can prove and we can see around us, and we can read history, and we can experience ourselves, that our way does not work. Man's way does not work. Satan's way does not work. Only God's way will work. What do you think God will do in the Millennium?

And then in the White Throne Judgment, when the Millennium begins, and when God resurrects all those people in the White Throne Judgment, let's use that especially as an example, they come up. They've all come from various time periods, various cultures, various ways of life, and they're going to come up with those ideas, and God's going to say, Nope, we're not going to go that way anymore. This is the way. Walk you in it. Now, their minds will be open at that point. They will understand God's truth, and they'll begin to live that way of life. They'll come up in the world that's had a thousand years of God's reign and rule.

A world that they'll be able to experience where there's no armies, no navies, no war colleges, none of the trappings, none of the problems that they see in this world. You see, at that time, man will come up, experience God's way of life, remember their way of life back here, and God will say, Choose.

So, on the millennium and the white throne judgment, which way of life do you think most people will choose? Well, the vast majority will choose to go God's way, because they will begin to experience it. They will have lived the wrong way.

You see, if man had never experienced and tried every form of government, every form of religion, every philosophy of life, every economic system, every way to govern and to control, and to find out that none of them worked, you point out to me what governments ever worked, solved man's problems, what philosophy or religions, as man practices them, that works. There is only one way that works, and that is God's way.

Brethren, God has given us the Passover every year, His Holy Days every year, to remind us of His plan and His purpose. He's given us the Passover every year to remind us of our need for a Savior. And you and I need to reflect upon the fact that we have sin, God has provided a Savior, He's willing to forgive us, and we need to make sure that we renew our commitment to God, that we renew our approach to God, that we redouble our effort to obey God, to serve God with all of our heart. Because God loved us so much that He gave His Son, and Christ loved us so much that He was willing to die for us. So let's never forget why sin is wrong and why only God's way is right.