Believer's Bay

Believer's Bay

Sharing the Love of God with Common Sense

This month's articles and columns are listed above.

Sin - What is it?

Why do we have it?

Sin is not a very popular word.  When people hear the word sin, they shy away from it or from anyone who is presenting the topic.  We trust that you will read this page and the articles for this month and ponder sin and what it is.

Sin is the transgression of God's law.  Perhaps the difficulty comes in defining God's law.  God's law is love.  God's law is about loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and being and also loving our neighbor as ourselves.  If we think about it, all sin comes under that umbrella of love.  The difficulty comes when we try to nail down the law.  Some say it is just the 10 Commandments, which are no longer welcome in many places in our nation; some say it is far more than 10 commandments but rather more like 10 million commandments because we not only do not kill but now we are not to even hate someone. 

Jesus came to fulfill the law NOT to do away with it. 

That is the TRUTH?

Are we interested in TRUTH or just to make our religion fit comfortably into our own wants and lifestyles of a materialistic society?  

The reason we have sin in the world is because it entered into the world through Adam.  However, we have all been set free from sin by the sacrifice of Jesus.  He died on the cross to pay our penalty for the sins we have committed.  He paid it all.  NOT so we can continue to sin, but so we can be covered in his mercy and grace.  The mercy of God is when we do not get the punishment we deserve and the grace of God is when we get the gift of eternal life in spite of ourselves. 

Many see SIN as a negative topic.  It is really a positive one, in that, while we were sinners Christ died for us and He did that knowing we could and would sin even after salvation.  Yes we sin even after salvation.  That means we need to constantly come to God in prayer and ask forgiveness and He is faithful to forgive the repentant sinner, .......that would be ALL of us. 

Satan has several ploys he uses to draw us away from God.  He first of all makes God out to be unfair.  He did that in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve.  He also makes us fell condemned.  We ARE guilty when we sin, be when we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are NOT condemned, we have been set free from that condemnation by Jesus sacrifice for us.  There is therefore now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...it goes on to say in Roman 8:1- 2 that those who are led by the Spirit follow the things of the Spirit!  

That is just totally AWESOME!!! 

Another ploy Satan uses against us is compromise.  He pushes us to compromise on what we know is right, and then when we do he then accuses us for doing the very thing he egged us into doing.  He does not play fair.  He is the unfair one. 

Remember, once we have given our lives to Jesus and accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, Satan can not pluck us from our Father's hand.  BUT remember, Satan will do his best to get us to quit, to get us discouraged and dispondent so we give up, so we run away from God.  He doesn't want us running to God because He is the answer to all the questions.  He doesn't want us to pray because our communication with our God is how we build our relationship with Him.  Satan can't keep us from our God, but he can try to get us to willingly turn away. 

The choice is ours. 

God sets before us life and death.  He wants us to choose LIFE.  He wants us to run TO Him not from Him.  He wants us to pray even if, and especially if we have just sinned.  Satan will whisper in our ear that we can't pray because we have just sinned, but that is exactly what we DO need to do.  After all, if we don't go to God in prayer is that going to hide it from God?  He sees everything.  So He is just waiting for us to come to Him in prayer and confess what we have done and then ENJOY the wonderful relationship with Him that He wants to have with us.