What is sin? Many interpret sin as simply ‘missing the mark of God's Perfection’, but sin goes way beyond this interpretation. Sin is in reality ‘open rebellion and insubordination towards the Will and Laws of God'. Sin will always result in mankind becoming separated from fellowship with God.
In Isaiah 59:2 we read…
But your iniquities [sins] have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
God does not hear the prayers of those who are in rebellion towards Him. They will always remain separated from God until such time as they willfully choose to turn to God [Jesus Christ] for the salvation of their souls.
The Origin of Sin In Mankind…
How did sin originate in all of mankind?
In Genesis 2:16-17 we read…
And the Lord God commanded the man saying *Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
It is important for us to understand that Adam willfully sinned [willfully rebelled] against God in the Garden of Eden when he ate of the forbidden fruit. When Adam's help-mate Eve offered him the forbidden fruit, Adam deliberately chose to disobey the command that God gave to him in Genesis 2:16-17 to not eat of the forbidden fruit.
The Holy Scriptures tell us that Eve was deceived by the serpent Satan the devil into eating the forbidden fruit, but Adam was not deceived by the serpent into eating the forbidden fruit, Adam willfully chose to eat the forbidden fruit offered to him by his new help-mate Eve.
In 2 Corinthians 11:3 the apostle Paul wrote…
"But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness . . ."
In Genesis 3:17 we read…
Then to Adam He said,"Because you haveheeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying 'You shall not eat of it’ “. . .
Question! -- Why didn't Adam drop over dead after he ate the forbidden fruit? …Didn't God say "…for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die"?
The truth is that Adam diddie "in the day" that he ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden but Adam didn't die physically, he “died spiritually”!
On the day that Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, God cursed all of the generations of Adam with the same spiritual death that Adam experienced on that day in the Garden of Eden. Yes, all of Adams descendants, including all of us who are living today, were born into this world physically alive and spiritually dead.
It is important to understand that all of mankind is born into this world with Adam's ‘sin nature’. …For instance, do you have to teach a young child howto do wrong? -- No, the choice to do wrong comes naturally for a child. The reason we have to teach children to make right choices in life is because of their natural ability to make wrong choices! -- Why? -- The answer is that every person that has ever been born into this world except One (Jesus Christ), has born into the world with a ‘nature to sin’that we have all inherited from Adam. – This ‘sin nature’ that we inherited from Adam is also called "the original sin” in some religious denominations.
In Romans 5:19 we read:
For as by one man's disobedience [Adam’s] many were made sinners…
The Root Cause of Mankind's Sin Nature…
The root cause of the sin nature that we have all inherited from Adam is "self-pride and self-ambition", or in plain language an – “I’ll do it my way!" -- attitude.
God gave Adam and Eve, and all of mankind ‘free will choices’ to love Him. God didn't want to force mankind to love Him when he made mankind because then mankind would have been like robots. God wants mankind to love Him as a choice of their free will, not because they had to love Him.
God wanted mankind to have a free will to make right and wrong choices as well. Therefore it was Adam’s free choice to say…"I'm going to choose my own way in this matter; I'm going to eat of the fruit even though God has said it is forbidden!"
All sins (plural) are derived from what God calls sin (singular). Sin (singular) is the sinnature itself, the ‘self-pride and self ambition nature’ that all of mankind inherited from Adam. There is not one sin that mankind commits in this world against God that is not derived from the self-pride and self-ambition nature. All lying, stealing cheating gossiping drunkenness, adultery idolatry, sexual immorality, etc., are all wrong choice actions of mankind's will that are done to please ourselves (self-pride) rather than to please God. Therefore, all of the sins that mankind commits against God are the result of the ‘sin nature’ (original sin) that still dwells within all of mankind, including those who made a choice to become Christians.
THE SIN OF PRIDE …
In Proverbs 8:13 we read…
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way…
God hates the sin of ‘PRIDE’ more than any other sin! – Why? – Because the sin of ‘pride’ is what violated God’s authority on the throne in Heaven. Pride was the very first sin ever committed in the Universe and it was NOT committed by man…it was committed by an evil cherub angel who is better known as Satan the devil. The very same ‘pride and arrogance’ that is master of Satan’s life is what causes mankind to want to override God’s authority over their lives! When we yield to Satan’s temptations to engage in sin we are in reality committing the sin of pride. – How? – Because when we yield to his temptations we are actually becoming openly defiant towards the will of God for our lives.
We are able to see a perfect example of mankind’s pride going into action during the building of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:4-9 …
"And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."
THE BLINDNESS OF SIN …
There are many individuals in this world today who don't believe that they are sinners, but the Holy Scriptures are very clear that all of mankind has sinned against God; including the highest religious authorities in all of the religions in this world! – No one who ever lived on this earth hasnot sinned, including Mary the mother of Jesus! - Only Jesus Christ Himself lived on this earth without sin!
In 1 John 1:8 we read…
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
In Ecclesiastes 7:20 we read…
For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.
In Romans 3:10 we read…
As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one.'
In Psalm 53:3 we read…
Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
In Romans 3:20 we read…
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
In 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 the Apostle Paul wrote…
But even if our gospel ["good news" about Jesus Christ] is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age [Satan] has blinded who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God should shine on them.
The above Holy Scripture verses tell us that the god of this age [Satan] has “blinded the minds" of many in this world. He has blinded them to the fact that they are indeed sinners and that they are in need of a Savior to rescue them from the consequence of their sin problem!
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN (OF BEING A SINNER) …
The Holy Scriptures tell us that there are consequences for mankind having sinned against God.
In Romans 5:12 we read…
Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus deathspread to all men, because all sinned.
In Ezekiel 18:20 we read…
The soul who sins shall die.
In Romans 6:23 we read…
For the wages of sin is death.
It is clear from the above verses of Holy Scripture that all of mankind has received a death penalty for having sinned (having been openly rebellious and insubordinate) against the Laws and will of God.
But it gets worse for those who refuse to repent of their sins and to accept Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross as being a full pardon and complete cleansing of all of their sins forever.
In Hebrews 9:27 we read…
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment…
THE JUDGMENT ...
Not only is mankind appointed to die once (physical death), but after physical death there is going to be a judgment. – What is going to happen at this judgment? – The Holy Scriptures are very clear about what is going to happen at this judgment.
In Revelation 20:11-15 we read…
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
In Revelation 21:8 we read…
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone:which is the second death.
We learn from the above verses of Holy Scripture that all of the dead who are not found written in God’s Book of Life will die a second death, and when this 'second death' occurs the soul of the unrepentant sinner will be cast into an eternal lake of fire!
The word "death" means "separation". -- Death always results in ‘separation’. -- For instance, when Adam and Eve died their “spiritual death” they became separated from God….He cast them out of the Garden of Eden. – When unrepentant sinners under go a “second death” they will become ‘eternally separated’ from God by being cast into an eternal lake of fire rather than being able to spend "eternal life" with God [Jesus Christ].
The Unpardonable Sin There is one sin that God will absolutely NOT FORGIVE in this world, or in the next world. It is a sin against the Holy Spirit of God. In Matthew 12:31-32, we read… Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgivenunto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. In Mark 3:28-29, we read… Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. What is “the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost” that will never be forgiven men? ---The Holy Spirit of God is the one who convicts and regenerates the ‘spiritually dead souls’ of men and women unbelievers who repent of their sin and believe that Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross has cleansed them of all of their sin.
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN ...
There is one sin that God will absolutely NOT FORGIVE in this world, or in the next world. It is a sin against the Holy Spirit of God.
In Matthew 12:31-32, we read…
"Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgivenunto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come."
In Mark 3:28-29, we read…
"Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation."
What is “the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost” that will never be forgiven men? ---The Holy Spirit of God is the one who convicts and regenerates the ‘spiritually dead souls’ of men and women unbelievers who repent of their sin and believe that Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross has cleansed them of all of their sin.
When an unbeliever becomes convicted by the Holy Spirit of God that they need a Savior to save them from the consequence of eternal punishment in an everlasting lake of fire for their past sins, but that unbeliever willfully chooses to reject the free forgiveness of sin that God offers to them for their sin problem up to the time they die a physical death …it is then that the unrepentant sinner has committed the UNPARDONABLE SIN.
How sad that billions of people in the world today who hear the Gospel of Christ preached to them refuse to repent and believe the Gospel. These individuals are all willfully committing the Unpardonable Sin and if they physically die before becoming a ‘spiritually born again’ Christian believer they will be condemned to the ‘second death’ in an everlasting lake of fire.
