What word in the Bible do I believe is the most important, even more so than justice, love, truth and even faith?
Sin.
Sin means to miss the mark, to offend. It indicates that there is someone that set the mark. Which further indicates there is someone who claims to have the authority to set the mark.
On what basis can one claim such authority? The very word “authority” suggest the answer: authorship.
Sin demands a Creator who has the authority of ownership and thereby the right to set the mark.
According to the Bible, the Creator set that mark for us to be His representatives in the earth, to be caretakers of it. But we were not satisfied with being His representatives and in ignorance of the knowledge and power it takes to sustain creation, we rejected His rule and made for ourselves gods we could understand and control so that we could be the rulers and sit on the throne instead of God. In our effort to gain and to maintain power we have suppressed what can be known of God even apart from the revelation of Holy Scripture by creating false and distracting narratives. In our ignorance, we were also unaware of the immutable spiritual law that to whosever’s idea you yield or to command you obey, you become that person’s slave. Furthermore, we did not understand that ideas do not originate with us: they either stem from Truth or Lies, Good or Evil. As such, by obeying a command stemming from lies we did not become rulers as we thought but subjects, trading the rule of a loving God for the rule of the Father of Lies. We thereby entered in league with Satan and acting as his subjects, we threw the world into disorder, injustice and evil.
We missed the mark.
We used what has been given to us for purposes other than what the Giver intended, thereby opposing and offending God which is sin. There was yet another immutable law, the penalty of sin is death. Sin is opposed to God and whatever opposes God will be destroyed. We are all guilty under this law, leaving corruption and death in our wake and becoming enemies of the Creator, appointed to destruction.
But, God.
But, God was not caught unaware. In fact it was part of His design. Before time, He purposed to grow His beloved family, accounted for our weakness and prepared a Way out for those who were born into corruption but would accept His Love.
In His tender mercy and His loving kindness, God humbled Himself to plea His case with the creatures He made! He spoke through messengers and even established an entire nation to demonstrate the impossible task of humans bridging the gap between themselves and God, even if we were given the instructions!
These were tutors to humble us and bring us back to square one that upholding and governing the universe –achieving good, requires that God does it. But even more than that, it was to prepare us for His greatest act of Love yet, making His appeal to us flesh and walk among us. Such was God’s desire to be with us that He came and made His case to us directly in the person of Jesus Christ!
But not only that, Jesus was sent to take back the creation we lost by being a human that presents Himself obedient to God, being a caretaker of creation, advancing the kingdom of God by taking dominion of the earth, submitting everything that enters His domain to the Father, translating it from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.
Not only that, He sent Jesus to satisfy the penalty of sin -death, by dying Himself, so that there would no longer be any separation between us and God. Being a perfect man in whom the fullness of God dwells, Jesus is a sacrifice who’s worth can cover all the sin of all mankind; past, present and future. So great is His worth that His sacrifice forever tips the scale so that grace continually abounds toward us.
Not only that, when we believe that God sent the Son, we agree with God about our sin, that the penalty is just, that we are incapable of setting things right, that He alone is good and fit to rule and we, having now no reason to boast, are at His mercy to restore us and all creation.
Not only that, for those that humble themselves, acknowledge their error and place all their hope in Christ, so great is God’s love towards us that rather than leave them subjects, He gives us robes and crowns and makes us sons and daughters! Hallelujah!!!
In this age, by the tutelage Christ’s example provides but moreover by the power God provides and that we receive through faith, we are transformed and given a new heart -a new center of our being with new desires. We want what God wants and walk as Christ walked -living obedient to God, submitting everything in our domain to Christ as he continually translates everything from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light until that day when all things have been put under His feet -where all evil, darkness and even death have been abolished. Our ultimate hope is the resurrection that begins the age where we reign with Christ and live with our loving Father and all those that love Him forever.
To many, this is utter foolishness but if any of this resonates with you, you are being saved.
You need only need to confess a belief at the center of your being (in your heart) that the Father sent the Son and raised Him from the dead to be saved -saved from the death your sin is contributing to the world now and the second death later; the wrath of God to come.
If you want to learn more, start here: https://bit.ly/39ipuDP
I love you.
