EVEN GOOD PEOPLE ARE SINNERS

Sin is not a thing. It’s a condition; a privation of something good.

To ask about the origin of sin is like asking about the origin of darkness or the origin of decay. Just as darkness is the absence of light and decay is the absence of health, sin is the absence of goodness and respect (especially to God). Sin, like darkness and decay, is found in varying degrees.

Some people live very good lives with relatively little sin and some live wretched lives with considerable sin. But, regardless of degree, the fact is that every person is a sinner in the sight of God.

Reading the Bible will reveal sin and intensify a person’s conscience, but even without the Bible, everyone has an innate sense of right and wrong. To violate our God-given conscience is to sin (see Topics 5 and 6). We sin by doing what we know we should not do and by not doing what we know we should do.

It’s useless to measure degrees of sin because the Bible says: (a) Any unpardoned sin, however small the sin, is enough to keep a person out of heaven. (b) Accepting God’s offer gives a person complete pardon of all sin, however large the sin. Therefore, the issue is not the degree of our sin but rather the receiving of God’s pardon.

THE BIBLE GIVES PRINCIPLES BUT DOESNʼT DEFINE EVERY SIN

Sin is essentially a relationship matter. It’s only incidentally a performance matter. God cares more about our heart than our deeds.

The Bible doesn’t list and categorize every sin, but it gives us principles and real-life examples of the kind of relationship we should have with God and with other people. Here are the principles for a model relationship:

TEN COMMANDMENTS: Listed in Topic 38. (God to Moses, Exodus 20:3-17)

TWO GREATEST COMMANDMENTS: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. (Jesus, Matthew 22:37-39)

GOLDEN RULE: Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Jesus, Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31)

Sin is violation of these principles. Obviously, everyone is a sinner. By these standards, we can understand why the Bible says that ‘all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.’ Consequently, everyone is bound for hell unless he receives a pardon and God says he gives a pardon in only one way: upon confession of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as personal savior.

EVERYONE MUST CONFESS AND REPENT PERSONALLY

To get the benefits of God’s offer (see Topic 56) and to establish a relationship with him, the Bible says we must recognize our sinful condition and confess and repent to him... personally!

A person doesn’t have to name every sin but he must at least acknowledge his general sin nature, his disgust with it and his desire to change.

A prayer by a clergyman during a church service or mass imploring God to forgive the sins of the congregation is a good gesture of corporate contrition, but it’s not sufficient to forgive anyone’s sin unless the individual also prays it for himself... personally!

With God, confession and repentance is not a mechanical or corporate matter. It’s a personal matter, from the heart, direct with God. No one can do it for another.

REPENTANCE IS SINCERE SORROW FOR PAST SIN

Repentance means seeing our sin from God’s perspective and being sincerely sorry for it.

Our natural inclination is to justify sin and to minimize and make excuse for it. But in repentance we humble ourselves before God and repudiate our sin.

The keen awareness of the holiness of God and the indignity of our sin causes sorrow, but the presence or absence of tears does not measure genuineness of repentance.

REPENTANCE IS ESSENTIAL CONDITION OF GODʼS OFFER

Many people don’t take God’s offer seriously because it seems too simple to be believable. Human experience teaches us to be suspicious when something of great value is offered free of charge. Most thinking people usually dismiss such offers as bogus or ask, ʻWhat’s the catch?’

In a way, there is a catch to God’s offer: He will not give us new life unless we confess our sins and sincerely desire to turn from them. This change of mind and intention away from sin and toward God is called repentance. It’s only through repentance that we can receive God’s forgiveness. We must sincerely desire to live a new and better kind of life.

SUPERFICIAL REPENTANCE DOESNʼT FOOL GOD

There must be genuine repentance, otherwise God won’t answer a person’s prayer for forgiveness. A person can’t fool God into thinking he’s sorry for his sins if he’s not truly sorry or doesn’t want to discontinue them.

BIOLOGICALLY, NO ONE IS BORN A CHRISTIAN

A person may be born into a Christian culture, a Christian family or the Christian religion, but no one is ever born a ‘Christian.’

A person becomes a Christian (using God’s definition) by personal decision, never by biological birth.

No one can chose the circumstances of his birth or upbringing, but everyone who has heard about God’s offer of new life must choose whether or not to accept the offer.

When a person accepts it, he becomes a Christian. As long as he rejects (or ignores) the offer, he’s not a Christian; even though he may espouse Christian principles, exhibit Christian virtues and may even call himself a Christian and be a baptized member of a Christian church.

CHURCH CANʼT MAKE ANYONE A CHRISTIAN

A church can give valuable instruction, but it can never make anyone a Christian by declaration or rite. Becoming a Christian is an individual decision, not a group decision.

New life can never be bestowed by an organization as a privilege of membership or as an award for compliance. Faithfulness in church attendance and performance of religious rituals can never make anyone a Christian.

GOOD WORKS CANʼT MAKE ANYONE A CHRISTIAN

A person’s good works can never make him a Christian, regardless of the degree of sincerity and diligence.

Good works are part of the Christian life, but they are by-products of the life, not the causes or prerequisites of it.

PAYMENT CANʼT MAKE ANYONE A CHRISTIAN

A person can never become a Christian by paying a price. A Christian has a position with God and a relationship with God, which can’t be acquired like a product or service. Rich and poor receive it the same way... as a free gift.

PRAYERS OF OTHERS CANʼT MAKE ANYONE A CHRISTIAN

The prayers or actions of others can’t make anyone a Christian, either now or after death.

In this lifetime, each person must make his own personal decision regarding Jesus Christ; to either accept him as Savior or reject him as Savior. There’s no way around this personal encounter.

Others may pray that a loved one will accept Christ and these prayers may heighten the Holy Spirit’s call to that person. In this way, a person may experience the effect of other people’s prayers and thus have greater spiritual sensitivity, but the person must make his or her own decision to accept or reject Jesus Christ.

TO REJECT JESUS CHRIST IS TO REJECT GOD

In dealing with us, God has vested himself completely in Jesus Christ, who he’s put in charge of all divine-human relationships on planet earth (see Topic 43). For us who know about Christ, it’s not possible to take God without taking Christ. A person’s response to Christ is his response to God and his rejection of Christ is his rejection of God.

What about other religions? What about people who have never heard of Jesus Christ? (The answers to these questions are found in Topics 10-18, 27-28, 32, 58 and 61.) These questions are often a smoke screen for people who don’t want to face the fact that they must personally decide either to accept or reject Jesus Christ and their indecision is a form of rejection.

OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE IS A PRINCIPLE OF LIFE

Our whole society functions on the basis of offer and acceptance. This is the basis of all contractual relationships. For example:

• A dealer offers merchandise... a buyer accepts by paying the price and taking the merchandise.
• A person offers his time and skills to a company... the company accepts by hiring him.
• A man offers to be the woman’s husband... the woman accepts by marrying him.

God’s way of dealing with us is not illogical or unrelated to these kinds of ordinary human contractual experiences. Every day we are bombarded with offers, which we either accept or reject, consciously or subconsciously. The quality of our life depends upon which offers we accept and which we reject.

The Bible says clearly and repeatedly that salvation (from hell) is an offer from God. We understand because we have already learned the concept of offer and acceptance from our dealings with other people.

AN OFFER IS WITHOUT BENEFIT UNTIL ACCEPTED

The best offer in the world is worthless unless it’s accepted. In legal terms, there’s no deal without offer and acceptance.

It’s of no consequence that a person is too busy to hear or fully understand the offer. If he has notice that an offer is being made, it’s his responsibility to investigate it. Failure to investigate means forfeiting all benefits that could accrue from it.

IGNORING AN OFFER IS SAME AS REJECTING IT

Future intentions don’t count. Even though a person may plan to investigate an offer at some later time, the fact is that every offer is rejected unless or until it is accepted. Ignoring or procrastinating is a form of rejection.

By not accepting now, a person is at risk of having the offer withdrawn or facing changed circumstances. God’s offer of new life terminates upon our death, which could happen quickly and unexpectedly, leaving us with no second chance. Ignoring God’s offer now is a foolish risk.

A FREE GIFT IS BEST POSSIBLE KIND OF OFFER

A gift is a particular type of offer. It’s given without requirement that something be given in return. But even with a gift, there’s no way to get the benefits without accepting it. A gift is never forced upon a person – it’s only offered.

The Bible says that salvation is an offer from God… but more than that, it’s a FREE gift. But just knowing that a gift is available doesn’t make it ours. We have to reach out and personally take it.

GOD DOESNʼT ACCEPT COUNTER OFFERS

When a person doesn’t like an offer and proposes something else, he has rejected the original offer and made a counter offer.

It’s effrontery when we do this to God. His offer is spelled out in the Bible and it’s the same offer to everyone. God doesn’t entertain counter offers and a person deludes himself by thinking he can negotiate a special deal with God.

EXCHANGE IS A BASIC PRINCIPLE OF LIFE

The world functions on the basis of exchange. For example:

• Through trees and plants, sunlight is exchanged for oxygen
• Through our bodies, food is exchanged for energy
• Through steam turbines, coal is exchanged for electricity
• Through bulbs, electricity is exchanged for light
• Through employment, labor is exchanged for money
• Through markets, money is exchanged for goods

Nothing is free. Every benefit has a cost, involving some kind of exchange. In the spiritual realm, we learn from the Bible that:

• Through Jesus Christ, our sin is exchanged for God’s righteousness

SACRIFICE IS A COMMON TYPE OF EXCHANGE

Because some kind of exchange underlies every benefit, it’s assumed by most people that we must pay to get benefits from God. In religious terminology, these supposed exchanges are called ‘sacrifices’ (what man gives to get God’s favor). The religions of the world specify thousands of sacrifices of various kinds: giving offerings, doing certain things, refraining from doing certain things, performing rites and rituals.

The ultimate benefit we can get from God – new life (see Topics 56, 59 and 62) requires an exchange. However, the exchange doesn’t require a sacrifice from us. Instead, it requires only personal acceptance of a sacrifice already made for us by him!

A big difference! Only God could provide a sacrifice that’s an adequate exchange for all of our sins.

JESUS CHRIST MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

In the Old Testament – before Christ came – God directed people to make sacrifices to him in order to make amends for their wrongdoings. The most important kind of sacrifice was a blood sacrifice (see Topic 33). This demonstrated the exchange principle with regard to sin: forgiveness is given in exchange for a blood sacrifice.

Why blood? Because blood is the essence of life. It’s the highest price anyone can pay.

The Old Testament sacrifices help us understand what Christ did by dying (literally shedding his blood) on the cross. Without seeing the exchange principle, we might think his death was just a tragedy at the hands of misinformed men. But the Bible says his death was not a mistake. It was the main reason he came to earth – to exchange his life for ours – to take our sin and give us his righteousness.

In simple language, here’s what the Bible says:

Our sins will be punished. That’s a fact, consistent with God’s holiness and justice. There’s no way around it.

The only question is, will our sins be laid on us or laid on Jesus Christ? If they’re laid on us, we’re punished in hell. If they’re laid on Jesus, we escape hell and (being sin-free) are rewarded in heaven.

That’s the marvel of the great exchange. Because God is not only holy and just, but is also love, he gives us the opportunity to willfully exchange our sin for Christ’s righteousness!

It’s an absolutely staggering thought. It’s so simple that even a child can understand it, yet so profound that the wisest philosopher cannot fully grasp it.

God’s spiritual designs – like his physical designs – are mind-boggling to us, yet they are evident enough for us to use and enjoy; they are downright exciting.

CHRISTIAN LIFE IS AN EXCHANGED LIFE

God offers us new life through Jesus Christ. A Christian is one who has accepted the offer.

A Christian has exchanged his old life for a new one and in this exchange his sin is replaced by Christ’s righteousness. Therefore, he’s no longer guilty in the sight of God and thus is ‘saved’ from hell. (For information about heaven and hell, see Topics 50-51. Recognize also that not everyone who says he’s a Christian really is, as explained in Topics 11 and 62-64.)

The Bible uses the word ‘redeemed’ to express this exchange concept and Jesus Christ is called our ‘Redeemer.’ Then, as now, the term means to exchange something of lesser value for something of greater value. The term had emotional meaning in Bible times because it also referred to a kinsman who buys back a family member who had been taken into slavery.

The concept of an exchanged life is so incredibly simple, yet so profound, that we can hardly comprehend it. Said another way, here’s the simplicity of it:

No one can get to heaven unless he’s totally righteous. Christ offers to give us his total righteousness, so that – if we accept him – when God looks at us he sees Christ’s righteousness rather than our sin.

The irony is that God’s plan is so simple and so easy that most people won’t believe it. Not only do we get eternity in heaven, but we get a better life right now (weight of sin lifted from us, warmth of God’s love, Holy Spirit within and much more, as explained in Topic 44). It all seems too good to be true!

Because it’s so easy, God’s plan goes against our nature. There’s something within us that says we should work or pay for heaven, in our own way. The idea that our righteousness, even at its best, is not good enough for heaven is insulting to us and it’s difficult for us to humble ourselves enough to acknowledge to God that we are unworthy of heaven.

When it comes to the moment of decision, our sinful nature is threatened and tells us to wait until a later time to exchange our life (give it up) for Christ’s life (a new nature we take on). The Bible says, however, that a person is not a Christian until he purposefully and willfully makes this exchange with God.

GOD WONʼT VIOLATE HIS OWN CHARACTER

The Bible reveals two dimensions to God: One dimension is what he does (function) and the other is who he is (character). We can best understand his actions when we know his character, because actions proceed from character.

God’s essential character is HOLY, JUST and LOVE (see Topics 46-49), evoking each of the following responses to our sin:

JUST ➞ identify sin (punish sinners)
HOLY ➞ hate sin (withdraw from sinners)
LOVE ➞ tolerate sin (pardon sinners)

Obviously, our sin poses a dilemma for God. It appears that whatever action he chooses, he would violate some aspect of his own character. With respect to our sin, it seems impossible for God to be holy, just and love all at the same time.

• If God were to punish us – as justice dictates – he couldn’t pardon us.
• If God were to withdraw from us – as holiness dictates – he couldn’t have a personal relationship with us.
• If God were to pardon us – as love dictates – he would violate holiness and justice; making them meaningless.

We could speculate forever on the possible ways he could reconcile this situation without violating his own character, but the important thing isn’t what he could have done, but what he actually did.

In everything we know about God and his creation, we see that his plan is awesome – staggering to our minds – and thus we can expect that his solution to this dilemma will also be awesome. And it is!

We learn (in Topics 53-59) that God resolved the dilemma by coming to earth in human body (1) to tell us about our sin problem, (2) to bear the punishment for our sin himself, and (3) to give us a pardon for our sin! This solution allows him to be thoroughly HOLY, JUST and LOVE, all at the same time, without any conflict of character.

This story illustrates the principle:

The judge has just imposed the sentence, a very large fine. The agony for him is that the defendant is his own son and his son has no money. The judge hates crime and is commit­ted to enforcing the law, but he still loves his son and doesn’t want him to go to jail. So the judge steps down from the bench and offers to pay the fine himself.

On a much grander scale, this is what God did in love to resolve our sin problem without violating his own principles or character.

RECONCILIATION IS THE MAIN THEME OF THE BIBLE

There’s a rift between God and man, caused by our sin.

Knowledge of this rift is built right into us and it’s the basis of every religion. Our instinct says that we do wrong things that offend God and we need to do something to make it right. Throughout history, people have been trying to find better ways to make peace with God. Most religions say we must appease God by obeying rules, performing rituals and offering sacrifices. But the Bible says that doesn’t do any good.

Throughout the Bible, there’s a frequently recurring question: How can God and humanity be reconciled? Or, put another way: Can anything we do bridge the gulf between holiness and sin; between God and humanity?

Sin is mankind’s biggest problem (see Topic 6). We all have it in our lives, some more than others and some worse than others. But for everyone it’s a reality that can’t be denied. We try to control and suppress it, but it’s hard work and usually a losing battle. Its a heavy feeling, a dirty feeling, a nagging feeling. It blocks our relationship with God and robs us of genuine happiness. We want to stop it, get rid of it. But how? The picture of the natural human condition is people struggling without God, and often struggling against God.

What’s needed is ‘reconciliation,’ which means a changed relationship for the better between persons who were formerly estranged from each other. It’s a relationship issue, not a performance issue. When the relationship is right, performance improves, but that’s the minor part of it. The major part is that God is a divine person (see Topic 46) and wants a personal relationship with each of us (see Topic 48).

Reconciliation is the main theme of the Bible, from cover to cover. Reconciliation occurs not when we do something great for God, but when we understand and accept the great thing he’s done for us through Jesus Christ.