God told Adam and Eve not to do a certain, single thing and if they disobeyed, and did the thing, He said they would "surely die". Both the Hebrew and Greek words for "die" and "death" mean separation. Physical death is separation from the body and spiritual death is separation from God. Both Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command, did the thing He forbade them to do and they died spiritually (lost their relationship with God), the moment they disobeyed, they began at that same moment to die physically. I believe that God's killing of innocent animals, probably sheep, shedding their blood to cover their spiritual and physical nakedness, with animal skins, was a type of the coming Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and cover our spiritual nakedness.
Adam and Eve committed just one sin, the sin of disobedience to God's single command, "Thou shalt not". That one sin, of disobedience, was bad enough to condemn them to separation from God instantly and from the life in their bodies ... in His own time. And we inherited that inclination to sin.
So one sin condemned Adam and Eve to death, separation from God and eventual separation from their bodies... ONE SIN! James the son of Joseph and Mary, Jesus' half brother, made it perfectly plain that to commit one sin, any sin, is to break all the Law of God.
"If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: (It fulfills all the Law of God). But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou are become a transgressor of the law." James 2:8-11
"If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: (It fulfills all the Law of God). But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou are become a transgressor of the law." James 2:8-11
"The Law". "The" is a definite article meaning a single, unique thing, one of a kind. The Law of God is one single, unique thing.
Who, today, would think "respect of persons" is a sin equal to breaking the entirety of God's Law? That one sin makes a person guilty of breaking THE LAW which God gave in the Pentateuch (First five books). "Respect of persons" is condemned six times in the Old Testament and seven in the New Testament. It is the sin of showing fairness to your friends, and those you want to impress, and unfairness to everyone or anyone else. Jesus said the "Royal Law" is loving God with all your heart, mind and soul, and everyone else with the love, fairness (respect) you expect and give yourself. The verse above reveals the gravity of all sin. One sin, without repentance to God, His forgiveness, and your acceptance of His Son's death on the cross to cover your sins, is enough to send your soul to hell.
So the next question is, if partiality of judgment (respect of persons), for one against another, is that serious, that bad, to what degree of guilt in our Law breaking classifies us as guilty of breaking the entirety of God's Law and Commandments? Since "not bearing false witness" is the 9th Commandment, how precise must be our witness of what we saw, heard or understand? A lie is telling something we know is not exactly true. A little white lie is still a lie. Exaggerating a thing beyond or less than the pure truth is a lie. Not every falsehood is a lie. If we tell something we think is true but is a falsehood is not a lie but a falsehood. So if we knowingly exaggerate, we are guilty of "bearing false witness" intentionally, knowing it is not exactly true. Exaggeration is by definition intentional. So intentional exaggeration is a sin and breaks the ninth Commandment and therefore all the other Commandments and the totality of God's Law. If smoking pot is a sin, so is one puff. If drinking whisky is a sin, so is one swallow. If lying is sin, so is one small deviation from the truth. So here we have the unvarnished truth. "...Let God be true, and every man a liar...." Rom.3:4. "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar, and his word is not in us." 1 John 1:10. Jesus said, "..There is none good but one, that is, God." Mark 10:18. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23. So we all worthy of hell and unworthy of salvation.
All of that being understood, it becomes clear that we are not saved in the least by any or all of our good works, for one sin takes on the guilt of breaking all of God's Law and condemns us all to hell. That is why Salvation is by grace through faith, not any measure of our goodness or our good works.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph.2:8-9.
How much sin does it take to lose your salvation? If you could lose God's salvation, which you never deserved in the first place, do not deserve now and never will deserve, it would just take one sin. Even the smallest of sins is grievously unacceptable to God and would condemn our souls to hell ... except for God's grace received through your faith in His remedy for sin, Jesus Christ dying in your place.
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9.
No comments:
Post a Comment