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Thank you,
Valencia Baker
Sin is an important matter, even though The Church may say otherwise.
“You don’t need to focus so much on sin!”
Okay.
The focus of sin is not to make you feel condemned that you can’t do anything right, or The Most High is forever mad at you. The focus of sin is to make you understand sin is the very thing that’s keeping you back from wholeness and uprightness in Christ and having true intimacy with Him. Therefore, you should fight this fierce and predatory foe.
“So…What Is Sin?”
1 John 3:4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
When you see “law”, this means whatever He has commanded is to be exalted and obeyed. For example, if The Most High told me, “Go and do this...”, and if I don’t do it, then I would be sinning against Him. Whenever The I AM commands us to do something (in His Word or personally) and we do NOT do it, we have sinned against Him. Sin is disobeying The Most High.
Sin is rebellion.
In the Blue Letter Bible, sin is described as “to miss the mark”; “to err, be mistaken”; but this is my favorite, “to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do, or go wrong” because we are leaving the path of obedience and righteousness to follow our own desires in disobedience (sin).
Transgression means to “turn away”; “to go away”; “to depart”; “the condition of without law (ignorantly or violently)”; and “contempt or to violate the law”. Sin, rebellion, wickedness, evil, transgression, iniquity, and unrighteousness all fall under the same umbrella of what The Most High HATES. The keyword is “HATES” because you will not see The Most High say, “I dislike this…I like this.” It is either He loves it or He hates it.
And He hates sin.
“When Did Sin Enter Man?”
In Genesis 2, The Most High created Adam from the dust of the ground, blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and he became a living soul. Therefore, the complete man is made out of three components: spirit (the breath of life from The I AM), soul (emotions, intellect, and will), and body (the dust of the ground). He placed Adam into The Garden of Eden to cultivate it. The Most High gave Adam a commandment, while in The Garden, in Genesis 2:17, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Afterwards, The I AM put Adam into a deep sleep; took one of his ribs; and formed him an appropriate helpmeet–woman. Adam named the woman, Eve—the mother of all living.
Entering chapter 3 of Genesis (Genesis 3:1-6), the serpent, who is being used by Satan, is introduced. The serpent began to beguile Eve with his deceit and craft.
He asked her, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”
She replied, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”
The serpent beguiled her with, “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Eve began to see that the tree was good for food; it was pleasant to the eyes; and a tree to be desired to make one wise. Notice Eve submitted to all three temptations that lead to sin, based on 1 John 2:16: the lust of the flesh (“the tree was good for food”); the lust of the eyes (“it was pleasant to the eyes”); and the pride of life (“desired to make one wise”). She decided to take the fruit of the tree and eat, and also gave it to her husband, and Adam ate the fruit as well.
Brief intercession...
Remember what sin is–the transgression of The Most High’s laws. Adam was aware of The Most High’s laws and so was Eve. There have been arguments on whether Eve sinned or if it was just Adam, but I will provide Biblical truth to you. In Genesis 3:2-3, we are shown Eve is made aware of the law. Therefore, she knew what The Most High commanded. She is held to the standard of the law just as Adam. Consequently, they both sinned. 1 Timothy 2:14 further supports the woman sinned as well, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
Deception does not excuse sin.
The Word of God will exclaim in Romans 5:12-19,
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world…”
“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one…”
“Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation…”
and, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…” because the responsibility was placed on Adam as the leader and head of Man. We are shown The Most High held Adam accountable by questioning him first before the others:
Genesis 3:11, ”And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”
This order of questioning makes sense because picture a business organizational structure–a typical one like a store manager, assistant manager, and a crew of employees. When the employees do wrong, who would the store manager go to first? The assistant manager because they were responsible for supervising the crew of employees. It doesn’t mean the employees didn’t do wrong, but the responsibility is placed on the assistant manager.
Eve sinned, but The Most High focused on Adam first because the responsibility was placed on him. Essentially, this is where sin entered Man. Also known as, The Fall of Man because Man fell from The Most High’s perfection.
Someone may be asking, “Why would He create us knowing we were going to sin anyways?” The short answer is love.
He loved what He made. He loved His image. Despite all the wickedness He foresaw, He still loved what He made. It’s like parents looking at their child, who is disobedient to the bone–they may hate what they do, but they still love what they made. We have to understand this all-knowing and seeing God still permitted this creation to live on, despite their rebellion. This must mean He found some benefit and pleasure in them because if He didn’t–He wouldn’t have made us or let us live on.
Another prominent question, “Why did He test Adam knowing He was going to fail?” I believe it was a test of love. In order to love, you must have freewill because love is an action, and love is self denial. Love cannot be forced or coerced, it must be freely given. Therefore, He wanted to show Adam how much, or for a lack of better word–how less he loved The Most High.
The Most High must test you to show your true nature. The Most High wanted to show, despite ALL He did for Adam, that he would rebel against Him for someone inferior to Him. The Most High, who is love, is all about love, and He tested Adam’s love. Therefore, Adam’s error was His lack of love for The Creator, but abundant love for creation. (Similar to the individuals in Romans 1:25.)
Also, it’d probably be hard and confusing to tell Adam right out the dust, “You don’t love Me.” without showing proof. Adam probably would have confusingly said, “Um…no, that’s not true. I do.” because he hadn’t met Eve yet. I mean think about Matthew 26:33-35, when Christ told Peter he would deny Him–here we have The Word of Truth telling Peter the truth, but still denying the truth of “...before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.” He didn’t believe it, until he witnessed it.
Adam probably wouldn’t have believed it, until he witnessed it–his abundant love for Eve.
“Why Did The I AM Come in Flesh?”
1 John 3:5, “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.”
The Word (Jesus Christ) became flesh to fix the error of Adam. Since sin separates us from The Most High, according to Isaiah 59:1-2 and The Most high driving Adam from the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:22-24), The I AM came into flesh to reconcile Man back to Him.
“Ok…But Why Did He Have to Specifically Die?”
The answer to this is made plain in Hebrews 9:16-22:
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Remission both means the release from bondage and the pardon of sins. Commonly used synonyms are deliverance, liberty, and forgiveness. Therefore, The I AM’s blood releases us from the bondage and wage of sin. The New Covenant could not take place, until the One who made it shed their blood. The I AM is the One who made the covenant, so He had to shed His blood. The Most High even said,
Matthew 26:28, “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins”.
“But, Why Jesus’ Blood?”
It specifically had to be blood without blemish, which represents sin:
1 Peter 1:19, “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
Since The Most High is without sin, He manifested into flesh to die for us. He was the only suitable and acceptable sacrifice. Jesus Christ is the propitiation and the atonement of your sins and mine. He is our advocate to The Father, whenever we sin (1 John 2:1-2). This is why we ask for forgiveness in HIS name.
Name meaning authority, character, and reputation (according to the Hebrew Word šēm [H8034]), NOT a five letter word. We do NOT worship the five letter word Jesus, but we worship The Person behind the name–The I AM's magnificent authority, righteous character, and glorious reputation.
“What Are The Wages of Sin?”
Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The wages of sin is death. It will always be death. It will never change.
“Where are we shown The Most High saying this Himself?”
In Genesis 2:17, The Most High said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
“...thou shalt surely die.”
Since Adam ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, He transgressed against the commandment of The Most High. When someone goes against the commandments of The Most High, that is sin, and the wages of sin is what? Death.
Is it not beautiful how The Word of God fills in the blanks? It’s like a puzzle. Genesis 2:17 was the piece that connected to Romans 6:23.
With the wages of sin, it applies both to physical and eternal death. Every man, woman, and child will experience physical death (where your final breath is taken), unless you’re a part of the elect who endure the tribulation; however, not everyone will go through eternal death.
Revelation 20:14-15, “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.”
If you do not use your time wisely and you die in your sin, your reward will be hell and that hell will be casted into the lake of fire.
The everlasting death.
The torment will never end.
You will be separated from The Most High… forever.
If you choose to live a life of separation from The I AM, by habitually living in sin on this Earth, then He will let you do so…even for eternity.
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