The sin question

THE “SIN” QUESTION

WHAT IS IT,

AND WHAT IS THE ANSWER ?

 I.                    The Atheistic world view.

 A.                Naturalistic Pragmatism, the “Survival of the Fittest”, the “Will to Power.”

There is no such thing as “sin”; whatever works is the best course of action. The drive to power is the key to survival. In the end, only the strong will survive. The strongest is the fittest. The winners make the rules of right and wrong. There is no objective “truth” and no basis for morality or ethics other than survival.

 B.                Social Evolution, the “Survival of the Whole”, One World evolving foreword for the good of all. The universe is one unified organism. All parts are of equal value to the whole. No such thing as “sin” only ignorance and error. Education and cooperation will lead to utopia.

 C.                Sin is an illusion. The universe is an illusion. Solipcism, only the self with its perceptions really exists. Buddhism, true reality lies in “enlightenment” which is only achieved through freeing the mind from the illusion of “self”, which illusion is perpetuated by desire, pleasure and pain. This illusion, known a “Maya” keeps one trapped in the lower regions of existence that we know as “the material world.” The goal of all sentient beings is to attain freedom from illusion and to reach the state of pure mental bliss called “Nirvana”, the eternal selfless here and now, free from all sensuality and desire. There is no God. There is no good or evil, there is no sin. These are all illusion.

 II.                 The Theistic World View.

 A.        Universallism: an all loving God will forgive everybody of everything.

 B.      Annihilationism: an all-powerful God will eliminate all sin and sinners from

       existence. There is no such thing as hell.

 C.         Works based salvation: personal righteousness and salvation are achieved  

       through personal achievement. Salvation may be achieved through a

       combination of right thinking i.e. “wisdom” along with good deeds or

       adherence to the correct set of rules. Or through ones good works alone, 

       which must outweigh ones bad works, good deeds must outweigh sinful deeds. 

       God judges according to a balance scale. It is not an overstatement to say that

       virtually all false religions and cults fall into this category of error in one way

       or another.

 D.        Corporate Salvation: forgiveness through heredity, membership or

       association. The only unforgivable sin is to not be a member of the

       “in crowd”, the chosen few, or the right group. This is the attraction of the

       cults. This is related to the works salvation error as stated above. The

       difference is that only those who belong to the group may qualify to perform

       the required works.

 E.       «  Revelation based Biblical Christianity: Forgiveness of sin is by God’s grace  

       alone through personal faith in Jesus Christ alone, which comes through

       the hearing of God’s word alone. God has provided the only way of 

       salvation and for the forgiveness of sin available to man. Man can not

       discover it apart from God’s revelation.  Man can not add to what God has

       provided, if he does he defiles it and he fails to posses it. Man cannot improve

       upon what God has provided, it is perfect as it is and to attempt to improve

       upon it is to deny its perfection, thereby refusing to receive it. Man cannot

       replace what God has provided with anything else. God’s way is nonnegotiable,

       it is the one and only way of salvation. Any other system, schema, or plan for

       dealing with sin is false and will fail. Any denial of the existence of sin, or of the

       deadly consequences of sin is also false. The failure to deal with sin according to

       God’s solution will result in death followed by condemnation to hell.

Commentary:

The purpose of this brief exposition on the question of sin is to simply but to seriously point out the danger of the denial of the reality of sin and its consequences.

It is only when sin is recognized for what it is in light of all of its deadly ramifications that one can come to appreciate the gift that God has provided to deal with it. It was out of His love, grace and mercy for His creation man, that God sent Jesus Christ, once and for all to deal with sin. After considering the alternatives that man has come up with to deal with the sin question it is easy to see the foolish arrogance and futility of man’s attempt to play god. One of the most insidious effects of sin is that it so infects the mind and heart of man that it prevents him from being able to recognize his own folly. This inescapable fact is why it can only be through God’s revelation along with the aid of the Holy Spirit that man can ever find the truth regarding the answer to the sin question. Praise His name, He has provided the answer. It is Jesus Christ! Trust Him completely and trust Him alone.