FOUNDATION OF FAITH PART VII

Blessed Sunday to Everyone

--SIN--

Let's imagine a friend has given you a palace full of beautiful things. It is yours to enjoy. The only request he makes is, "Please don't jump from the tower because you will die." Then an enemy comes to your palace. He says, "Who told you not to jump? Go ahead. You'll feel wonderful! You will know how it feels to fly. You will be able to see your palace from a different view. Don't worry about what happens when you hit bottom; just think about all the new things you'll learn on the way down." Would you run to the top of your tower and jump? Of course not. It would be stupid to trust your enemy and do as he says. Adam and Eve had a similar experience. God put them in a beautiful garden and made them masters over everything. He gave them permission to eat of every tree but one. Along came the enemy, Satan, who told them to eat the fruit of the tree anyway--that it wouldn't hurt them. They trusted his word instead of God's. How foolish! As we studied in the previous lesson, man was made perfect but through disobedience sin entered his life. How would we define sin? Did Adam bring it into the world? What is the punishment for sin? Is there any escape? The Bible verses in this lesson will give us the answers.

DEFINITION OF SIN

Sin is disobeying God's laws. It is saying to God, "I am more important than You. I don't take Your Word as my final authority." Sin is rebellion. "No one has a right to limit me," you might say. "I'll do what I please." The limits God has set for us were made for one reason--our highest good. For instance, God knows that bitterness and hate can cause severe headaches; a desire for revenge can cause ulcers. These attitudes hurt other people too. God showed His love for us by setting certain limits, or laws, as protection. For us to go outside these limits is to sin. 1 John 3:4 says, "Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God's law, because sin is a breaking of the law." "Is it alright then to do anything that doesn't hurt me or others?" No, everything is lawful ONLY if it is inside the limits that God has set. We might think that something doesn't hurt us or others and be mistaken in our belief. For example, there were parents who thought they shouldn't obey God's law of correcting their children because that would frustrate or confuse them. Now a recent magazine article informs us, "It's time to discipline our children." Man's opinions change. For a while he thinks one thing won't hurt us and later he says it will. The only safe conduct for us is obedience to the laws that God has set, whether we understand the reason for them or not.

VERSE OF THE WEEK

Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God's law, because sin is a breaking of the law.

- 1 John 3:4