We are all well-versed in the subject of love which, unfortunately, mostly involves man’s love of self, which is in reality IDOLATRY, which God condemns in the first commandment. Man’s obsession with pleasing himself is expressed in a variety of ways. God uses one word to describe all of those ways–SIN. Therefore it is important that we know and agree with God’s definition of sin. The identification of sinners and God’s treatment of them is highlighted in Colossians 3:6: “for which things (noted in previous verses) the WRATH OF GOD comes on the CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE.” A question that must be answered is: disobedience to what and who? When we answer the “what” questions relative to disobedience we will automatically identify its “children.” Let us begin to answer those questions using the only true source of spiritual information-GOD’S HOLY SCRIPTURES.

To disobey in the spiritual realm means to sin. The question now is: WHAT IS SIN? If I could ask the leaders of the hundreds of religious organizations within professing Christendom to define sin I would receive a variety of answers, not one of which would agree with God’s definition. For if one did agree with God, that one would not be part of the billions-strong Catholic/Protestant Religious System. Instead, he would be a member of God’s tiny, mustard seed-sized congregation known Scripturally as “The Church of God” (Acts 20:28 and several other verses). This church is not to be confused with the denomination by that name. Back to the definition of “sin.”

Today, sin is treated as a joke. Some in “the church” do not believe that sin exists. Those who do believe in sin dismiss it as an inevitable, unimportant “oops” that disappears as quickly as it is admitted. Or, as one pastor who declared that, for people in “THE church,” sin is forgiven even before it is committed. That, dear readers, is specialized sin service on the highest order. One preacher said that God demands sin from those in “THE church.” His theology went like this: God wants His people to “have fun.” Sex is fun. Therefore, God wants His people to have lots of sex, thereby having lots of fun. And the pastor wasn’t talking about marital sex.

In any case involving the Church Industrial Complex, the fix is in. Depending on one’s religious affiliation, one’s “Lady” takes care of one’s sins. Either Mary (Catholic) or Grace (Protestant) sees to it that sin vanishes as soon as their respective “lady” instructs Jesus to make it go away. The church has its “ladies” on speed-dial. To sinners saved by grace, sin is a minor issue once the saved sinner accepts Christ’s sacrifice and completes the prescribed ritual. So what is sin? What does the Lord tell us about it in His instruction book? Or does it matter what the Lord says about it? Are the Scriptures as holy as people like myself proclaim them to be. Let us see how the Lord answers that question.

“All Scripture is given by divine inspiration (by the Holy Spirit) and is to be used for formulating doctrine, for reproof of errors, for correction of those errors and for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3:16). The prophets and the apostles were “holy men of old who spoke (and wrote) as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). The New Testament Church is built upon the Words of those holy men (Eph. 2:20). So holy are those Words that Jesus told His Father that they were His (God’s) Words, and that they were “Truth” (Jn. 17:17).

The Apostle John was one of those Truth-speaking, Truth-writing holy men described by the Peter. In First John 3:4 He wrote concerning the identification of sin: “To transgress (break) the Law is sin, for SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW.” Note that sin is not some mental concept that each of us formulates for him/herself. It is not a violation of his/her conscience. Sin is the transgression of God’s written Law.

The Apostle Paul received his Gospel (good news about the Kingdom of God–Mk. 1:14) from Jesus Himself through the Holy Spirit (Gal. 1:12). If anyone should know what sin is it would be the man who, referring to his pre-conversion life, called himself the “chief of sinners.” This same Paul said that he would have not known what SIN was except by the Law. Which Law was he referencing? The same Law that says “You must not covet” (Rom. 7:7), meaning the Ten Commandments which God wrote in stone with His own finger. Paul described THAT LAW as being “holy, just and good” (vs 12). King David called THAT LAW perfect, sure, right, pure and more valuable than find gold (Ps. 19:7-10).

THAT LAW is not to be confused with the sacrificial law that involved the shedding of animal blood for the covering of Israel’s sins. That law was instituted because the Israelites refused to obey God’s stone-etched Ten Commandment Law that condensed the entire Bible into ten commands that must be obeyed in order to qualify for eternal life. This award will be given to the few (Mat. 7:13,14; 22:14) who, following true conversion, will then have obeyed God’s Law “… until the end” (Mat. 10:22), meaning until one’s death or the rapture, whichever comes first. These–the Very Elect–will be those who will rise in the first resurrection which will take place upon the return of Jesus Christ to earth. Read The Three Resurrections. Key word–Three. The sacrificial law (“handwriting of ordinances”–Col. 2:14–which was “against us”) was nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ. THE TEN COMMANDMENT LAW REMAINED IN EFFECT IN THE CHURCH UNTIL MAN TOOK IT UPON HIMSELF TO “NAIL IT TO THE CROSS.” BY DESTROYING GOD’S LAW, MAN AWARDED HIMSELF THE POWER TO MAKE HIS OWN LAWS, THEREBY FOLLOWING IN THE SPIRITUAL FOOTSTEPS OF ADAM AND EVE. We know how that turned out.

The result of having done away with the Law of God is the chaotic, two-headed, multi-bodied, convoluted, competing, you-want-it-you-got-it religious monstrosity today known as “the church.” One word describes this Satan-led religious mess that Jesus said He would “spew out of My mouth” as vomit upon His return (Rev. 3:16). That descriptive word is “ABOMINATION.” The counterfeit church has rejected the Lord’s command to “… learn not the ways of the heathen.” Instead, she has embraced them whole-heartedly while claiming that they are the doctrines and customs of the Biblical God. The fact that they are condemned in His Book has been declared irrelevant. And Satan smiles. L.J.