It's a fact, in God's eyes we're all sinners, but it wasn't supposed to be that way, yet so many people, both Christians and non-Christians alike simply don't understand the basics of our faith which holds them back from experiencing the most amazing lives possible. That's why we need to explain, again and again what is means when we're called and sinner and what we can do to put it right.
In the beginning, God decided that he would create man in his own image so that he could dwell with man. So he created the earth, man and woman. It is still Gods intention to leave where he is now in heaven and to dwell with man on earth. OK, so far so good!
Satan Rebels
Because God created man in his own image so that he could dwell with man Lucifer (an angel!) got jealous and rebelled. He was then cast out of heaven, along with one third of all the angels who became Satan's army of demons, I.e. fallen angels.
Once God made Adam and Eve and gave them dominion over everything on the earth, Lucifer (Satan) appeared in the form of a serpent and persuaded Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of life. God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat the fruit, however, Satan convinced Eve to eat and she in turn offered it to Adam.
Adam Loses Authority
Unfortunately by Adam deciding to go along with Eve meant that he relinquished all the power and authority given to him by God, over to Satan. From then on, everything went bad, starting with Adam and Eve (man) being separated from God and thereby activating a curse on man and the earth.
Satan introduced sin into the world through Eve and then passed down through each generation after generation. We have all fallen prey to it. And it didn't stop at Man, it also meant that nature was affect too, like typhoons, tornados, avalanches and so on.
Sin Takes Root
In a nutshell, sin is the all encompassing to description that we are not living how God wants us to live. God is holy and cannot occupy the same environment as man, let alone the same room.
Sin is acted out in our actions and words and manifests itself in our feelings, like guilt, fear, anger, hatred, theft, covetousness and the list goes on.
When God created us we were perfect until Satan came along and messed things up. So God had to put in place a plan to correct what Satan had done.
Its In Our DNA
So, because of ours ancestors, we are now all born sinners, i.e. we're not born perfect as God had intended. You could say that we're born with sin in our DNA.
However, there was a master plan. It was for Jesus to be born of a virgin and for God, in the form of a man, to take away the power Satan had over us which was stopping us from having a relationship with God.
Jesus Sacks Hell
When Jesus died on the cross, he took on our sin, diseases, sickness and poverty and then went to the depths of hell and sacked it, decimated it, taking the keys from Satan!
From the book Angels; Gods Secret Agents, Billy Graham writes:
We can never plumb the depths of sin, or sense how terrible human sin is, until we go to the cross and see that it was sin that caused the Son of God to be crucified. The ravages of war, the tragedy of suicide, agony of the poverty-stricken, the suffering and irony of the rejected of our society, blood of the accident victim, terror of rape and mugging victims of our generation - these all speak as a single voice of the degradation that besets the human race at this hour.
But no sin has been committed in the world that today that can compare with the full cup of the universe's sin that brought Jesus to the cross. The question hurled toward heaven throughout the ages has been, who is He and why does He die, the answer comes back this is my only begotten Son, and dying not only for your sins but for the sins of the whole world. To you sin may be a small thing; to God it is a great and awful thing. It is the second largest thing in the world; only the love of God is greater.
Thank God for our redemption, we can be saved. Now we can be born again and become perfect in our spirit so that we can return to having a relationship with God. Hallelujah!
Protect Your Mind
But it is not all over yet! Jesus didn't kill Satan, he's still around, and that is why we have to master the Bible, because it tells us how to live and how to defeat Satan, starting with our own minds. He knows he can only try and infect our thoughts and get us to believe his lies, if he can do that our bodies and actions will follow!
Think about it, both God and Satan are spirit beings and they both operate through instructions to us so that we act on their words through our freewill. Trouble is, God want us to be with him forever and Satan want us dead!
So when you hear preachers shouting "you're a sinner" they're right, we all are, because Satan screwed things up for us, but only temporarily. What Jesus did for us on the cross was nothing short of amazing, so that now, if you're born again, you can call yourselves a 'blood-bought child of God' and you will have eternal life.
This is why you may have heard the saying that you have redemption through the blood of Jesus or you may also of heard we are saved by grace. If God hadn't decided to save us from Satan, we wouldn't have a way out!
There is so much more though!
What to do now? If you are not a Christian and want to be saved or you want to get back in to a relationship with God having been away "on vacation!" then simply say this prayer out aloud;
Lord Jesus, I ask you to come into my life and forgive me for all my sins. I confess my sins before you this day. I denounce Satan and all his works. I confess Jesus as the Lord of my life. Thank you for saving me. I believe with all my heart and confess with my mouth that you rose from the dead. I am saved. Lord, Write my name in the lambs book of life today. This my God-day with the Lord Jesus. I pray this prayer to the father in the name of Jesus amen.
If you have believed the above and spoken it out loud, then you are on your way to being saved! Now that is serious. The next stage is for you to repent. You have to grasp that you must stop doing whatever is considered a sin in the eyes of God. And finally, the crowning act is to get baptised. Read up about baptism as it separates true beleivers from wannabe Christians. If you can find a spirit filled church and to learn exactly what it means to be a blood bought child of God, then that's great. Don't waste these next few days. Get in touch with us or other believers and start reclaiming what the enemy has taken away.
If you're not sure where to go, please email me at nigel@thestandard.org.uk and I will help point you in the right direction.
Bless you and know that Jesus has got your back!
