By the Scripture’s Own Writers
Sin
Definition
Jehovah God sets His own high standard of righteousness, the glory of God, as a mark of perfection that all His creatures are expected and required to maintain. Missing or failing to meet this mark is called sin. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) So the Scriptures further say of sin, “Everyone who practices sin is also practicing lawlessness, and so sin is lawlessness.” “All unrighteousness is sin; and yet there is a sin that does not incur death.” (1 John 3:4; 5:17) Hence there are two kinds of sins, Scripturally speaking: 1. Inherited, which “does not incur death”, i.e., from which there is hope of being released; 2. Willful, which brings a sentence of everlasting destruction. The Greek word for sin originally meant to miss, as to miss one’s road, and later came to mean to fail of doing, as to miss one’s point, to go wrong. The Hebrew word for sin also originally meant to miss, hence to fail; for example, Judges 20:16; Proverbs 8:36; 19:2.
Adam Met Standard of Perfection When Created
Genesis 1:27, 31 “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice.”
1 Corinthians 11:7 “For a man… is God’s image and glory; but the woman is man’s glory.”
God Set Mark of Perfection in Eden, 4025 B. C.
Genesis 2:8, 16, 17 “And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.”
Adam and Eve’s Sin a Literal Eating of Tree and Not an Act of Illicit Intercourse
Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
Genesis 3:6 “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.”
Disobedience Meant Refusing to Hold to God’s High Standard of Glory
Deuteronomy 32:5 “They have corrupted themselves, they are not His children, it is their blemish; they are a perverse and crooked generation.”
1 John 3:8 “He who practices sin originates with the devil, because the devil has been sinning from when he began.”
Romans 1:18-23 “For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who are suppressing the truth in an unrighteous way, because what may be known about God is manifest among them, for God made it manifest to them. For His invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are understood by the things made, even His eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable; because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor did they thank Him, but they became empty-headed in their reasonings and their unintelligent heart became darkened.”
Missing Mark Brought Death upon All Mankind
Romans 5:12 “That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Romans 7:15, 17, 18, 21-23; 8:2 “For what I am working out I do not know. For what I wish, this I do not practice; but what I hate is what I do. But now the one working it out is no longer I, but sin that resides in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there resides nothing good; for ability to wish is present with me, but ability to work out what is right is not present. I find, then, this law in my case: that when I wish to do what is right, what is bad is present with me. I really delight in the law of God according to the man I am within, but I behold in my members another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my members.” “The law of sin and of death.”
Death Held Sway from Adam to Moses Without Accurate Knowledge of Sin
Genesis 4:5-7 “But unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very angry, and the expression of his face fell. And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why are you angry? and why has the expression of your face fallen? If you do well, shall it not be lifted up? and if you do not well, sin crouches at the door; its desire is for you; but you are to rule over it.”
Romans 5:13, 14 “For until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not charged against anyone when there is no law. Nevertheless, death ruled as king from Adam.”
Romans 2:12-15; 3:9-12 “For instance, all those who sinned without law will also perish without law; but all those who sinned under law will be judged by law. For the hearers of law are not the ones righteous before God, but the doers of law will be declared righteous.” “For above we have made the charge that Jews as well as Greeks are all under sin; just as it is written: ‘There is not a righteous man, not even one; there is not a one that understands, there is not a one that seeks for God. All men have deflected, all of them together have become worthless; there is not a one that does good, there is not so much as one.'”
Law of Moses (1513 B. C.) Again Set Mark, Revealed God’s Standard of Perfect Obedience
1 Timothy 1:8-10 “Now we know that the Law is right provided one handles it lawfully in the knowledge of this fact, that law is promulgated, not for a righteous man, but for persons lawless and unruly, ungodly and sinners, lacking loving-kindness, and profane, murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, manslayers, fornicators, men who lie with males, kidnapers of men, liars, false swearers, and whatever other thing is in opposition to the healthful teaching.”
Romans 3:19, 20 “Now we know that all the things the Law says it addresses to those under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become liable to God for punishment. Therefore by works of law no flesh will be declared righteous before Him, for by Law is the accurate knowledge of sin.”
2 Corinthians 3:7 “The code which administers death and which was engraved in letters in stones came about in a glory, so that the sons of Israel could not gaze intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face.”
Law of Moses Demonstrated Fleshly Jews (and so All Men) Were Missing Mark
Galatians 3:19 “Why, then, the Law? It was added to make transgressions manifest, until the seed should arrive to whom the promise had been made. ‘
Romans 7:7-13 “What, then, shall we say? Is the Law sin? Never may that become so! Really I would not have come to know sin if it had not been for the Law, and, for example, I would not have known covetousness if the Law had not said, ‘You must not covet.’ But sin, receiving an inducement through the commandment, worked out in me covetousness of every kind, for apart from law sin was dead. In fact, I was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment arrived, sin came to life again, but I died. And the commandment which was to life, this I found to be to death. For sin, receiving an inducement through the commandment, seduced me and killed me through it. Wherefore, on its part, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did, then, what is good become death to me? Never may that happen! But sin did, that it might be shown as sin working out death for me through that which is good; that sin might become far more sinful through the commandment.”
Only Jesus as a Perfect Man Could Meet God’s High Standard
Leviticus 18:5 “You shall therefore keep My statutes, and My ordinances; which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am Jehovah.”
Galatians 4:4, 5 “But when the full limit of the time arrived, God sent forth His Son, who was produced out of a woman and who came to be under Law, that He might release by purchase those under law, that we in turn might receive the adoption as sons.”
1 Peter 1:18, 19; 2:22-24 “For you know … it was with precious blood, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, even Christ’s.” “He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth. When He was being reviled, He did not go to reviling in return. When He was suffering, He did not go to threatening, but kept on committing Himself to the One who judges righteously. He Himself by imputation bore our sins in His own body upon the stake, in order that we might be done with sins and live to righteousness. And ‘by His stripes you were healed’.”
Hebrews 7:26, 27 “For such a high priest as this was suitable for us, one of loving-kindness, guileless, undefiled, separated from the sinners, … He does not need daily, as those high priests do, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins.”
John 8:46 “Who of you convicts Me of sin?”
Christ Jesus’ Sacrifice of Perfect Human Life Frees Mankind of Law of Sin and Death
Hebrews 9:24-26 “For Christ entered . .. into heaven itself, now to appear before God for us…. But now He has manifested Himself once for all time at the consummation of the systems of things to put sin away through the sacrifice of Himself.”
Romans 8:1, 2 “Therefore those in union with Christ Jesus have no condemnation. For the law of that spirit which gives life in union with Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
Romans 5:18, 19 “So, then, as through one trespass the result to men of all kinds was condemnation, likewise also through one act of justification the result to men of all kinds is a declaring of them righteous for life. For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were constituted sinners, likewise also through the obedience of the one person many will be constituted righteous.”
John 1:29 “The next day he [John the Baptist] beheld Jesus coming toward him, and he said: ‘See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!'”
2 Corinthians 5:21 “The One who did not know sin He made to be sin [“a sin offering”] for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.”
Jesus’ Forgiveness of Sins Accompanied Healing; Modern Impostors Cannot Duplicate
Mark 2:3-12 “And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic: ‘Child, your sins are forgiven.’ Now there were some of the scribes there, sitting and reasoning in their hearts: ‘What is it this man is saying in this manner? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins except one, God?’ But Jesus, having discerned immediately by His spirit that they were reasoning that way in themselves, said to them: ‘Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up and pick up your cot and walk”? But in order for you men to know that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins upon the earth,’—He said to the paralytic: ‘I say to you, Get up, pick up your cot, and go to your home.’ At that, he did get up and immediately picked up his cot and walked out in front of them all. So that they were all simply carried away and they glorified God, saying: ‘We never saw the like of it.’ “
Acts 4:12 “Furthermore, there is no salvation in anyone else, for there is not another Name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved.”
Only Inherited Sins Excused by Jesus’ Sacrifice
1 John 2:1, 2 “My little children, I am writing you these things that you may not commit a sin. And yet, if anyone does commit a sin, we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And He is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s.”
1 John 5:16-19 “If anyone catches sight of his brother sinning a sin that does not incur death, he will ask, and he will give life to him, yes, to those not sinning so as to incur death. There is a sin that does incur death. It is concerning that sin that I do not tell him to make request. All unrighteousness is sin; and yet there is a sin that does not incur death. We know that every person that has been born from God does not practice sin, but the One born from God watches him, and the wicked one does not fasten his hold on him. We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.”
Willful Sins Bring Penalty of Everlasting Destruction
James 1:13-15 “When under trial, let no one say: ‘I am being tried by God.’ No; for with evil things God cannot be tried nor does He Himself try anyone. But each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin; in turn, sin, when it has been accomplished, brings forth death.”
Ezekiel 18:4, 20 “Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sins, it shall die… the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, … the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”
Jude 8, 11-13 “In like manner, notwithstanding, these men, too, indulging in dreams, are defiling the flesh and disregarding lordship and speaking abusively of glorious ones. Too bad for them, because they have gone in the path of Cain, and have rushed into the erroneous course of Balaam for reward, and have perished in the rebellious talk of Torah! These are … stars with no set course, for which the blackness of darkness stands reserved forever.”
Hebrews 19:26, 27 “For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and there is a fiery jealousy that is going to consume those in opposition.”
Mark 3:29 “However, whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit has no forgiveness forever, but is guilty of everlasting sin.”
Also: Matthew 12:32; John 8:23, 24; 2 Peter 2:9, 10.
No Collective Forgiveness Possible for Satan’s Wicked World —Only for Individuals
Galatians 1:3, 4 “He gave Himself for our sins that He might take us out for Himself from the present wicked system of things according to the will of our God and Father.”
John 15:19 “If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.”
Revelation 18:3-8 “For because of the passion-arousing wine of her fornication all the nations have fallen victim, and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth became rich due to the power of her shameless luxury. … ‘Get out of her, My people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues. For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has called her acts of injustice to mind.’… That is why in one day her plagues will come, death and mourning and famine, and she will be completely burned with fire, because Jehovah God, who judged her, is strong.”
Sinless Mankind Will Meet Mark of Perfection at End of 1,000-Year Reign
Revelation 20:5 “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.”
Luke 20:35, 36 “But those who have been counted worthy of gaining that system of things and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. In fact, neither can they die any more, for they are like the angels, and they are God’s children by being children of the resurrection.”
Revelation 21:1-5 “With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: ‘Look! the tent of God is with humankind, and He will reside with them, and they will be His peoples. And God Himself will be with them. And He will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.’ “
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