A New View of Sin
Scripture is clear that all of us are guilty of sin, God hates sin and God provided everything in His Son to save us from our sin.
God's Word tells us to "Put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming." (Colossians 3:5-6).
This is a daily process of dying to ourselves and picking up our cross as we strive in the grace of Christ to surrender ourselves completely to God's will.
Reinhard Bonnke recently wrote, expanding on what the word "sin" meant in the original language of the Bible, saying that sin related to an arrow missing the mark: "If Christ died to save us, the danger must be desperate. Our sin must be core sin. It is in fact indifference to God, not atheism. We were not independent. We were made to belong to Him and be under His guidance. But from Adam onward we have run away. Sin is not [simply] pubs and clubs, or bad relationships, envy and hatred. That is wickedness. But it takes on a theological quality. It touches God. Our breaking of the laws is one thing but our broken relationship with God is worse – that is sin. Not just sins, occasional misbehaviour, but a daily attitude. Our feet are on the wrong road. Our very lives fall foul of God. Self- sufficiency is our perversion. That’s the warp in the grain, which nothing can straighten – except God. The mantrap is arrogance and self-salvation. It offends the Lord God who made us to be dependent on Him and to live by His love, not by self-love.
I especially love how my good friend Luke preaches on sin - that really, sin is living outside our design. Suppose we take our brand new iPhone 4S and decide to use it as the game ball in a major league baseball game. Wouldn't you say, "that silly and destructive, and you're definitely not using my phone!" In the same way, God has not given us his laws and his ordinances to damper our fun and be a killjoy, but rather to point us to life - to the way we were created to work - our best life.
