I know some people do not even believe that sin exists and that's their right- to believe as they choose. God is not about force. God presents His love and we choose whether we want it or not. Not a single person has to worry about being forced to love God against their will- it's impossible. Not a single person will be forced into salvation. Not a single person is forced to obey the royal law. The option is before us, we choose freely. God wants us, but He wants us to want Him of our own accord.
Jesus spoke these words- 'Go and sin no more.' Jesus recognized sin's existence so we cannot deny what He recognizes, or rather we can deny what Jesus recognized, but only at our own peril.
If you choose to believe in God then you are choosing to believe that there exists an evil in our world that taints it thoroughly. It's present all around us in every single death. Death would not exist except that sin exists.
We long to be God's, wholly God's. We despise the thing in us that wants anything but God's will done in us, God's way in us. We live in a world of sin so blatant and so disguised at the same time that very few choose to recognize sin for what it really is. Instead people choose to befriend sin as if that somehow alters it into no longer being sin. We seek to justify reasons why something is not a sin and is acceptable. We say the times have certainly changed, we no longer live in a world where the Bible is logical. We hold up an outdated custom- not commandment- and decry the entire Bible. What if, just…what if, the Royal Law of God's Love were our only standard? What if there were no other customs, laws, and such except those of the ten Royal Commandments? What if those ten laws could be summed up in a broad way by saying- Love God, Love Man? Out of love for God we would naturally follow His commands. Out of love for mankind we would naturally treat them as God commands us.
In the Old Testament, the part of the Bible written prior to Jesus, things were one way then when Jesus started His ministry He began to teach the living law, a law that would be in effect after He stripped away the parts of it that were ceremonial in nature, and shook off the traditions that had been piled onto the Royal Law making it oppressive, not a living, breathing, life giving, life affirming law of love that was intended.
Do you think I'm foolish? Do you think I'm deluded? Do you think I am crazy because I believe these things? I'm okay with that because I know I'm not any of those things.
I was given a book, that book contained provable prophecies that came to pass, several of them, one after another- HISTORY proved these prophecies true! Logic dictates the remaining prophecies will ALSO come to pass. Proof beyond doubt. God given proof, the Bible is REAL, God is REAL!
Peter an apostle wrote-
Act 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know
When Jesus ministered many believed because of the miracles, the wonders, the signs that He did through God His Father. People want proof! We are a skeptical lot! And in many ways that is a good thing, because Satan is a great deceiver and he is going to use his power to deceive all but the very elect of God. YOU can be an elect of God.
As I said, I'm not foolish to believe as I do, I have no choice in my own conscience but to believe what has been historically, literally, beyond a shadow of a doubt proven to me. Yes, I could go against my conscience and slip into Satan's deceptions very easily, this hold to truth is not an easy thing in a world of unbelief and deception. This is a warfare, it simply will not be easy.
Sin is real, believe it or not, your choice. I believe it is very real.
The following is a one sentence excerpt from an inspired writer-
'No man can be forced to transgress, His own consent must first be gained…' EGW'
If a person is literally forced to sin by another, if they are completely and utterly unable to stop sin from being committed by being tortured then it's not them sinning at all- it is the one forcing them. As a general rule- beyond any forced sinned- the above is true. WE cannot be forced to transgress, we must consent to transgress. Sin doesn't just happen to us, we allow it to happen. There are sins of ignorance, but once that ignorance is gone, it is no longer considered the same- you've been convicted of that sin in your heart, convicted of its wrongness.
God's word says-
James 1:14 But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.'
'Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.' James 1:15
Satan would have us despair of being unable to stop sinning.
Satan wants us to look at our lives and our actions and our very thoughts and believe we are hopeless beyond redemption.
Satan loves to make salvation seem impossible.
Satan wants us to believe we are saved when we are not, and wants to be believe we aren't saved when we are. He doesn't care which ploy he has to use, he'll use them both if need be.
Satan longs to torture us and if we belong to God, he will do all he can to make our lives so miserable that we turn from God. We need to recognize the reality of Satan and the fact he committed the very first sin and ever since then he only wants others to follow him down the path to destruction.
Mark it well- Satan WANTS us to believe we ARE saved when we aren't.
And Satan WANTS us to believe we AREN'T saved when we are- having doubt lead us to despair and that despair lead us to lack of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. Both tactics are deadly snares set for us. A great man prayed thanking God that he wasn't like the others (sinners) the sinner prayed recognizing his sinful state. The great man who believed he was saved, was not, but he believed he was! This is a parable of Jesus'! (Luke 18:10-14) We must ever recognize our need of our Savior, never counting on ourselves for salvation.
James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the LORD hath promised to them that love Him.
We are tried by being tempted.
Every man is blessed by enduring temptation.
Tried by our lusts- enticed by Satan.
Temptation is not sin.
Temptation is a trial by fire for us.
Temptation is powerful, alluring, and hard to resist.
Temptation speaks to every wrong impulse within us.
Temptation screams our weakness at us.
Temptation is not a frivolous, powerless thing and if we think it should be we are susceptible to its becoming even more powerful through its deception.
Temptation cries out to our evil core.
Temptation pulls on the strings of the sin seeker that we inherited from Eve and it is in all of us.
We are born with a selfish nature. A baby simply is not cognizant of the selfishness it has. Being unaware of its selfishness makes the baby guiltless. Guiltless but not free from selfishness. The guilt appears only when a knowing between good and evil is achieved and a choice for the evil is chosen. Even children are susceptible to temptation once they know right from wrong and are tempted towards wrong.
Choosing self first- temptation always appeals to our self-seeking, self-preservation, self protection, self-pleasing, self in any way possible.
Temptation, let me remind you is NOT sin.
Temptation is the ENCOURAGEMENT towards sin.
Temptation is being drawn away of our own lusts.
We will be constantly bombarded by temptation. We are constantly tempted. We each have lusts that are unique to us. We are each enticed by those lusts particular to us. When we are enticed- it is then we must recognize the enticement for what it is, a lure to sin. That enticement is the SAME enticement used upon Adam and Eve. They were enticed. The were tempted. Temptation is powerful make NO mistake, do NOT treat temptation lightly. We are told, "…make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof." Romans 13:14. We are not to encourage our propensities towards sin by purposefully surrounding ourselves with temptations.
Temptation will cry out to us without any encouragement. Sometimes temptations scream loudest when they are unseen.
To put ourselves out of the reach of being tempted to commit any sin at all is IMPOSSIBLE. We can sin by encouraging the lusts in our minds, in our thoughts, in our hearts.
THIS IS WHY WE NEEDED A SAVIOR!
We need the power of GOD- outside of any action we could possibly make to save ourselves.
If we could save ourselves what need of a Savior would there be?
Even when we are told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philp 2:12) that working out is a realization of NEEDING TO BE SAVED BY JESUS CHRIST!
Adam and Eve were not presented with lusts pertinent to our generation, the things that exist now that didn't then, those evils spawned by the very first evil. There are a myriad of sins that exist now because of the fall to the first temptation, the first sin, and that does NOT mean that Adam and Eve had it easier than we did. NO, they did NOT have it easier. I say that emphatically because take a moment, just a moment to really think about their temptation. Are we EVER tempted with the chance to be like God? Eve ate from the tree of good and evil, the knowledge of good and evil. She was tempted with these words- "…the day that ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened an ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil." Gen. 3:5
And this was what tempted Eve…
"…a tree to be desired to make one wise." Gen. 3:6
Satan said- they would be as gods and Eve interpreted that to mean she would be wise. Wise like who? gods. This was a temptation to be something OTHER than what she was, as if she didn't have enough knowledge and enough wisdom already. To be a creature of THE CREATOR was suddenly NOT enough. She could be MORE. She could gain an awareness she didn't possess. Eve was looking upon herself! Her eyes were taken off God and pointed to herself.
What sort of self-awareness do you imagine Eve had prior to being told she wasn't good enough as she was? Genesis 2:31 "And God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was VERY good, and the evening and the morning were the sixth day." God had created man and woman on that sixth day- they were VERY GOOD. Yet, Satan told Eve she wasn't good enough when he told her she LACKED the knowledge of the gods. He told her she could have this knowledge and he made Eve believe that this was special knowledge and it would be a very good thing to have. Eve would not just be very good, the very good creation God had made her- she would be LIKE- she would be as WISE as a GOD. She would be as wise as the God who created her!
Eve was not stupid, she could not have been stupid and be considered very good. If she'd been lacking the ability to make an intelligent choice there would be NO GUILT on her part. If she couldn't make an informed decision she was helpless to know what to do. She saw the fruit, she knew this beautiful creature told her that she could eat this fruit and be like a god. She would be a god with the knowledge that a god possesses- not a HUMAN. There it was- RIGHT there, the ability to be MORE than she was. The ability to commit a SELF-SERVING action. She knew…she knew she was taking her eyes and her heart off of her Creator and putting them on herself- she knew.
Tell me, could we ever be tempted in this exact same way? You might think, sure, people are tempted to do bad things to gain knowledge. That's NOT the EXACT same thing! Can anyone right now ever be tempted to ingest a piece of fruit in order to know good and evil, and be as wise as a god? No. You say we already know good and evil- and are as gods in this respect so we can't be tempted. We, through the choice of Eve and Adam, inherited a tendency towards self pursuit, self-first. We can't be tempted as the first human was tempted, but we are tempted in everything unleashed by the knowledge she wanted to be wise to. God knows all about evil, and He knows all about Love, all good, on a scale beyond our full ability to comprehend. We know about evil and about love, we know about evil and good. We know, and what a price we pay for this inherited knowledge.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden to us, along with all that was in the Garden of Eden. ALL we can be temped with are the evils that resulted from Eve's single bite into that fruit. A fruit of knowledge- God's knowledge meant only for God, that's knowledge belonged to the Father God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God. That knowledge wasn't meant for us. We, through Eve, took that knowledge we weren't meant to possess. We wanted to be like a god believing we were created to contain the knowledge that belonged to only God.
That knowledge in us enacted instant corruption of what we were meant to be, it did NOT make us like god. It did not make us wise! It made us creatures of disobedience allowed to endure the full effects of the knowledge we stole. We did not become gods at all. We had no right to that knowledge we stole, and we have to be willing to let go of that knowledge. (Please, don't get bogged down in the fact it wasn't *YOU* it was *EVE* who did this to you- what's done is done and every sin you're prone towards simply continues to prove humanity would chose all over again to sin-- but, but, you protest you're only prone to it because of her first sin! She didn't know the pain, the anguish, the horrors that were to come through her choice- she didn't know what dying meant in reality, but she chose to serve herself over believing in the One who created her! We could argue all day that we are innocent victims, but we are ALL descendants of the first that chose- proving our race as humanity would choose this path UNLESS…. They were SAVED, unless they were given the FULL realization of good and evil, and THEN they were allowed to CHOOSE- just as Eve was allowed to choose, after she succumbed to that first temptation. This is how we are able to choose.
WE choose. We have to be willing to give up SELF.
What do I mean by that? We have to let go of the self part of us that caused us to want that knowledge to begin with. Our belief MUST be in our Creator, NOT ourselves! We will never be equal to our Creator and this must be comprehended and accepted! God alone has the ability to save us from all evil.
We must recognize this truth. We are LOVED and SAVED BY THAT LOVE! Or…we choose not to be loved, and we are not saved because we cannot save ourselves now, anymore than Eve could have prevented the results of sin once she made her choice, she couldn't save herself- she had to be saved, and allow herself to be saved.
We recognize that GOD ALONE has the righteousness to save us! If we believe a single act we commit gives us salvation we do not believe in God alone but in ourselves. We can't save ourselves it's by Faith alone. Faith in Christ! Believing in God as the ONLY GOD, choosing God as the ONLY GOD. Choosing to believe GOD over self. We are allowed to make this choice. We are given an opportunity to make this choice. Because and only because the unfathomable LOVE God has towards us wayward as we are had Him provide a way for us, a provision was made before we were even made, just in case we succumbed to evil. That provision being should the new creature- humans- choose SELF over God by being allowed to be tempted, enticed towards self, if this new creature chose the enticement, succumbed to being enticed then they would be given the opportunity to know the depths of God's love for them in His Being willing to DIE for them!
They would know what death is. They would know what suffering is. They would know what pain is. They would know the horrors of sin. They would KNOW all about what that knowledge of EVIL they ingested was, firsthand! And then they would know that their GOD was willing to endure ALL the results of sin without having ever sinned or be deserving of sin's punishment, they would know the depths of the GOOD of God. Their God would know all the pain and agonies undeservedly suffering and dying JUST for them to redeem them and give them a chance to choose to believe in GOD over self! A chance to choose to believe GOD.
You say Eve should never have fallen that she had a perfect life-- you are given the same choice she was given and you know the depth's of your God's love for you.
The choice to sin… NOT the choice to be tempted, we don't choose that unless we deliberately place ourselves in the way of temptations. That choice to sin, to let the temptations we are called to face - just as Eve was called to face- is ours. We are WEAK through our sinful flesh- with almost six thousand years of degradation in this sin-filled world, but our GOD is stronger than any temptation! Our God would have us DAILY seek HIM, DAILY acknowledge our need of HIS LOVE! He could have ended humanity's existence, instead, He made a way for us to be restored to the creatures He designed us to be, such LOVE! Satan would have you think otherwise, he'll do all he can to twist your thinking about God's love just to keep you from ever gaining eternal life in love- something that Satan himself forfeited and wants as many others as possible to forfeit as well.
Romans 3:23-25
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Faith in Jesus.
Heb. 11:1 - Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things unseen.
Heb. 11:6 - But without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
John 5:30 0 I can of mine own self do nothing. As I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father.
Seeking God's will NOT SELF WILL.
Jesus did not seek His own will in anything. Jesus showed us by example! The will of the Father in Jesus' life, in our life!
John 6:38 - For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me
Joh 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
Joh 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Joh 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Joh 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Joh 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
Joh 17:25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
Joh 17:26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Jesus' love, God's love, the Holy Spirit's love - in us.
All by HIS AMAZING GRACE! Thank you, Lord Jesus! Thank you! Thank you! Come into our hearts, Lord Jesus! God first! Others first! Please, Lord, all through Your redeeming love! Your Sacrifice! All praise, glory and honor unto You, now and forever! Amen!
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