A genuine concern was brought to my attention from someone who asked why we here at Flip the Scripts do a lot of teaching on sin. My answer was simply given though it carries a lot of weight.
My reply was: “We teach on sin because sin is what separated and separates man and God.” Sin drives a wedge between the happiness that can be experienced in the Lord Jesus and the present and future hardness of a transgressing life.
The word transgress means: to violate a law, command, moral code etc; offend; sin.2. to pass over or go beyond (a limit, boundary, etc) 3. to go beyond the limit imposed by (a law, command, etc.)
Through exploration of these definitions one can’t help but to see the results of a transgression….none too pretty right?
In the land transgressions are dealt with all the time. Persons after persons are hauled to jail and into courts because of transgressions. Husbands and wives are called to the carpet one with another because of transgressions. Children are confronted by parents because of transgressions. Students are brought before principles because of transgressions. The city jails, state prisons and juvenile detention centers are running over because of transgressions. People are losing jobs and getting into trouble on jobs because of transgressions. Friendships and partnerships are falling apart or have dissipated because of transgressions. Last but not least…people are losing their lives with some destined for a devil’s hell because of transgressions. Proverb 13: 15 Good understanding giveth favor: but the way of transgressors is hard.
Because transgressions are the root, the foundation upon which chaos, separation, pain, many illnesses and death is built on; then transgressions must be addressed and dealt with. Transgressions are what brought Jesus to the earth. Now I know some of us will argue that it was love that brought Jesus to the earth and I can agree with your point of argument. The bible does say: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16.
However, didn’t God love man prior to Jesus coming to the earth? Didn’t God love us before the very foundations of the world? Didn’t God love the patriarchs, their families, friends, the strangers that dwelt among them, before Jesus stepped foot on the earth as a man? Still and yet another realization is: Jesus could have come to the earth and loved on us, worked the miracles, healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the hungry and opened blinded eyes and not have gone to the cross: not have did anything to eradicate sin and its dominion over us. Had he done just that…Jesus would still be with us in the flesh today. Yet as his time neared that he should see death Jesus stated; For this cause came I unto this hour.” You see followers; God was loving us but we weren’t loving him. Sin wouldn’t let us love him. Sin wouldn’t let us get close enough to him to even touch him. Sin put a barrier between both God and man. So then…God gave his only begotten son to come to the earth to pay the penalty for transgressions so that he and man could once again be united in his fullness.
Please let me with much gratitude quote Isaiah’s prophecy of our suffering Savior.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
John 3:16 holds a very disturbing word. That word is “perish“. There are three definitions to this word that I want to list. 1. to die as a result of violence, privation and privation means to lack of the usual comforts or necessaries of life. To deprive. Perish means: 2. to suffer destruction or ruin. The Greek word is apollumi (op-ol’-loo-mee) meaning to destroy fully, die, lose, mar and the definition of mar is to damage the attractiveness or appeal of: impair, to hinder, to waste.
When sin entered the world it entered with a vengeance. Sin entered in through deceit and has been deceiving every since its arrival. Sin entered the paradise that was meant for us… camouflaged. Sin used his corrupted wisdom to deceive man by something that was good. The bible declares that Eve looked upon the tree and saw that the fruit thereof was good for food and was also a thing of beauty. She received the knowledge from Satan of the tree making her wise.
The word wise here is the Hebrew word sakal (saw-kal) a prim root: to be (cause, make, or act) circumspect= intelligent, expert, prosper, prudent. Give skill, have good success, teach, have understanding, behave wittingly.
The sin wasn’t in the tree, the sin wasn’t in the fruit. The sin was the act of disobedience. Sin violates, robs, rapes, steals, ruins and kills. As we so often quote in topics on this site: The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10
We here at flip the Scripts teach on sin because we want to make you aware and knowledgeable of what sin does and make you aware of where sin is taking those of us who choose to allow sin to be our master. In our teachings of sin, its depth and wages we also always tell you the resolution for sin in your life.
In II Timothy 4:1-4 Apostle Paul is leaving some final instructions for Timothy who is a young pastor. Paul is about to depart this life and he is securing all bases upon the foundation that he has built. He charges Timothy in the presence of God and the Lord Jesus Christ to Preach the word of truth, when he felt like it and when he didn’t. He told Timothy to reprove, rebuke and exhort the people of God with much long-suffering and doctrine. Paul warned Timothy of a coming time which has now increased. WARNING: The time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine: but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
Some people don’t want to hear the truth. Truth commands and demands either change or sacrifice. Truth kills excuses and opinions. Truth calls for obedience or defiance. Truth doesn’t make us feel good all the time. Truth turns our insides to the outside where all can see. Those who are unwilling to submit to the commands and the demands of truth will turn away from those who speak what has revealed them and run to ones who will tell them what they want to hear. They run to people who will say the things to feed their sinful desires so they can stay in their sins. Yet know that the pleasure of listening to ones who says what you want is only temporal. In ourselves we know the truth but simply choose to walk in defiance as if the truth about ourselves will dissipate. Well… the truth slaps us in the face again in the time when we stand before the Lord. In this time there will be no chance for acceptance and change.
Isaiah 30: 1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me: and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin.
Isaiah 30: 9-11 says: “This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, see not; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
God had given Israel instructions yet they didn’t like what God had instructed. They didn’t like the messages that the prophets gave nor the visions that the seers saw. Israel didn’t bite their tongues nor did they try to hide the fact that they disapproved of both the visions and the messages. So they got their own prophets and seers who would see and say what they wanted seen and heard. Yet dear followers, though Israel employed seers to see illusions and prophets to prophesy lies it didn’t change the truth of what the Lord had both said and instructed. In fact all of their doings brought the judgement that God had pronounced through his prophets. It didn’t change the visions that God had given to the true seers.
Running after people who will tell us what we want to hear will not change what God has said and shown. We here at Flip the Scripts teach on sin and the deceitfulness of sin so that people will not have to endure the coming midnight. Selah
Flip the Scripts Admin.