Tilling and Planting

Category: Hell

  • Sin: What’s the Big Deal?

    Sin: What’s the Big Deal?

    Intro

    Everyone knows what the church preaches against. Sin. Traditional churches especially have this reputation of talking more about the “don’ts” of the Bible than anything else. They make sin out to be this really big deal. And you know something, they’re right. It is a big deal. And while I don’t think the church should be known more for what it’s against than what it’s for, we also need to remind people that sin is sin and it really is a big deal to God.

    That being said, we probably need a good definition of what sin is and why it’s such a big deal.

    Sin Defined

    To understand why sin is such a big deal, we first need to have a good, working definition of sin. People will frivolously throw out a really simple, basic definition of “whatever the Bible says don’t do” or “bad things you’ve done” or “anything that displeases God” or even “disobeying the laws of the land”. And while these are all technically true, they still don’t tell you much. After all, what defines “bad things”? And different countries have different laws that might actually contradict each other, so that’s a problem. And how do you know what “displeases God”? Ultimately, we need to come back to the Bible’s definition of sin. So that’s where we’ll start.

    The Biblical Definition

    There are a couple of good passages that define sin as rebellion against God (see Deuteronomy 9:7) and lawlessness.

    Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.

    1 John 3:4

    So, sin is equivalent to lawlessness. What is lawlessness? Lawlessness is continually breaking the law without any regard for it. However, this begs the question, who’s law? The answer is God’s law. For the Jews that meant the Mosaic law. And while we as Christians do not need to follow all the religious laws (the purity rituals and sacrifices to name a couple), there are plenty of moral laws found in the Mosaic law that we are still to follow, such as the Ten Commandments.

    So, yes, the definition of “whatever the Bible defines as sin” is true. But it’s a matter of knowing where to look. The letters of Paul are really good for calling out different kinds of sin and showing what parts of the Mosaic law are not necessary for the Christian. In addition, the Sermon on the Mount also contains teachings on the standard of living God calls us to (Matthew 5-7 can also read my posts all about these chapters here).

    To dig a little bit deeper, the Greek word for sin is “harmatia” and means “to miss the mark”, that mark being perfection. So, sin is breaking God’s law and not reaching His standards of perfection. That’s a pretty tall order. And in a later section I’ll discuss just how serious sin is in God’s eyes. But first – to clear up any potential confusion that might be out there – I want to address a couple of synonyms the Bible uses for sin and how they are similar, while also being distinct.

    Some Other Words

    The Bible doesn’t just use the word “sin” when talking about sin. You’ll also see words like “trespass”, “transgress”, and “iniquity” – along with different forms of these words. So to provide a bit of clarity, trespass and transgress are equivalent in their meaning. I think most of us know what it means to trespass (hint: ever see a “No Trespassing” sign?) and to transgress means the same thing. They’re crossing a boundary you are not supposed to cross. Iniquity is making a premeditated choice to sin and then continue in that sin without repentance. For this one you can think of a serial killer. Just over and over choosing to commit the same sin (murder in this case) without remorse and without repentance.

    Different for Different People

    Now all this is great, but doesn’t constitute a list of all possible sins. And it’s not supposed to. My intention is not to tell you what all possible sins are. Because frankly, that’s not possible for me to do (especially in a roughly 2,000 word blog!). I already mentioned the letters of Paul are really good for these since he constantly had to deal with sin in the Church. And to make it more interesting, James and Paul both have some fascinating things to say about what constitutes sin. And spoiler alert, it can be different for different people.

    If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

    James 4:17

    In this passage, James challenges believers that if they know they should be doing something good, and they don’t do it, then it is sin for them. I want to point out the phrase “sin for them”. This means that James is not talking about blanket “do good deeds” for all people. He’s referring to specific deeds that Christians feel called to do. He’s saying if God tells you (specifically you) to do this good deed, and you do not do it, that is sin. Because that is in direct disobedience to what God has told you to do. This passage comes at the tail end of rebuking people for arrogantly going about doing things without consulting the Lord and trying to live life on their own terms. James also calls this out as wrong. Now let’s turn to Paul’s statement in Romans.

    Eating Food?

    Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.

    One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

    Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.

    Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

    So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

    Romans 14:1-2, 5-6, 13-15, 20-23

    Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here. First off, Paul is addressing Jewish believers who say that because of Christ, there is no unclean food and they can eat it all. And even Paul says that he is of that mindset. However, there were Jewish believers who still believed that they couldn’t (shouldn’t) eat unclean foods. And Paul tells those who are okay with eating anything that they should not condemn or judge those who refuse to eat them. Everyone is in a different place and Paul tells those that are okay with it that it would be sinful for those who aren’t to eat unclean food while they still struggle with the idea of eating it. Notice that it’s not sinful for those who think it’s okay, just for those who think it’s not okay.

    For us today, that would be like Christians drinking alcohol. Is it sinful? That depends on who you ask. I know plenty of Christians who have no problem with drinking a beer every now and again. They don’t get drunk, because the Bible explicitly calls that out as sinful. However, there are also Christians (myself included) who won’t touch it at all because for them it would be wrong.

    Notice what is wrong for those who are okay with it. I already referenced the judging and condemning – which are wrong – but Paul also says that being a stumbling block is wrong. To be a stumbling block would be to cause another believer to sin. In Paul’s day that would be pressuring others to eat unclean food, for today it would be pressuring someone into trying a beer when they are convicted that they shouldn’t.

    From Faith

    Paul also says that anything not done from faith is sin. What does that mean? Well without faith it is impossible to please God. And I’ve already defined sin as anything that breaks God’s law – which displeases him. So breaking God’s law is equivalent to doing anything not done from faith.

    Oof. That was a lot. Now let’s turn to the seriousness of sin and why it’s such a big deal.

    Seriousness of Sin

    So now that I’ve defined sin, what’s the big deal? Let me go back to my statement that sin breaks God’s law. As well as my statement that sin is missing the mark of perfection. Why is that a problem? Well, the only way to be in God’s presence is to be perfect. Sin cannot enter His presence. In fact, Jesus commands us to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NIV).

    Okay, so sin is big deal because we can’t live with God for all of eternity because of it. Well, yes, but it’s goes further in that we can’t even have a relationship with God because of sin. The Bible indicates that sin creates a barrier between God and humans (Isaiah 59:2). It’s kind of like when someone you trust lies to you and breaks that trust. It damages the relationship and can be difficult to mend it again. In a similar way, the sin of Adam and Eve broke the relationship between God and mankind. And all mankind has inherited that tendency toward sin ever since. Consequently, our sin dooms us to Hell and the Lake of Fire for all of eternity – totally separated from God. It’s pretty messed up. So what can be done?

    The Solution

    Hebrews 9:22 says that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”. That’s why the animal sacrifices were instituted in the Old Testament. The shedding of the blood of animals temporarily covered and forgave the people’s sin. It was a brutal, bloody, way to receive forgiveness, but it was what God required of them. However, if you read through the entirety of Hebrews 9, you’ll see that while those could cover the sin temporarily, it could do nothing for the guilty conscience or give people the strength to overcome their natural tendencies to sin. And God knew that. That’s why the entire Old Testament points to a newer and better covenant where God would totally forgive all sins and cleanse people’s hearts and minds of sin.

    The Old Covenant was sealed in blood sacrifices. A lot of them. The New Covenant was also sealed in a blood sacrifice. Notice I made that singular? Because only one was needed. Because the one who sacrificed Himself was Jesus Christ – God in the flesh. Jesus never sinned and never inherited the sinful nature from Adam. Therefore, He had no sin of His own to die for. God actually took all the sins of all the people for all time (past, present, and future) and laid them upon Jesus when He hung on the cross. And Jesus bore the sins and then bore the wrath of God so that you and I don’t have to experience God’s judgment upon our sin (I cover this more in one of my Easter Posts).

    How Serious?

    So how serious is sin to God? Serious enough to send His only Son, Jesus, down to die the most brutal type of death found in human history and bear the weight of all sins from all time and bear the entirety of God’s wrath and judgment upon sin – all so you and I can have a relationship with God. Wow. That’s intense. So, yes, sin is a very big deal to God. However, if you are saved and have a relationship with Him, He no longer sees your sin, He sees the righteousness of Jesus which covers your sin. Now that’s incredible. God transferred your sin to Jesus, in order to transfer Jesus’ righteousness to you.

    Wrapping Up

    I hope this post gave you a bit of clarity when it comes to sin and what it is. As well as why God sees it as such a big deal. God longs for us to be in relationship with Him and He fought for us to be able to have the opportunity to be in right standing with Him. And He still fights for us today. Let us praise and worship our God who loves us so unconditionally even when we mess up. All He asks is for us to come to Him and repent and He will restore our relationship with Him.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Hell: Eternal Separation

    Hell: Eternal Separation

    Intro

    Man – Woman, Hot – Cold, Up – Down, Heaven – Hell. Opposites. When two things are opposites, there’s little to no similarities between them. In my last post, I talked about Heaven and how we as believers should look forward to it with hope. Today, I’m going to talk about Heaven’s opposite: Hell. Yes, Hell is a real place – and I’ll show that from Scripture – and people really go there. Buckle up. Talking about Hell isn’t for the faint at heart.

    Does Hell Exist?

    The first question I need to address is does Hell even exist? Not all Christians even believe that it does. And if I don’t offer Scriptural evidence, I might as well not bother talking about the rest, because some people might tune it out.

    The short version is that, yes, the Bible does refer to Hell as an actual place. Several verses describe Hell as the place of torment for the unbeliever when he dies. Some examples follow.

    If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut if off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and thrown into the fire of hell. Matthew 18:8-9 (NIV)

    Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 22:13 (NIV)

    Notice in these passages how Hell is associated with grief, fire, darkness? Clearly Hell is not a place where you would want to go. As the place of eternal punishment and suffering, you would do well to avoid it at all costs. Jesus used strong illustrations in Matthew 18 to describe the seriousness of it.

    Notice that the examples I gave are both spoken by Jesus. And if you ever need good Scriptural evidence of a particular doctrine, find out what Jesus says about it. While these are only a couple of examples, there are several more I could pull out. But for brevity, I’ll just list the references of a few more: Mark 9:44-48, Matthew 8:12, Matthew 13:40-42. And this is still a partial list. Now I will admit avoiding some very common or popular ones because those reference the Lake of Fire more specifically. And you may be wondering, what’s the difference? I’m glad you asked.

    Hell Vs Lake of Fire

    Many people get a bit confused. What’s the difference between Hell and the Lake of Fire? Are they the same place or different? From what I can tell in Scripture, they are two distinct places. And to quickly set up this next verse, another word for Hell is Hades.

    Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. Revelation 20:14 (NIV)

    This passage is perhaps the clearest in showing that the two are different. After all, you can’t throw something into itself. The passage goes on to say that anyone whose name isn’t found in the book of life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. Since unbelievers are dying every day, they have to go somewhere, and Revelation shows that the Lake of Fire is the final judgment and currently no one is in it. However, Revelation tells us that not only will unbelievers end up here, but Satan and all his angels will too.

    Why Hell?

    People don’t like the idea of Hell, and I don’t blame them. Frankly, I don’t like the idea of Hell. I don’t like the idea of an eternal Lake of Fire where billions will spend all of eternity in torment. But that doesn’t negate its existence. However, I should address the questions of why God would create such a place and how could He send people there, because a lot of people ask them.

    Why Did He Create It?

    First of all, Hell (and the Lake of Fire, but from now on I’m going to lump them into the one word) was not originally created for man, but for Satan and his hordes of demons.

    Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:41 (NIV)

    Unfortunately, Hell shows us another example of things that (many) humans experience or will experience that we were not meant to. Other examples of that are we were not meant to life live apart from God, we’re not meant to live a fast-paced stressed-out life, and we’re not meant to live in bodies that suffer various physical ailments. Yet humans experience all these things.

    How Could He Send People to Hell?

    The second question that a lot of people have is how could a loving God send people to Hell? Well, the fact of the matter is that we humans have free will. God created us to make choices. And because of the fall, not all of those choices are good ones. God will not force us to love Him or follow Him. Therefore, there needs to be a place for those who reject God. And when they reject God, they choose to go to Hell. And while that sounds ridiculous, think about it. They spend their entire lives saying, “I don’t want your presence in my life.” So, when they die, why would God force them to be in His presence for the rest of eternity? Hell is the one place where they can spend eternity apart from the presence of God, just like they wanted in life.

    And once you die, it is too late.

    Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, Hebrews 9:27 (NIV)

    Understanding Your Fate

    Something else that is interesting is that in Luke 16, Jesus tells the story of a rich man and a beggar named Lazurus. In this story, Jesus describes the rich man dying and going to Hell and being in torment but notice that he does not ask Abraham (whom he sees in a place of comfort) to get him out, but rather asks for water to cool his tongue – to make it more bearable. This suggests that – at least in the intermediate place of Hell – people will be at least passively okay with being there. At least to a certain degree. Whether that’s more of a resigned “I deserve to be here” or if it goes back to what I said earlier about not wanting to be in God’s presence, I don’t know.

    I see this as a demonstration of his accepting his own fate but understanding that it is a terrible fate, and he has a sense of regret. Consequently, he doesn’t want others to end up with him.

    Abraham’s Bosom

    Now something else I’m going to address (really quick) about this story is the existence of a place of comfort that can be seen from Hell. Referred to as Abraham’s Bosom, the Jews believed that the righteous would go here when they died. And it is true that without going through Jesus, there is no way into Heaven. So, the righteous of the Old Testament would need a place to go that is a place of comfort until Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

    And while the Bible isn’t clear about it, it is likely that sometime after Jesus’ death (and possibly after His resurrection as well), God took those in Abraham’s Bosom up to Heaven to be in His presence permanently (some see Ephesians 4:8 as a reference to this event).

    Wrapping Up

    I hope you see the horror of eternal separation and I hope it stirs you to reach out to loved ones and others with the gospel. I know I need to do better in this area. I’ve got many people in my life that needs to know about Christ. I have not been a very good verbal witness. I say verbal witness because I do believe I live a lifestyle that points to God – or at least is different enough from the world to be noticeable. Let us all pray for strength, boldness, and the words to speak so we can save people from this unspeakable horror and to a life of freedom.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!