The third chapter of Genesis explains why human history is written in the ink of blood and tears.  This should not be confused with the idea that we are being punished for Adam’s sin (if considering him as a private person) we suffer for our own sins but Adam was the federal head of the human race.  Adam acted, not for himself alone, but for all who were to spring from him, so that his act was, judicially constituted, our act.

The corruption of the nature of all the offspring of Adam is referred to as original sin, or depravity, and demonstrates itself in a tendency towards evil, and that continually.  That tendency remains in the person who has decided and is following Christ Jesus until cleansing is provided by baptism through God’s Holy Spirit.  Some refer to it as pursuing purity, others as Christian maturity, still others prefer to state it as entire sanctification.  Keeping the concept simple; when a person becomes a Christ Follower they proclaim that “Jesus is my co-pilot” whereas the fully committed Christian humbly acknowledges Jesus as “The Pilot”.

By his act of disobedience in Eden man had effectively declared unbelief in the trustworthiness of the Word of God and decided to take control of his own destiny.  Only later did he realize that he had unwittingly submitted to the enemy of his soul rather than maintaining his trust in the One who loved him.  Sin broke the happy relationship which originally existed between man and his rightful lord.  The fact that we continue disobeying the law of God demonstrates our oneness with Adam.  Our complicity with Adam in his rebellion is evidenced every time we personally sin against God.

Actual sin or personal sin is a voluntary violation of a known law of God by a morally responsible person.  This should not be confused with involuntary shortcomings, infirmities, faults, mistakes, failures or other deviations from a standard of perfect conduct that are the residual effects of the fall.  However, such innocent effects do not include attitudes or responses contrary to the spirit of Christ, which may be properly called sins of the spirit.

Thankfully, for every one of us, God sets the rules, not we.  See Matthew 18:23-35 in His guidebook, the Holy Bible, also known as the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

Unfortunately for fallen, unreconciled man, physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, expulsion from the earth, not annihilation.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endures forever. (Psalm 111:10)

Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned My rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.  For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to Me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm. (Proverbs 1:29-33)

You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell.  The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. (Psalm 5:4-5)

“For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” (Psalm 1:6)

One of the really disturbing sayings among those not actively following the ways and teachings of Jesus is that they will be with all their friends in hell but the children of light, those who have placed their faith in Jesus and are actively obeying Him, are aware that no soul in the place of torment will have any friends due to the fact that they will be blaming each other for their own failure to appropriate Christ Jesus as their own personal Savior and vehicle of reconciliation to God.

The ancient Rabbins held that the law we find delineated for us in Deuteronomy 22:6 was the least of God’s laws and the violation of even that one law results in a person being counted guilty as if violating the whole Law.  After all, a careful study of the Holy Scripture reveals no Biblical authority for believing there is any such thing as a little sin; an insignificant sin.  It is the solemn declaration that those who have despised God’s authority and trampled His commandments beneath their feet are exposed to the Divine displeasure and to the well deserved and completely appropriate punishment as the expression of that displeasure.

  “For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)

Did you catch that?  One single transgression against the law of God is all that it takes to establish a person in the category of the wicked.  Some folks think, or are hoping that, if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds they’ll be okay.  That is not the way God does things.

God sets the rules, not mankind.  God does not grade on a curve.  The first six chapters of Romans in the Holy Bible lays out clearly and concisely that every person on the face of this planet, whether Jew or Gentile [the Biblical way of saying “all races, all people groups”], prior to reconciliation with God through His divinely provided remedy is categorized for eternal separation from the One, True, Holy God.  We all love to quote John 3:16, and that’s good, but we must not overlook the verses immediately following:

    For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.

For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who practices truth comes to the Light so that his works may be revealed, that they exist, having been worked in God. (John 3:17-21)