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Sin is transgression of law, I John 3:4. In civil society we call it crime. If there is no law there can be no crime, or sin. Who would want to live in a society without law where there could be killing, theft, unrestrained abuse, and trespassing, all forms of violence with no protection? Yet, incredibly enough and strange as it can be, we are taught even in religious circles there is no law to direct our worship to God. Sin has always been in the world because people have always been under God’s law. Because people have yielded in their impulse to “have their way” and “do as they please”, sin has always been with us, Romans 3. God cannot tolerate sin and be just because he is pure, perfect, and righteous altogether. Neither can civil law tolerate unrestrained violence and disorder. Imagine, if you can, living in a community where you, your loved and friends could be continually victims of any or all forms of violence without limit!! This, in principle, is the consequence of religious practice without regard for divine law, to declare the wisdom and will of almighty God. When people reject God’s wisdom and replace it with their own, they decline into the depths of moral degradation, Rom. 1:20-31. So all have sinned, Romans 3. But God loved and sent Jesus to save, John 3:16. The angle’s announcement of his virgin birth of Mary, declares this purpose, Matthew 1:21. The prophet Isaiah had foretold this event hundreds of years before, Isaiah 7:14. “But God commendeth his love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, “Romans 5:8. God offered Jesus and Jesus offered himself because they both loved us. It is most comforting to us to know that God loves and that God is love. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him,” I John 4:9. God is long-suffering with us in sin because he loves us and he wants to save, us. God bears with us long, desiring that we repent and come to him. “.... Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” II Peter 3:9. He waited in Noah’s day, and all but Noah continued in sin and he destroyed them with the flood. He loved the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and waited, but they likewise persisted in sin and he finally destroyed them. This is the continuing story of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice of himself and man’s responsibility to obey in order to have the blessing of salvation. Jesus came to save Luke 19:10 He pleased not himself Romans 15:3 He obeyed God Hebrews 5:8 We must follow him I Peter 2:21 Frank Driver
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