In his Epistles, the Apostle Paul also makes it clear that
we all have a future appointment with the Lord:

"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;
that every one may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
2 Corinthians 5:10, KJV

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this
the judgment:"
Hebrews 9:27, KJV

So as you can see, we can fool others, but we simply cannot
fool God. He knows the real score, and the Day of Reckoning
is coming for each one of us, whether we choose to believe
it or not. We will each have to acknowledge our sins.

"Exactly what is sin?" you might be wondering. "I have led a
rather decent life", you might be tempted to say. "I have
never killed anyone. I have never robbed a bank. I have
never raped anyone. I really fail to see how I am a sinner,
or why I need to believe in this Jesus of yours. I am a good
person".

Let us address the last remark first. Are you really as good
as you claim to be? On one particular occasion, a certain
person addressed Jesus as "Good Master", and inquired of him
what good thing he must do in order to have Eternal Life.
How did the Lord respond to this man's respectful remark? It
may surprise you to know that Jesus answered by saying:

". . . Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one,
that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments."
Matthew 19:17b, KJV

So with one statement, the Lord informed the man that there
is only One good; that is, our Father in Heaven, and He then
told the man something which He knew the man would not be
able to fulfill. He said "keep the commandments". In other
words, it seems that the Lord was trying to show the man the
error of his ways, when he falsely assumed that he was good,
and erroneously believed that he could merit Eternal Life by
his own good deeds.

How much this sounds like many people today, even some who
belong to organized religion. They have the mistaken idea
that they have to give God a little help in saving them.
Indirectly, such people are stating that Christ's Sacrifice
on the Cross is not sufficient atonement for our sins. The
idea seems to be that we need to add our human endeavors to
the finished work at Calvary. If Jesus said that it was
finished, (John 19:30), then it was indeed finished. Nothing
needs to be added to His Sacrifice, in order for us to gain
Salvation; nothing but faith in what He did for us.

Returning to the definition of sin, in his first Epistle,
the Apostle John offers us a very short, clear-cut
definition of sin. He states:

"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for
sin is the transgression of the law."
1 John 3:4, KJV

What does "transgression" mean? In the New Testament, it is
derived from a Greek word which means to live outside of the
law, or to violate the law; that is, to break the law.
Exactly what law is John referring to? Obviously, being an
Israelite, he was referring to the greatest laws of human
conduct the world has ever known; that is, the Laws of Moses
as laid down in the Old Testament. Jewish life centered
around the Laws of Moses, as is evident in both the Old and
the New Testaments. As we saw a moment ago, while there are
literally hundreds of laws contained in the Old Testament,
Jesus summed them up when He said that the greatest laws, or
commandments, are to love God, and to love our neighbor as
ourselves; and we most certainly love ourselves more than
anyone else. "Me" is number one. The survival of self is the
rule which governs this current world. As the Apostle Paul
wrote:

"For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and
cherisheth it . . ."
Ephesians 5:29a, KJV

If we each loved our neighbor as we love ourselves, the
world would truly be a wonderful place in which to live.
Sadly, that is far from being true in our modern times. In
fact, Jesus said that because of iniquity, or sin, the
Endtime would be marked by a lack of love in the world, and
Paul said that the citizens of the Endtime would be lovers
of their own selves, more than lovers of God, as we see by
the following two verses:

"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall
wax cold."
Matthew 24:12, KJV

"For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy . . ."
2 Timothy 3:2, KJV

So again, the greatest of all the Biblical laws is simply
love, because all other laws are encompassed by it. James
referred to it as the "Royal Law" in the following verse:

"If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:"
James 2:8, KJV

So if we truly wish to please our Heavenly King, we need to
obey His Royal Law: love. Any time that we do something
which is not motivated by love for God, or love for our
fellow man in some way, but only by a selfish love which
will bring us some personal advantage or gain, we are in
fact breaking God's Law. James tells us that even if we keep
all of the Biblical laws and only break one of them, we are
guilty of breaking them all:

"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one point, he is guilty of all."
James 2:10, KJV

Such is the futility of trying to keep the Law. Such is the
futility of trying to attain Salvation through our own good
deeds. We cannot be good enough of our own accord. We have
transgressed the Law; and that makes us sinners; every
single one of us. There is simply no way around it. There
are no loopholes. There are no bargaining chips. We are all
guilty as charged.

But, as we have already seen, not all is lost. There is a
way out of this mess. There is a way to be exonerated of
guilt. There is a way to avoid the punishment we deserve.
There is a silver lining to the sin which clouds and
overshadows our lives. Guilt, condemnation, judgment and
punishment do not have to be the end of this story if we
don't wish for them to be. We are not without hope. There is
a way of escape. As Jesus Himself taught His followers:

"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the
world; but that the world through him might be saved."
John 3:17, KJV

We have already been condemned by our own selfish and sinful
actions. What we clearly need now is a Savior, and Jesus is
that Savior. He offers us freedom from the bondage of sin;
He offers us the hope of Redemption; and He offers us the
gift of Eternal Life, through His Sacrifice of Love on the
Cross. As the Apostle Paul explains it:

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly."
Romans 5:6, KJV

"That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are
made nigh by the blood of Christ."
Ephesians 2:12-13, KJV

So you see, through accepting Christ's sufferings on the
Cross as atonement for our sins, we can be reunited with the
Father. Our fellowship and close relationship with Him can
be restored. That is why only a few verses later, Paul also
adds:

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of
God;"
Ephesians 2:19, KJV

Why does Paul say this? Because that is precisely what God
has wanted all along. He has wanted His wayward children to
return to Him, just like in the story of the Prodigal Son
found in Luke chapter fifteen. In fact, at the very
beginning of the Gospel of John, we are plainly told that we
can become a part of God's Household; we can become His
adopted children, simply by accepting the Sacrifice of His
Son:

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name:"
John 1:12, KJV


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