What is sin and what are the consequences of it? Why do we need rescue from it and can it be stopped?
Sin: an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.
God is King over all of creation because he is the Designer and Creator of it. He is morally perfect and pure and he designed creation to be an environment of moral perfect and purity with no sin. no evil. no disruption. When God finished off his creation by creating man he said everything was very good. Everything functioned perfectly, exactly the way that He intended.
God made man unique from the rest of his creation -
When man was created he was given a body, a soul and a spirit so that he could commune with God who is Spirit. God made mankind in his own likeness. He gave man autonomy and the ability to make choices so that they could freely and willingly be in a relationship with Him. He gave man authority to rule over his creation and gave him instructions on what to do. He equipped him with everything he needed to partner with Him in caring for this world. All was very good.
"And
God saith, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,
and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over fowl of the
heavens, and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that is creeping on the earth.'" - Genesis 1:26
One day man decided that having dominion over God's creation just wasn't enough. He wanted dominion over his own life as well. He wanted to be his own ruler/god so he rebelled. He committed the act of treason against the King of creation. God warned him that the moment he rebelled it would usher in the beginning of the end.
In order to understand our need for a Savior we must understand the gravity of sin. It's no small matter. Adam's choice to sin set the entire creation in motion going in the wrong direction. Like a foreign object tossed into the cog of a perfectly running machine, sin began to cause serious problems with the order of things. The only way creation can function 100% properly is if it is done 100% according to the designers standard. Sin
not only opened the door for death and decay, it put an impassable
chasm between God and man. Their relationship was altered. Fellowship
was broken because God can have no fellowship with evil. Without being connected to the only source of eternal Life
all mankind was doomed to die forever unless God intervened.
Every good thing comes from the Father above. Every bad thing comes from departing from the Father's ways. Sin brought a curse into the world by allowing evil to enter. This curse had to be broken so that God's Kingdom could come and everything could be restored to the right order under His perfect ruler ship. But the curse could not be broken until a perfectly obedient man would come along to restore unity with God the Father. God chose the nation of Israel to accomplish this. They failed miserably time and time again even though they had God's help all along the way. Of course God knew all along that they would fail. What was God thinking? He knew that mankind needed to understand that they could not rescue themselves because they are morally broken. He wanted them to understand their need to depend on their Creator. The moment we reject God and stray away from him we are in trouble. Mankind was created to live in fellowship with God under His rule and authority.
