There is a tendency to justify sin based on how other people are able to get away with things. People compare themselves and will try to justify themselves by other people’s actions.
If there is no punishment for sin it will appear as if God is approving of it. Sin is a direct inroad into our lives.
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Romans 6:16
Yielding to sin is the way we open the door for Satan to work in our lives.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 10:10
Satan has only one goal for our lives. It is to steal, kill, and destroy.
We serve a merciful God. He did not judge sin before the Law was given.
Abraham was married to his half sister and Leviticus tells us this is an abomination to God. He lived before the Law and God mercifully used him and Paul even called him the father of our faith.
People began to misuse God’s mercy as a license to sin. They lost their perspective of what right and wrong were.
The Law was given to preserve the human race. A plan of redemption had been initiated in the Garden but the seed of man (Jesus) had not yet arrived. Mankind would not have survived without the Law being given.
God had to limit sin. He did this by giving the Law. This opened the door for the wrath of God which was poured out on those who broke the Law.
It is sad that so many Christians view God through a perspective formed from what they see in the Old Testament. They miss the fact that mankind lived under the mercy of God for approximately two thousand years before the Law was given.
God is gracious and merciful. This is His nature! We need a revelation of this to walk free of the bonds religious tradition places on us.
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Genesis 3:9-11
Adam and Eve had just committed treason and introduce death to creation. God did not punish them. He talked with them instead.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:15
This is considered the first Messianic prophecy. Adam and Even had just sold out humanity and God responded by giving them a foretaste of redemption!
We have seen in previous posts that God did not kick Adam and Eve out of the Garden as a punishment. He did not want them to live for eternity in a fallen state and so separated them from the tree of life.
Mankind sunk deeper and deeper into sin after leaving the Garden. This led to the flood and Noah’s rescue in the ark.
Sin immediately began to overtake humanity after the flood and it eventually became so bad that God introduced the Law.
The Law was designed to restrain sin. It put people in fear of God but it was not meant for the Christian.
But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24:37-39
This is an interesting statement. Evil had become so rampant in Noah’s day that only eight people could be saved by the flood. Jesus told His disciples that sin would be approaching that level when He returned.
Something happened after the days of Noah that put a huge restraint on sin. Noah lived approximately sixteen hundred years after the fall of Adam. It was only a few hundred years later that the Law was given too Moses.
The Law put a huge restraint on sin by introducing the fear of God. This was similar to a parent having to spank their child. No parent wants to strike their child. To train them though there will be times a spanking or other punishment will be necessary.
Children must be taught right and wrong. If the parent were to wait until they were twenty years old so that they could rationally discuss this, it would be too late. Discipline must begin at an early age.
How does a parent teach their child right from wrong? A baby does not understand the difference between right and wrong. They must be taught. The child may not understand the concepts of good and evil but they can understand a punishment that occurs when they do wrong.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14
Before Jesus came people could not understand spiritual things. They were carnal with no spiritual perception. This was why the Law was given. It was meant to teach the consequences of doing wrong in a similar way that a spanking is meant to teach a child who is not yet able to understand the concepts of right and wrong.
We are going to pick up our discussion in the next post. Thank you for stopping by today. If this has been a blessing please share our blog with your friends and family.
MB Media operates entirely by faith. Our mission is to provide christian teaching through social media channels and this website to viewers and readers currently located in more than thirty different countries.
Thank you in advance for your support! We know that you will reap a “harvest of blessing” (Gal. 6:9 TLB).
MBDevotional 