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Sin: The Downfall of Mankind

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All sin is sin against God. We have been looking at self-discipline this year. This daily devotional reviews what we have discussed about sin.

Devotions in the Self-Discipline Review series

Self-Discipline Review Series

All year, we’ve been looking at self-discipline. We looked at self-discipline as the operational plan for self-control because it talked about improvement.

I’ve thought about how I wanted to land the self-discipline plane. We’ve had our individual series, but a couple months later, I would find something in another series that helped expand what we had already discussed.

So, I figured out a way to review everything and hopefully put all of the building blocks together. What I am doing is pulling out the nuggets of all the devotions.

I am formatting this as a glossary page. If I already have one, I will combine them later.

We will be looking at these based on how we search for and seek God. The bottom line is we have sin in our lives, and we need to address it.

Sin is actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings. Temptation is that period of time between conception and execution of doing what is sinful. It’s the we’re-thinking-about-it stage.

What Is Sin and Temptation?

  • When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they allowed sin into the world (Why Jesus Became a Man).
  • Satan said bite — Eve bit — Adam bit — sin came into the world — disease, accidents, murders, yada, yada, yada came into the world. Satan began to rule us (Born for the Kingdom; Is Peace an Attitude?).
  • Man and Satan are to be blamed for the results of sin, not God (Is Peace an Attitude?).
  • The original sin “killed” us all because it separated us from God. We are going to be separated until the judgment — even though we are made spiritually alive at conversion (Will Disciples Have a Judgment Day?).
  • The only thing that can — and will — separate God from us is sin (Good versus Evil).
  • Sin comes in when we make a conscious decision to do what is wrong (What Does Temptation Mean?).
  • The choice to sin comes from inside of us. Opportunities to sin may be presented from outside, but the desires are inside of us (What Is Self-Discipline?).
  • Whether we sin or be obedient is a choice of whether or not we are going to give God the position of Sovereign God in our lives. He is Sovereign God with or without us, but we have to choose to submit to Him (How Do We Believe in Jesus?).
  • It is personal. Each person must make the decision for themselves whether they are going to ABCD or not. Each person must turn away from consciously sinning (How Will the Tribulation Begin?).
  • Sin interferes with our ability to respond to those things spiritual (Belief: The First Step in Salvation).
  • Sinful nature wins — evil comes out. Spiritual nature wins — good comes out (The Battle between Flesh and Spirit).
  • We are trying to win the battle over sin. That battle is waged through temptations. (Using Worship to Educate Our Thoughts).
  • Being tempted is not a sin (What Does Temptation Mean?).
  • When we act on the desires of the temptations, we sin. Once we sin, it is easier to sin again. Pretty soon, we are living for Satan, not God (What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?).
  • Temptation is merely a test. Are we going to break God’s laws and commandments for our pleasure, or are we going to remain true to Him? (What Does Temptation Mean?).
  • We’ve got to squash the sin, not turn a blind eye. For some sins, though, there is no excess. There is just avoid (What Is Self-Discipline?).
  • There is a freedom we enjoy when we are self-disciplined. We are more able to withstand Satan in his attempts to get us to sin. That gives us peace and joy (What Is Self-Discipline?).
  • We can’t pick and choose what is a sin and what isn’t. Nobody died and made us god. We can’t say one sin isn’t “bad” enough to be a sin (How Can We Find Comfort in Troubling Times?).
  • What God has said is a sin will stay a sin. We can’t negotiate so it will be taken off the sin list. There is no debate (Watch the Company We Keep).
  • A sin was a sin back in Noah’s day. It still was in Jesus’ day. It still is now. It will be until Jesus comes back (How Are We to be Inclusive in Our Ministry?).
  • We like to think there are good sins and bad sins. That way we can either say we aren’t totally bad or we are not as bad as Tom, Sally, or Elaine (Will Everyone Have a Judgment Day?).
  • God is not going to condone sin (How Can We Find Comfort in Troubling Times?).
  • We are disobeying God’s laws and commandments regardless if we are lying, stealing, or murdering someone (Will Everyone Have a Judgment Day?).
  • Sin is made appealing by being sensuous and marvelous. Whatever the sin, the root is our sinful nature against our spiritual nature. That makes it unrighteous and destructive (What Happens to the Antichrist?).
  • There are some that don’t think sin is oppressive. All they see is the pleasure and shiny. Sin is oppressive because it leads to spiritual death (Isn’t It Impossible to be Obedient?).
  • While it might be pleasurable at first, sin definitely does not end up that way. The separation from God is heart-wrenching. Self-discipline helps us not go down that road (What Is Self-Discipline?).
  • The only way this world will be truly healed is when it is replaced with a new Heaven and a new earth – one where sin will no longer reign (How Can We Heal This Land?).
  • Sin infects the whole body. Just as the body has many parts, so too, sin has many aspects. The thing is that sin has to be completely conquered. Not compromised. Not improved (What Does It Mean to be Crucified with Christ?).
  • Just because we have the results of sin doesn’t mean God isn’t in control. He allows the results to happen – we have to have consequences of wrong actions (Is God Really in Control Right Now?).
What God has said is a sin will stay a sin. We can’t negotiate so it will be taken off the sin list.

Why Do We Sin?

  • We have to never forget that, yes, these were — and we are — God’s people. Yes, we can — and will — continue to sin (What Happens When We Repent?).
  • That doesn’t mean there is something wrong with God. That means there is something wrong with mankind (What Happens When We Repent?).
  • We can still sin because we are still in these sinful, physical bodies (What Does It Mean to be Crucified with Christ?).
  • Our flesh is considered naturally corrupt because it pursues what is pleasing, not necessarily what God commands. It is the root of sin and evil (What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?).
  • We will not be able to totally suppress human nature. Disciples strive to not obey their nature over God’s commands, especially willfully (What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?).
  • We can’t believe that we can purposefully go ahead and keep sinning. We are supposed to strive for righteousness (How Do Disciples Crave Righteousness?).
  • Since we are still in sinful bodies, we mess up. That means God has to chastise us (How Do Disciples Escape Persecution?).
  • Satan sometimes works overtime to get us to sin. (Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity).
We can’t believe that we can purposefully go ahead and keep sinning. We are supposed to strive for righteousness

What Are the Results of Sin?

  • We grow through these trials and temptations. So, we shouldn’t get totally discouraged when they pop up (What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?).
  • While we are expected to maintain the bodies God created for us, we don’t have to live our lives buried in debt to our human nature (How Are We Debtors to God?).
  • Don’t we have a lot of rubble in our lives? We have baggage from past sins (Rebuilding Under Difficult Circumstances).
  • We will still get sick and die. Those are the results of sin. We still have to endure the results even after we profess faith in Jesus (Rewards for Focusing on God).

God’s Reaction to Sin

  • We forget God is a wrathful God. Even though we can’t see Him, we know when He is angry at our sinfulness (How Should We Handle God’s Discipline?).
  • God’s wrath comes out of His nature. It comes from the need to maintain order. If His laws and commandments are broken, consequences must occur (Can We Really Identify God’s Wrath?).
  • But God’s wrath is always tied up in our propensity to sin. (What Is the Rapture?).
  • God’s anger is used to help get us back on His track. He uses it to correct us and as a warning to other sinners. Its purpose is to mold us into being more like Him (Can We Really Identify God’s Wrath?).
  • Worldview people argue that, if God is love, there would be no consequences. Seriously? We really think we would want to submit to a God Who didn’t care what we did? That is just a smokescreen (Can We Really Identify God’s Wrath?).
  • Worldview people want disciples to believe that we can’t point out that their actions are sins. They tell us we should not judge (Mt. 7: 1) — which is true. However, how we do or do not approach the non-believer does not change the fact that God has determined what is sin and what isn’t. God will judge them on His timetable (What Is Expected of Disciples?).
  • Some worldview people like to think that God is not judging us now and won’t until the end times — if then. Do not take that to mean God will not judge. He will — if not today, He will in the end (Can We Really Identify God’s Wrath?).
  • Not judging doesn’t mean tolerance for sin (The Ministry of Reconciliation).
  • God wants us to confess and repent of our sins – and will judge us for any unconfessed sin (But the Man after God’s Own Heart Was a Warrior).
  • It doesn’t matter what sins we have committed. We could be a liar. We could be a murderer. God will forgive us — if we ask and submit to Him (What Happens When We Repent?).
  • We could commit one sin a week. We could commit one hundred sins an hour. God will forgive us — if we ask and submit to Him (What Happens When We Repent?).
  • There is only one sin that God will not forgive. I believe that is unbelief. He will not forgive us for not ABCDing (What Happens When We Repent?).
  • God wants us to cut out the old sin and replace it with His love and grace. He doesn’t want it to just be a ritual or symbolic. God wants the change to be real, personal, and genuine (How Are Disciples Humble?).
  • Only God can remove our sins — when we ask and repent of our sins. He wants to restore our balance (How Are Disciples Pure in Heart?).
  • God does not like divisiveness that leads to acts of sin (Rebuilding Under Difficult Circumstances).
  • God instituted laws and commandments to reveal His character to us as well as establish boundaries under which we are to live. When we do sin, we need to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness (What Is Piety?).
  • Because we love God and want to obey Him, we are accountable to Him. That means we obey all the laws and commandments. We don’t compromise with the world. We don’t keep our pet sin (The Correlation between Fear of the Lord, Wisdom, and Obedience).
  • God’s priority is our spiritual life, not our physical life. To put our spiritual life as a priority, we need to hate sin (Focus on Love, not Evil).
  • God is really good at showing our sins to us. He wants us to see them as He sees them so that we can eradicate them (Isn’t It Impossible to be Obedient?).
  • God forgives all of our sins — when we admit that He is Sovereign God (What Is the Relationship Between Righteousness and Obedience?).
  • God has no problem forgiving us when we genuinely ask for forgiveness. But we have to ask and be active in turning away from the sin (What Is the Relationship Between Righteousness and Obedience?).
  • Before God does anything else, He has to forgive the sin that brought the judgment in the first place. It would be useless to allow the sin to go on unforgiven. We wouldn’t gain anything (How Can We Heal This Land?).
  • The purpose of the gift of grace is to restore God’s relationships with man and eliminate sin (How Does Predestination Fit In?).
SinTheDownfallOfMankindPin1

Father. We know we are sinful. We want to obey You. We want our relationships with You restored. Help us to withstand the temptations that Satan sends our way. Amen.

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