What Jesus said about ... (series)

 

What Jesus said about ... sin.

"If anyone should cause one of these little ones to lose faith in me, it would be better for that person to have a large millstone tied around the neck and be thrown into the sea. So if your hand makes you lose your faith, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand than to keep both hands and go off to hell, to the fire that never goes out. And if your foot makes you lose your faith, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot than to keep both feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye makes you lose your faith, take it out! It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to keep both eyes and be thrown into hell. There ‘the worms that eat them never die, and the fire that burns them is never put out.’ " Mark 9:42-48

Rather graphic don't you think? Maybe Jesus was exaggerating a little to make His point. Throughout His teachings He tells us time and again about the perils of sin; yet now, so many years later, we still have not got the message. Have we?

Let's make it simple: Sin is an offence to God. It is a disobedience of His Commandments. It shows lack of love for Him and even defiance. Adam and Eve's sin was not the simple sin of disobedience but it was defiance and envy - they wanted to be like God.

We all know the story when the Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught committing adultery.

According to Jewish law she had to be stoned to death for that sin. (Notice that the hypocrisy - they brought the woman. Where is the man, I ask?)

They were trying to trick Jesus into making the wrong decision. Would He follow the Jewish law or not? He said let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone, and when they all left one by one, Jesus turned to the woman and asked ‘Is there no one left to condemn you?’ She said ‘No one …’

And Jesus replied ‘I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again.’

Now Jesus did not mean do not sin any sin whatsoever ever again for the rest of your life! He knew that that is impossible. The woman was human, and it is natural that she would sin again. Jesus knows our human nature and He knows that we are liable to sin again and again. John 8:1-11

What Jesus said to the woman is, do not commit that particular sin again … it is serious enough to get you into a lot of trouble with the Pharisees as well as with God Himself.

And that’s what Jesus is saying to us today. Sin is serious and can tarnish our eternity for eternity!

One more thing ... there is no relationship between sin and any illness or disabilities that we may have. Jesus makes that very plain when He met the blind man and His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus replied: Neither this man nor his parents sinned ... but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. He rejects the notion that the man’s blindness was the result of either his sin or his parents’ sin. Jesus emphasizes that the blindness was allowed for a different purpose: to reveal God’s work and glory. John 9:1-12

This is a key point—while sin can certainly lead to suffering, not all suffering is the direct result of personal sin or the sin of others. Sometimes, suffering serves a greater purpose, such as allowing God’s glory to be revealed, as it was with the healing of the blind man.

"Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us." Matthew 6:12