What is sin? Sin is missing the mark. What mark? Yahweh’s instructions.
Yahweh tells us what is good, and He also tells us what is evil. Yahweh wants us to trust Him, and to prove that we trust Him by doing what He says is good, and not doing what He says is evil. When we fail to do what Yahweh tells us to do, we sin. When we do what Yahweh tells us not to do, we also sin.
When we sin, Yahweh records it in a book. On Judgment Day, Yahweh will open His book and judge us according to our works. Yahweh will find us guilty, and sentence us to the Lake of Fire for our rebellion. Yahweh’s angels will take us to the fiery lake and leave us there with the Devil and his crew to be tormented forever.
How could Yahweh do such a thing?
Yah did not do anything, but honor our free will. If we end up in the Lake of Fire with the Devil, it will be because we chose to. See, we were born into the Devil’s kingdom, and, over the course of our life on the earth, Yahweh gave us many opportunities to escape from the Devil’s kingdom and enter His Heavenly Kingdom, but we refused. So since we chose to remain in the Devil’s kingdom, we will remain in it throughout eternity!
Will it be bad in the Lake of Fire? Yes, it will be very bad. There will be nothing good in it. There will be no mercy, grace, love, peace, joy or presence of Yahweh in it. Pure evil will rule in the Lake of Fire.
On earth, sin is pleasurable for a season, but eventually, that season gives way to torment. For example, when we take drugs, we experience pleasure, but eventually, the drugs enslave us (take away our free will) and torment us. The depth of this torment is a place called “Rock Bottom.” In the fiery lake there will be no pleasure with sin, only torment that never ends, that is, a rock bottom that never ends!
How can we avoid the Lake of Fire?
As we hear the Gospel of the Kingdom of Yahweh, (the good news of the Kingdom of God), we can choose to believe it and receive it. What is the Gospel of the Kingdom?
Here is the Gospel of the Kingdom: If we believe that Yeshua was crucified for our sin, and that He rose from the dead on the 3rd day, and confess Him as Lord, we will leave the Devil’s kingdom, and enter Yahweh’s Kingdom to live with Him forever!
As we bow our knee to King Yeshua, we submit to His authority. Since we submit to Yeshua’s authority, we enter His Kingdom. Consequently, the Devil no longer has authority over our life. Then, as we continue to submit to Yeshua’s authority, He delivers us from our old sin patterns so that we can live the abundant life on earth.
The hallmark of someone, who has been released from the Devil’s kingdom, and given citizenship in Yahweh’s Kingdom, is the putting off of his or her past sins. A person, who has truly been born from above (born-again), will struggle against sin.
The struggle with some sin patterns will be light and brief. The struggle with other sin patterns may be heavy and protracted. The struggle against the Devil, the world and the flesh will go on until the citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom goes Home.
The goal of a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom, who is passing through the Devil’s earthly kingdom, is to mature, that is, to break free of every old sin pattern and live a life that is not continually controlled by the Devil, the world or the flesh.
Notice the words, continually controlled. As long as we live on the earth, inside a body of flesh, and use a partially renewed mind, we will not mature to the point that we are completely immune to the influence of the Devil, the world and the flesh. At times, the Devil, the world and the flesh will get the better of us, and we will sin.
When we sin, we must know that Colossians 2:14 says that Yeshua took our sin record and nailed it to the execution stake to do away with all our trespasses. How did Yeshua accomplish this? Well, the Scriptures say that Yeshua became our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21) and Yahweh judged our sin and punished it “in Him”. (1 Thes 5:9)
When we sin, we must know that Yeshua destroyed our sin record, and that consequently, Yahweh can no longer count our sins against us. (Romans 4:8) Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are “In Christ”. (Romans 8:1)
Yahweh is not counting our sins against us!
What then, shall we continue in sin? No! When we sin, we submit to the Devil and invite him to put us in bondage, and destroy our lives. (Romans 6:16)
Moreover, when we go Home, we will stand before the Bema Seat, where Yeshua will judge our works. If our works were good, Yeshua will reward them by giving us an important assignment in His Eternal Kingdom. However, if our works were evil, Yeshua will burn them up and give us a lesser assignment in His Eternal Kingdom.
In sum: When we sin, Yahweh is not counting it against us, but we are diminishing our eternal reward and allowing the Devil to enslave us and destroy our lives.
If you have truly left the Devil’s kingdom, then you will struggle against sin. If you have truly left the Devil’s kingdom, then you will not end up in the Lake of Fire. So, examine yourself to be sure you are in the faith, and work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that your lifestyle either proves or disproves your faith.
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