A Prayer
of Jesus
I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.
Edition No. 43        WE ARE HERE TO LISTEN TO      March 1,  2005
The Voice of Jesus
This is my Son, my Chosen; Listen to Him!

False Doctrines of Christendom
#12 - The Essence of Sin
he False Teaching

Catholic Doctrine: repugnant to the order of right reason. . . Since a voluntary act and its disorder are of the essence of sin, it is impossible that sin should be a generic term in respect to original and actual, mortal and venial sin.
From 1 John 3:4: Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
From Paul (Rom.14:23) . . .for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

From Billy Graham: We are all selfish, and the essence of sin is selfishness. "Me," "I," "my," and, "If you don't let me be the pitcher on the team, I won't play." Everything centered around yourself. That is the essence of sin -- self-love, self-will, self-seeking, self-pride.
From an Anglican, John Stott in The Cross of Christ: For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man.
From a Baptist: I want you to understand that the essence of sin is selfishness. What’s in it for me? That’s sin. You see, before sin entered into the world, God was the center of this universe. But when sin came in, man became the center of the universe, and “God, you stay out of our affairs now. We run this, You stay out of our affairs.” And every sin that’s ever committed is committed in the interest of self.
Exposing the Error

The essence of anything is what remains when everything is stripped away down to the very core such that, if anything else be removed, it is no longer that thing. The essence of water, by this definition, is the molecule, H2O. Remove anything from it and it is no longer water. Such is the essence of sin. The statements to the left specify the essence of sin in different terms -- lawlessness, selfishness, voluntary acts repugnant to the order of right reason, what is not of faith, man substituting himself for God and so on. We can add others -- whatever offends God or whatever misses the mark. These are some of the characteristics of sin, but none of them state its essence. Strip any one away and sin remains. Christian thinking begins with the first sin, that of Adam. He was disobedient (lawlessness). He wanted to be as God. He was selfish, seeking to exalt himself. His was a voluntary act with its disorder. It was not from faith. All true enough, but there was another thing underlying Adam's sin that gets to its essence as none of these do. For, in the day that you eat of it, God told him, you shall die (Gen. 2:17). The man was a living being; he then sinned and he was dead. Life and death are somehow related to the essence of sin, and no statement cited thus far says anything about either life or death in defining the essence of sin. To learn the truth of the matter, we must listen to Jesus. The tragedy of the Christians is that they have not listened, are not listening, and will not listen!
Declaring the Truth
Jesus does not explicitly state the essence of sin.  He does state the essence of what excludes one from life eternal, which is the same thing. This is his Great Principle that explains the essence of what kills or makes alive to God. He says, He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life (Jn.12:25). Sin kills. Adam died. Sin excludes from life eternal and this informs us of it's essence: the love of life in this world. Like the molecule of water -- remove anything from it and you no longer have sin. The Parable of the Prodigal Son explains it. The Prodigal committed many sins in the far country.  He loved loose living and spent all on harlots, but that was not his condemnation.  He loved his life in the far country. That condemned him, for on the day he hated that life and returned to his fathers house, his father embraced him and rejoiced for ' this my son was dead and is alive.' Yes, he repented of his 'sins,' but that was not what reconciled him to his father, and his sins' were not the essence of his sin. That was the love of his life in the far country. That, not his harlotry, was his condemnation and his death. It is man's love of life in the world that is the essence of his sin, for no repentance will restore one to life who yet loves the life in the world. The Lord Jesus then showed us the way by hating his life in the world and going to his Father on the cross.