"THE STORY"
From Lynn Eynon
Senoir Minister
THE STORY
We have gotten off to a great start with The Story. Our Sunday School classes are at an all time high in attendance. People are talking about The Story with excitement. That is exactly what was hoped would happen. God's word is exciting. God's message to us through the Bible is good news.
We too often get bogged down in some of the details of The Story and then lose sight of the real, full, central message of the Bible: God wants to have a relationship with humanity. He had that with Adam and Eve but sin ended that perfect, open relationship. But God was and is still working to have a relationship with us. Sin continues to interrupt that effort.
Because sin is such an every day part of our lives we tend to diminish its real power and influence in our lives and in our world. Reading God's word reminds us that sin changed and changes everything. Sin has a powerful impact on our relationship with God and with one another.
It is essential that we understand the nature and power of sin correctly. That fact is most of humanity and many Christians do not. It is seen as too common to be very powerful. The basic picture is that sin ruined God's perfect world. Sin did not just hurt it but ruined it. Sin is that powerful.
From the very beginning of God's word we see clearly that God gives us the power of choice. The fact that He told Adam and Eve to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but He did not put a wall around that tree to stop them means they had a choice to make. They were free to choose to obey or disobey. There have been many volumes written about the “why did God give us free will if He knew we would mess up” question. Some have taken the route of even denying we have any free will as their answer. I am totally comfortable with the balance of “free will” and “God's love” aspects of this situation. I do not think everyone will have an answer that pleases them in this world – that is why the question keeps coming up throughout the ages. There are numerous areas where we have to “walk by faith not by sight” in Christianity (2 Corinthians 5:7). This may be one of them for some people.
The reality of sin is that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23 ). WCC is of the group within Christianity that does not see this to mean that children are born sinners. Children are born innocent (“little ones…have no knowledge of good or evil” Deuteronomy 1:39 ; “before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and good” Isaiah 7:16 ; etc.) But all how live long enough to be accountable for their actions and decisions will sin. The consequence of sin is “death” (Romans 6:23 ). That is not so much physical death (which is part of the result of Adam's sin) but spiritual death: separation from God. That means “all are separated from God” because of their sin.
The consequences and implications of this are far, far greater than most people want to realize. Because of our sin(s) we are separate from God. We do not have a relationship with Him – that was lost to us and God when we became accountable for our sins. That is the central message of God's word. All the mess and heartache and suffering in this world came into this world when sin came into this world. This was not God's plan for us, but sin was and is powerful enough to impact God's plan so dramatically.
There is only one solution to this breakdown in our relationship with God: Jesus Christ. Jesus makes this very plain (John 8:24 ; 14:6). This was also the clear teaching of the apostles (Acts 12, 1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus is the only way back to a relationship with God. This is not a popular teaching in today's world, but it is the Biblical truth we must accept. Other religions and other religious leaders are not the way back to God. Biblical Christianity (as different from popular Christianity) is inherently, clearly Christ centered.
That is why that “in Christ alone” can we be...
Together For Him,
Lynn
