Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Monday, January 27, 2020

"God is a consuming fire."¹

Another asked, "So what is sin? Everything God has made is perfect. And only God can create. So how can sin exist? Let's illustrate: A hand can be perfectly made, and that perfect hand can be rolled up into a perfect fist and pushed at a perfect speed into someone's perfect nose. And somehow now it doesn't seem quite so perfect. Sin is: the improper application or use of things that God has perfectly made. So sin is not a created thing; it is the word used to identify when things are used improperly."²

One of the reasons God is so opposed to mankind's sin is because it is so totally destructive of those whom he loves—us!

Sin is totally destructive of sinful man because sin is an offence to God who is a God of absolute holiness. In His Word God has been described as a "consuming fire." Spiritually speaking, that means unforgiven sinners can no more survive in God's presence any more than a moth can survive in a flame.

To put it another way, sin is a deadly spiritual cancer and either we get the cancer or the cancer gets us. That is, the cancer of sin causes spiritual death. Realize that spiritual death is not the cessation of life—for beyond the grave the soul lives forever. While forgiven sinners will live in the presence of God forever, unforgiven sinners will live forever in the place the Bible calls hell (whatever and wherever that may be). Of one thing we can be sure, spiritual death means eternal separation from God—the author of all love and life.

Fortunately, God is not only a God of absolute holiness; he is also a God of absolute love. Because God loved us so much, he gave his only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die an excruciating painful death in your place and mine on a Roman Cross at Calvary over 2000 years ago. Jesus died to pay the penalty (death) for all our sins so that all who believe in him "should not perish but have eternal life."³

Do you believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for all your sins? And have you asked for and accepted God's forgiveness and his gift of eternal life? If not, I urge you to do that today. For further help read and accept God's Invitation at http://tinyurl.com/6k49w or at http://tinyurl.com/8glq9 read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian—without having to be religious."

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to grasp the severity of sin's consequences and to understand that the only way to be forgiven is by believing that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for all my sins, accepting Him into my life as my personal Lord and Savior, and therein receive your gift of forgiveness and eternal life to be with you forever in Heaven. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus's name. Amen."

1. Hebrews 12:29 (NIV).
2. www.musingsaboutgod.com/Words.htm
3. John 3:16.

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