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One of the nice things about the Bible is that if one Verse leaves you scratching your head or otherwise leaves you with unanswered questions, there’s more than likely another Verse in the Bible where you can find the answer. At first glance it seems terms such as “sin’ or the “second death” are bandied about, and some who are without patience may find it frustrating that the Verses mentioning those terms don’t define them. And often even preachers may use those terms, mentioning them to people who don’t exactly know what they are and would leave the church still not knowing.
Yet there are others who aren’t too familiar with the Bible who see no problem in calling out a person, telling them, ‘You’re gonna die, you sinner,’ while they themselves don’t know what they’re talking about or lack the depth needed in determining to what extent a person may be subject to the “second death” and the mitigating circumstances that may prevent a person from meeting that fate.
What is sin? James 4:17 says that sin is knowing what the right thing to do is but failing to do it. Well, that explains it, right? Perhaps not. It begs the question of what the right thing to do is. Since this definition is in the Bible, one wouldn’t be wrong in believing that the right thing to do is that which God would consider to be “good,” as He considered the things He did in creating the world in Genesis to be “good.” Seems that if we use the story of Creation told in Genesis, something good as God sees it is anything that adds to what God created instead of detracting from it.
If you still don’t know what sin is at this point, Galatians 5:19-21 lays some examples: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies…” Well, then. I guess we all know where people like the Roman Emperor Caligula might be spending their eternity! To be clear, that Verse says these are “works of the flesh,” and it says that those who commit such acts “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” One could safely conclude that these acts are acts of sin, if we can presuppose that these are not the right thing to do and detract from what God created. Can you conceive of the Lord considering the above acts to be “good”? Then again, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, as the Bible reminds us.
The various acts considered to be sinful are just one part to considering an act to be an act of sin. The other part, in order to charge a person with committing sin, is that the person engaged in such acts has to know these acts are not the right thing to do. Otherwise, although we know the person committed sinful acts, it may not be enough to lay the charge of sin on him for all time and evermore. Some may say we could have used a James when many lawful authorities moved to hold that ignorance of the law is not a defense, particularly when it comes to giving out traffic fines, but that’s another story.
Anyway, what about the “second death”? Between Matthew 25:41 and Verses such as Revelation 21:8, the second death involves the lake of fire. Offhand, it’s hard to think of anyone that would want to spend eternity there. But anyway, Jesus in Matthew 25:41 says that he would say to those who failed to help the poor and needy to go into the lake of fire. Revelation 21:8 says, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” So, we know what the second death is. It is the death that sinners may go to after having died once, that is after having been buried when they died the first time.
Is there a way of avoiding the lake of fire? There is. Although Passages such as 1 John 5:17 says that “All wrongdoing is sin,” it goes on to say that ”there is sin that does not lead to death.” This certainly applies to those who know what is sinful but have done the sin anyway. What sin would not lead to the lake of fire? 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, God would be faithful and just to forgive us those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Note that the Verse doesn’t say He WILL forgive us, it just says He will be faithful and just if He does so. So, like lots of things in the Bible, there are no absolutes. But safe to say, you stand a better chance in asking for forgiveness than if you don’t ask at all, to avoid the second death. And recall Luke 23:42-43, in which the condemned man on the cross next to Jesus asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus enters Paradise, and Jesus tells him that today he will ‘be with him in Paradise.’
Yet there are others who aren’t too familiar with the Bible who see no problem in calling out a person, telling them, ‘You’re gonna die, you sinner,’ while they themselves don’t know what they’re talking about or lack the depth needed in determining to what extent a person may be subject to the “second death” and the mitigating circumstances that may prevent a person from meeting that fate.
What is sin? James 4:17 says that sin is knowing what the right thing to do is but failing to do it. Well, that explains it, right? Perhaps not. It begs the question of what the right thing to do is. Since this definition is in the Bible, one wouldn’t be wrong in believing that the right thing to do is that which God would consider to be “good,” as He considered the things He did in creating the world in Genesis to be “good.” Seems that if we use the story of Creation told in Genesis, something good as God sees it is anything that adds to what God created instead of detracting from it.
If you still don’t know what sin is at this point, Galatians 5:19-21 lays some examples: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies…” Well, then. I guess we all know where people like the Roman Emperor Caligula might be spending their eternity! To be clear, that Verse says these are “works of the flesh,” and it says that those who commit such acts “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” One could safely conclude that these acts are acts of sin, if we can presuppose that these are not the right thing to do and detract from what God created. Can you conceive of the Lord considering the above acts to be “good”? Then again, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, as the Bible reminds us.
The various acts considered to be sinful are just one part to considering an act to be an act of sin. The other part, in order to charge a person with committing sin, is that the person engaged in such acts has to know these acts are not the right thing to do. Otherwise, although we know the person committed sinful acts, it may not be enough to lay the charge of sin on him for all time and evermore. Some may say we could have used a James when many lawful authorities moved to hold that ignorance of the law is not a defense, particularly when it comes to giving out traffic fines, but that’s another story.
Anyway, what about the “second death”? Between Matthew 25:41 and Verses such as Revelation 21:8, the second death involves the lake of fire. Offhand, it’s hard to think of anyone that would want to spend eternity there. But anyway, Jesus in Matthew 25:41 says that he would say to those who failed to help the poor and needy to go into the lake of fire. Revelation 21:8 says, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” So, we know what the second death is. It is the death that sinners may go to after having died once, that is after having been buried when they died the first time.
Is there a way of avoiding the lake of fire? There is. Although Passages such as 1 John 5:17 says that “All wrongdoing is sin,” it goes on to say that ”there is sin that does not lead to death.” This certainly applies to those who know what is sinful but have done the sin anyway. What sin would not lead to the lake of fire? 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, God would be faithful and just to forgive us those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Note that the Verse doesn’t say He WILL forgive us, it just says He will be faithful and just if He does so. So, like lots of things in the Bible, there are no absolutes. But safe to say, you stand a better chance in asking for forgiveness than if you don’t ask at all, to avoid the second death. And recall Luke 23:42-43, in which the condemned man on the cross next to Jesus asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus enters Paradise, and Jesus tells him that today he will ‘be with him in Paradise.’
