Sin is the act of going against the laws of God. The Bible says,“Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned:—” (Romans 5:12).* In the beginning, Eve sinned by being tricked into breaking God’s rule (Genesis 2:16-17, Genesis 3:6). She ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She believed God was keeping her from having something that was better than what she already had. God warned Adam and his wife that the punishment for eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was death (Genesis 3:2-3). Adam was not tricked like Eve (2 Tim. 2:15). Instead, Adam sinned by choosing to follow Eve and eat of the tree instead of choosing to obey God.
God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden. God drove them out to keep them from eating from the tree of life and living forever (Genesis 3:22). This tree of life was kept back from them, and they were removed from the home God had designed for them. This removal from their first dwelling is the first representation of what it means for the soul to sin against God. Mankind needs and was given a history of physical interaction with God to explain the spiritual impact of sinning against Him. From the creation account–and literally from creation onward–He is teaching and preparing us to understand the value of the relationship He offers. The plague of physical death is not the everlasting death of the soul. Physical death is inherited, spiritual death of the soul is not. Physical death is a small glimpse of the greater death, the soul’s death, that we should fear more than physical death.
God’s relationship with us is individual. He does not punish one soul for the sin committed by another soul (Ezekiel 18:20). He gifts us with life when we are born—life of the body and life of the soul. The life of the body is immediately subjected to the plague of physical death inherited from one’s mother and father. Jesus Christ inherited the plague of physical death from his mother. He was subject to the corrupting influences of death, so that He lived on earth as a man with all the frailties and incapacities that come with the human body and mind. But He inherited the resurrection from physical death from His Heavenly Father. He rose from the grave, never to die again.
God is pure and holy. Sin is the opposite of His nature. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The impurity of sin causes us not to be worthy of God’s nature, His majestic and pure glory. When sin remains, the sinner cannot come into God’s presence. Every soul that sins must die (Ezekiel 18:20). Death is the opposite of life in God. So, no soul can come into God’s presence with sin. A sin-stained soul is imprisoned in death by the Adversary, that serpent in the garden. This is an eternal state of being because our souls are eternal. God has prepared an eternal home for our souls where He resides, but souls with sin cannot enter that home. We need God to remove the impurity of sin, and He gives us the way to do this.
From creation onward, God shows us He always meant to resurrect our souls from death through Jesus the King. Throughout the Old Testament, God, who calls Himself Jehovah (or Yahweh), wrote down laws and details and symbols and prophesies through early mankind to teach us about sin. He wanted us to learn the holy and sacred act of coming into His presence. He did not write it Himself; He gave His people the task of writing it down so that they would not forget. He made certain the words were correct, and He maintained the Old Testament in its completeness for thousands of years. Our God communicates with His people. His message shows us all the ways He loves us so that we will know what pleases Him and how to love Him.
One of the many significant emblems God shares in His message is the Passover Lamb. In Exodus, Moses the prophet of God wrote about how Jehovah freed His people from bondage and death by having them take a lamb and offer its blood in exchange for their lives (Exodus 12:21-24). This represented Christ, our lamb, who offered Himself for eternal atonement (1 Corinthians 5:7). God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus, to earth to cleanse our souls and save us from eternal death. The man Jesus taught the principles of His New Testament—the message of God that would be put into force after His death and resurrection. During His time on this earth, Jesus taught that the Son of God is the One and Only Way to come into God presence (John 14:6). Jesus accepted our sins on Himself by substituting His perfect, sinless soul for ours on the cross. He died our cursed death for us, and when Jesus defeated Satan the Adversary by rising from the grave, He paid the debt of death. He paid the price for every soul who has ever existed. Through Him we are promised this resurrection and eternal life.
After His resurrection, Jesus established a new covenant, the New Testament of Christ. It was delivered by the Holy Spirit of God into the hands of chosen apostles to teach us about the relationship we can each have with the One True God. Those apostles carried out their job, establishing the new covenant, as we see in the New Testament writings. Those who are part of this covenant are part of His Church. The first day that Jesus opened the doors of His Church, about 3,000 souls accepted His invitation and entered His eternal kingdom (Acts 2). The doors to His kingdom were opened by Christ Himself. First, He opened them on the day of Pentecost to the Jews (Acts 2); then He opened the doors of His kingdom to all souls who are not Jews (Acts 10). The Son of God reigns over His Church. The people of His Church make up the temple of God, where the soul comes into God’s holy presence (1 Corinthians 3:16, 2 Corinthians 6:16).
True, living belief in Christ.
Jesus accepts all souls into His kingdom when they believe in Him. True belief is not a thought alone; true belief includes doing what Jesus says. Jesus commands that each sin-stained soul come to God through His death, burial, and resurrection by being buried with Him in baptism. Baptism is a burial in water, and it is where the old, sin-stained identity is removed and the new, pristine identity is given life in Christ. (Romans 6:3-4) During the body’s burial in water, God circumcises the heart. He cuts away the sin that separates the soul from Him (Colossians 2:11-13). It is not the physical water itself that removes sin; it is God’s operation. Baptism is the emblem chosen by God to come to Him through His Son’s death. (Previously, God chose the emblem of male circumcision under Moses’ law.) Just as the physical body rises from the physical water, Jesus raises our souls, new and pure. Obedience to Jesus comes with the promise of resurrection everlasting (John 11:25). This is the gift Jesus offers you—a new life, His life traded for your old, death-imprisoned one.
If you believe in the Son of God (Acts 8:37), repent of your past sins to turn back to God (Acts 3:19), and put Christ on in baptism (Galatians 3:27), then you are added to His kingdom (Acts 2:47). As a citizen of His Kingdom, the Church that Christ died for, you have the privilege of coming into God’s presence through His Son (Hebrews 4:14-16). It is in this relationship where God’s face shines upon you and you can lift up your soul to Him.
*The passage in Romans does not say that “sin” passed unto all men. It is death that passes to all men. Adam and Eve’s sin opened the door to death. Death is the plague that we cannot remove from our bodies; it is passed down from generation to generation.