I really hate nice little words like sin. They are very easy to use or abuse to white wash reality. It is just too easy to say,"Oh, it's just a little sin." It makes it sound like it isn't so bad or that it is all right. It doesn't really matter because it is trivial. Yet, God tells us that to commit even the least of these sins is to have committed them all. Using that nice little word sin makes this seem so unfair. We like to think that most sins are not that bad.

This makes it easy to think that committing a little sin shouldn't be enough to warrant going to Hell. That is pretty severe for something that isn't that bad. Why would a loving God send us to Hell for a little sin?

But, what is a sin? It is a violation of God's law. Hold it! What do we call a violation of our law? We call it a crime don't we. Isn't a violation of any law, including God's law, a crime? You bet it is. Therefore, when we violate God's law we commit a crime. Anyone who commits a crime is called a criminal. Since we have all sinned and sins are crimes, then we have all committed crimes against God's law and stand before God as criminals. Oooo! We don't like that because it makes us sound like we are not good and we like to believe that we are good. Even some of the most terrible people in history have justified their vicious acts so they could feel that they were actually good people. We like that nice little word, sin, because it makes it easier for us to believe we are really good when we are actually all criminals.

I like the words crime and criminal because they are reality and make it much easier to understand the severity of our actions and how God really sees us. Put yourself in God's place and look at us. We don't like it when criminals move into our nice neighborhoods. We find them repulsive because they are not nice people. They do very unpleasant things to other people and don't care who they use, abuse, or hurt. We don't like to have them around us because they make us feel dirty. We don't want them in our presence because they are tainted by their crimes even if they reform. They can never undo the crime they have committed. They will have always committed a crime and will always be a criminal. It doesn't wash off, ever. To have committed one crime is the same as to have committed them all because you are a criminal whether you commit one crime or all crimes. Most importantly, you must realize that for us to commit any crime against God's law, we must first reject God's love. This is a crime against the first and most important of God's laws. Jesus told us that the first and most important of God's laws is to love the Lord, your God with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul. If you reject the love of God, you have committed the worst crime possible.

How do you think God feels when we criminals have converted His once beautiful garden, Planet Earth, into a penal colony? How would you feel if a group of criminals turned your garden into a penal colony? Not a pleasant thought is it. You would want to have them all removed from you and then you would still feel that your garden could never be the same again and that you yourself were violated.

But God loves us because we are His creation (be thankful that evolution didn't happen.) We are his children even though we are all criminals. God had a dilemma. He is both a god of justice and a god of love. He loves us but justice must be served. Someone must pay for our crimes. We are told that the penalty for our crimes is both physical and spiritual death. The physical death is easy to understand. Our bodies die. The spiritual death involves the separation from God and incarceration in God's penal institution, the Lake of Fire.

Since we have committed the crimes, we deserve to do the time. But God loves us enough to give us a second chance. 2,000 years ago, God used His ability to control matter at and below the molecular level to change an egg in a woman named Mary into a zygote or fertilized egg. Then He placed the part of His spirit referred to as God the Son in that egg and became God in the flesh or the Son of God. He went through gestation, birth, grew up, became a man, and served a three year ministry to mankind. During all of this, He didn't violate one of His laws remaining innocent of crime and undeserving of punishment. But He intentionally came to Earth to be punished for our crimes so we didn't have to be punished by incarceration in His penal institution. Oh, we still have to die the physical death but not the spiritual death.

The deal is this. We criminals now have a choice. We can accept the payment that God made for our crimes against His laws or reject that payment and spend eternity making the payment ourselves. In order make this contract with God, we are required to confess that, by His law, we are criminals, make a commitment in our hearts to turn away from our life of crime against His laws, and then accept the payment that God made for our crimes. Like with all contracts, if we do not have the intent in our hearts to keep the contract, then the contract is not valid. In other words, if we make the contract with our mouths and not with our hearts, there is no contract. It is both a verbal and spiritual contract. It is spoken by the mouth and meant by the heart. If we speak the contract with our mouths for any intent other than to make the contract such as to get rich or be healed, the contract was never made.

Sounds fantastic except for one thing. We have to give up our crimes and we like committing our crimes. We like them so much that it is almost impossible for us to completely give them up as long as there is some kind of temptation to commit them. This is where we get the test. Will we give up our crimes for God's love or do we want our crimes more than we want God's love? That is the choice we must make and it is for eternity.

God is not going to force His love on us. If we don't want His love, then He will put us in the only place in existence where His love is not present. That is in the Lake of Fire. If we want His love enough to give up our crimes, then we get to spend eternity in the presence of His wonderful love. You choose.