Sin</sin> <center> Sin </center> “……for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Rom 3:23-24 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 6:23 What exactly is “sin”? What’s so bad about it anyway? So I take a cookie out of the jar while mom’s not looking. It’s not like I killed somebody. Is it? The Greek word for sin means “missing the mark”. When you miss the mark, you fail to be the person that God made you to be. Think of shooting an arrow at a bulls eye. When you miss that bulls eye in the middle, you have missed the mark. You have missed the target of walking in God’s plans for you. Sin is anything that keeps you from God. It can be an attitude of the heart. Sometimes it is the sin of omission -- not doing what you know God wants you to do. Other times you just find yourself in sin, not purposely in it, but just in it. And then there are times when it is a choice you make, knowing it is wrong. When you took the cookie from the cookie jar when your mom wasn't looking, you knew it was wrong, but you did it anyway. As far as God is concerned, sin is sin. There is no big and little sin. When you sneak the cookie from the cookie jar, that is sin, just as much as any other sin that you might consider much worse. (James 2:10-11) Each time you sin, it makes it easier to do it the next time. The third time you sneak a cookie, it bothers you less than it did the first time. That is why it is so important to let God speak to you the first time. The Holy Spirit wants to help you so that you don’t do it again. He wants to show you that what you did is wrong -- to bring about your repentance.