This is the way the Bible tells us that man has failed. He is not able to stand before God. Every person who is able to understand right and wrong properly is a sinner.

1. 1) have sinned.

What is sin? How can I be made free from sin's terrible punishment?

Many people think that sin is not very bad. To them it is doing something that other people do not like. They think it is being "naughty." They call some sins "diseases."

The Bible tells us that sin is something worse than that. Sin is something we do against GOD. 1 John 3:4 says, “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” Sin is when we break God's law. It is rebellion: that is, it is when we refuse to obey our Almighty King and God. When we sin we say, "God, you do not know what you are talking about." This is why sin is so serious. We are not just disobeying parents or breaking traditions, but we are disobeying GOD.

1. 2) 1 3:4 tells what sin is.
2. 3) "Sin is ."

We can sin in many ways. We can sin by not doing what we should do, or we can sin by doing what we should not do. The Bible teaches that it is just as much a sin to refuse to obey the commands of Christ as it is to do a bad thing such as murder. Both will cause a man to go to hell.

1. 4) Is it a sin when I do not do what God tells me to do? Yes No

We now ask the student to get a Bible and read 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Please answer the following questions from those verses.

1. 5) 2 Thessalonians 1:8 speaks of those who do not obey the .
2. 6) Those who do not know will pay the penalty of eternal .
3. 7) In 1 Corinthians 6:9 it says that the will not inherit the kingdom of God.

We can learn about sin from the sin of Adam and Eve. God put them in a beautiful garden with every good thing. Then God said, “but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17). But Satan lied to the woman and said, “You surely will not die!” (Genesis 3:4) She believed the devil instead of God, so she ate the fruit, then gave it to Adam, and he ate also. In that simple way sin entered into the world. They did not lie, or steal, or murder. But they disobeyed God's command. They decided that what God commanded was not good, so they took the fruit and ate it. This was sin! This was lawlessness!

1. 8) God told Adam not to eat from the tree of the of and .
2. 9) said, "You surely will not ."
3. 10) Did the devil lie to the woman? Yes No
4. 11) Did Adam and Eve understand God's command? Yes No

The results of Adam's sin were very bad. You will find them in Genesis 3. They are:

1. Woman would have pain in child-bearing but still be in subjection to her husband—Genesis 3:16.
2. The earth was cursed with thorns and thistles—Genesis 3:17-18.
3. Man would die—Genesis 3:19.
4. Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden—Genesis 3:22-24.

How bad is sin? When I understand the punishment God will give for sin then I can understand how bad it is.

Sin separates man from sinless God. “Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” — Isaiah 59:1-2.

1. 12) What did Isaiah say separated them from their God?
2. 13) What caused God to hide his face from them?
3. 14) When will God not hear us?

We can easily see these things in the story of Adam and Eve. When they were in the garden of Eden they walked and talked with God. But after they sinned, they were driven out of the garden and no longer were able to walk and talk with their Father. It is the same with men today. Sin takes away the blessings of fellowship with God. Sin cuts us off from God. “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” — 1 Peter 3:12

1. 15) Do God's ears attend to the prayers of all men? Yes No
2. 16) "The face of the Lord is against those who do ."

Sin separates man from God. If man will not turn from sin, he will be eternally separated from God. The separation which begins in this life will continue after death. This is what the Bible teaches in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9. It says that God will deal out retribution “to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power”. The sinner will NEVER be in the presence of the love of God—forever and ever.

1. 17) At the judgment, how long will sinners be separated from God?

The Bible teaches that every person will go either to heaven (1 Peter 1:4) or to hell (Matthew 10:28). If we are not with God in heaven, we will surely be with Satan in hell. To the wicked, Christ shall say, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels”—Matthew 25:41. “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”—Matthew 25:46.

1. 18) For whom was hell prepared?
2. 19) How long will the punishment of the wicked continue?

This world is bad enough, but suppose that all of God's blessings and goodness were suddenly taken away—no righteousness, truthfulness or love—only evil continually—no hope, help or grace. This is what hell will be. Yet hell will be filled with people who have freely chosen to disobey the commands of a loving Father. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.”—Matthew 7:13.

1. 20) Is the way that leads to destruction narrow? Yes No

If we are not saved from our sins, we will be punished after death. But we also suffer because of sin here on the earth. The devil tries to hide this suffering from us. He tells us that sin is harmless pleasure. Advertisements tell us that beer and wine make us happy. Magazines have pictures of women with almost no clothing on, and women are told to dress that way to catch a man. Gambling, drugs, sex outside of marriage—all of these things sound good if we listen to the devil.

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”—1 Corinthians 6:9,10.

Sin is not pretty. Let the sinner think seriously about his life and about the judgment to come and he will be filled with sorrow and fear. These are the facts of sin.

You can now see that sin is something each person does. No one can commit sin for me. I do it myself. When God judges me, He will judge me according to what I have done, not according to what my father did.

1. 21) 2 Corinthians 5:10 says that in the judgment every one will be recompensed for his deeds in the .

However, many denominations teach that sin is inherited—that is, that a baby is born already guilty of the sin of Adam. Here is an example of what they say:

But this is WRONG! The baby is not born with the guilt of Adam's sin on his or her soul. Here are three reasons why we know that babies are born INNOCENT, not GUILTY.

1. The definition of sin is "lawlessness." We read that in 1 John 3:4. But what law have little babies broken? To say that they have sinned is foolish. Sin is an act which comes after temptation and lust (strong evil desire.) You can read that in James 1:14-15. Can a little baby be tempted and have evil desires?
2. Jesus tells us that we must become like little children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:1-4). “...for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). Jesus would not say this if children are little sinners!
3. The Bible plainly tells us that a man cannot inherit sin. “The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.” — Ezekiel 18:20.

1. 22) Is the guilt of sin inherited? Yes No
2. 23) Does the Bible teach that a baby is born guilty of sin? Yes No
3. 24) What two things must happen before sin is brought forth? (James 1:14-15) a) b)
4. 25) When Jesus said, "for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these," whom was he talking about?
5. 26) Read Ezekiel 18:20, which is printed just before question 22. Will the son bear the punishment for his father's iniquity? Yes No

Who can save man from his terrible slavery to sin? One thing is clear: man cannot save himself. “I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.”—Jeremiah 10:23. Isaiah uses the figure of helpless sheep to picture sinful mankind as he says, “All of us like sheep have gone astray...”—Isaiah 53:6. Like sheep we cannot find the way back to the place of safety; we can only wander around lost. We have no defense against Satan. We need a Shepherd to lead us. That good Shepherd is Christ who gave His life for His sheep. (John 10:11)

Other figures are used in the New Testament to tell us of Christ's mission. John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”—John 1:29. He is called a physician who has come to heal man of all his soul's diseases (Matthew 9:12). Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”—Luke 19:10. Even His name showed His mission: “you shall call His name Jesus (this name comes from the Hebrew name, "Joshua", which means Jehovah saves), for He will save His people from their sins.”—Matthew 1:21.

1. 27) "I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in ."
2. 28) "All of us like have gone ."
3. 29) Christ is the Shepherd who lays down His for His sheep.
4. 30) Can man save himself without Jesus? Yes No
5. 31) What does the name "Jesus" mean?

When John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” he was revealing the very heart of God's plan for saving man. Almost from the very beginning God commanded sacrifice. Abel's good sacrifice was taken from “the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions”—Genesis 4:4. The Passover sacrifice was an unblemished lamb, a first-year male. Sacrifices in the Old Testament time were made daily (Hebrews 7:27). “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”—Hebrews 9:22.

1. 32) Jesus is the of God who takes away the of the world.

Christ was God's final sacrifice for sin. The sinless Son of God came to offer himself once, and the effectiveness of this act was enough to take away the sins of the whole world for all time to come (Hebrews 10:12-14). This is why it was necessary for Christ to suffer on the cross. Without His death there could be no forgiveness. What a price He had to pay!

1. 33) What price did God have to pay to save us from our sins?

Remember this: Jesus suffered instead of us. We deserve to be punished in hell. But Jesus died for us; the sinless dying for the sinner! Every terrible thing which happened to Him—the mocking, spitting, slapping, whipping, the burden of the cross, the cruel biting nails into quivering flesh, the thirst, the anguish, the pain—all of this He suffered for us. When we think of this, we can see the true picture of sin! Sin was destroying mankind. God, hating sin so much and loving man so dearly, offered up His own willing Son. How we should love Christ and hate sin! We should gladly obey all that our Saviour commands us to do. If we do not, He died in vain for us.