 Knowing God
2.
All of us are sinful and separated from God. Therefore we cannot know and experience God's love and plan for our life.
Sin blocks our relationship with God.
The fact is, we need Jesus. The Bible says, "... all fall short of God's glorious standard " (Romans 3:23b). Though God intended for us to have a relationship with Him, we naturally want to do things our own way. We're stubborn, selfish, and frequently unable to follow through on our promises. Try as we might, we just keep stumbling. Deep down, our attitude may be one of active rebellion or passive indifference, but it's all evidence of what the Bible calls sin -- an old archery term which literally means "missing the mark." The Bible says the result of sin in our lives is death--spiritual separation from God (Romans 6:23). Although we may try to reach God through our own effort, we inevitably fail. We just can't ever be good enough.
We have all made choices showing we are inclined to be:
Passively indifferent to God
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." -Isaiah 53:6
Or actively opposed to God
"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." -John 3:19-20
The result of our choices to resist or ignore God results in spiritual death (separation from God).
"We are dead in trespasses and sins." -Ephesians 2:1
"And thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." -Romans 5:12
* Image taken from RBC.org.
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