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The Three Non-Negotiables of the Gospel

It is difficult for new Christians and non-Christians alike to fully grasp the absolute essentials of this Faith. There is so much detail and complexity that it is easy to get lost in a maze of differing, even complimentary ideas and concepts. What follows is an attempt-with thanks to Wayne Grudem-to clarify the main themes of Christian theology by briefly examining the three irreducible, non-negotiable truths of Christianity. These non-negotiables are:

1. All have sinned and continue to sin; all have, by this sin, offended God and have fallen short of the mark.
2. The penalty for sin is death.
3. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin by His atoning death on the cross.

1. All have sinned
…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…
- Romans 3:23

In the classical Greek of the New Testament, the word for sin is hamartia, with the associated meanings of to miss the mark, to wander off the path, to be without a share in.

To miss the mark seems to describe a state, for instance, where one is aiming at a target, perhaps with javelin or bow and arrow. One intends to hit the target but misses it. The arrow, in missing the target, is separated from it. In the case where one is an archery contestant, such an outcome could loose one the prize, separating the person from his or her winnings. To wander off the path implies a state of being lost, or a purposeless meandering. Again, because one has lost his way, he becomes separated from his intended destination. To be without a share in is self-evident. It is perhaps illustrated most strikingly in the story of the "Prodigal Son" (Luke 15:11-24) 1. But whereas the first two definitions imply that despite one's best efforts one looses or becomes lost, in the parable of the Prodigal Son it is the son who throws away his own inheritance. It is not done to him by his father, nor by his brother, but by and to himself. By spending his share of his father's estate he looses it, he casts himself adrift, with no hope of profit in the world. He has separated himself from his inheritance and has become the poorest of the poor, the most to be pitied as well as scorned (as by his righteous brother).

Thus sin results in separation. But, as in the story of the Prodigal Son, to sin is not so much to be separated, as it is to separate. Like the headstrong young man of the story, when we sin we knowingly-even unknowingly-separate ourselves from the source of all love, joy and true fulfillment which is God. To sin is to reject and become separated from the proper and legitimate end God wants for us. As in the story, however, it is not God who separates Himself from us, but we who separate ourselves-in our own pride and conceit-from Him.

This separation can also be understood as the breaking of God's moral law. We can become aware of sin in this way though, only when we have some standard by which to make a comparison. For Jews, that standard is given in the five books of the Torah, which are also the first five books of the Christian Bible. Now, the breaking of a law implies a prior agreement of some sort between more than one party. In this case the agreement--commonly called a covenant 2--is between humankind and God, with God dictating the terms.

A covenant can be understood as a kind of treaty. In the context of the ancient near east it was a treaty or agreement drawn up for mutual benefit between two parties, one stronger, dictating the terms, the other weaker, acquiescing to the terms. The pattern is known from existing documents of Hittite kings and their vassal subjects. The more powerful King was the suzerain, or feudal lord to whom the vassal owed allegiance, It was the suzerain who dictated terms that were undeserved by the vassal (at least from the perspective of the suzerain) but who nevertheless recognized the benefits to be had from such an arrangement. It has been observed that the notion of an agreement or treaty was an apt picture of the relationship that had existed between God and Man in the Garden of Eden.

But when did you and I break this covenant dictated by God? When was it that we started to sin? Was there a time when it could be said that we did not sin, either as individuals or as a people? The Bible answers in the negative. It says we start our lives already tainted by sin:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
- Psalm 51:5

But how can this be? How can the apparently innocent, such as the newborn, be sinful at birth? The Bible says:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned….
- Romans 5:12

According to the Bible then, we are said to be guilty of sin because of the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden. This has been called "Original Sin", a term coined by Augustine of Hippo sometime in about the 5th century of the Common Era (CE). Original Sin is a term with both legal and heredity shades of meaning. Since Adam was our representative before God, we are legally bound by the consequences of his breaking the covenant with God. We as a people did not yet exist for God (that is, in one sense we did not yet exist physically, in another sense we did not yet exist legally or forensically). God could not recognize us as legal entities, because the contract, the covenant, was between Himself and Adam. And since Adam was our legal representative before God, Adam's sin became our sin.

Adam and Eve it seems, were unable or chose not to refrain from sin against God. The Bible leaves us to understand that this was in keeping with their nature since there is no record of a moral struggle, in fact it all seems far too easy:

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make {one} wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked….
- Genesis3:6-7

This propensity for sin has been passed to us as the heirs of Adam. But the sinful nature is understood as more than the mere propensity to sin. It is in fact a kind of necessity to sin. That is to say that we cannot avoid sin.3 All thoughts, words and deeds by every human being ever since that act of disobedience in Eden are sinful to a greater or lesser degree and have so poisoned our world that there is no longer anywhere we can go that is free of sin. This is because the sinful nature is part of who we are. King Midas turned to gold everything he touched; we turn to sin everything we touch. We are so mired in sin that we cannot recognize its pervasiveness, it is as invisible to us as the air we breath. But are we all as sinful as we can be? From the human perspective, some of us sin more than others and some sin seems more serious than other sin, so the question is not the intensive nature of sin but rather the extensive nature of sin. Sin is variably intensive but universally extensive. That is, the effects of sin can be seen in all aspects of human life. The universally extensive nature of sin is another reason it is impossible to avoid. Sin begets sin, which begets sin, which begets…and so on and on.

We are legally sinful because of our broken covenant with God. We are genetically prone to sinfulness because we are the sons and daughters of Adam who first sinned. We are socially sinful because the world we live in is the product of our sin and the sinful world rewards sinfulness, which it must do for its own continuing existence.

We must now ask, "What might God think about all this sin, since it really is a problem directed at Him, stemming as it does from His creation?" If we go to the Bible, it becomes clear that God is not pleased at the sinfulness of humanity:

Oh, what a sinful nation they are! They are loaded down with a burden of guilt. They are evil and corrupt children who have turned away from the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel, cutting themselves off from his help.
- Isaiah 1:4

So, God is offended by sin. Now, in order for God to be offended there must be antagonism between that which is sinful and some standard of virtue or goodness over against sinfulness. As well, this standard must be perfect and absolute, otherwise there would exist the possibility that in some cases sin might not be offensive. Now this standard is to be found in the person of God Himself and if one attribute of God is perfection (as it surely must be, else God could not be God), then it follows that God must embody perfection of goodness, or virtue, or righteousness. There can be no standard of goodness that does not reside in and of God. In other words, the person of God is, by necessity, perfect. But in order for God to be perfect, He must be simple. That is to say, no one attribute or characteristic of God can be more important than any other.4 (For instance, God's justice must be as important as his love; His righteousness must be of value equal to His mercy.) All of God's attributes must have equal intrinsic weight, equal intrinsic value, and equal intrinsic importance. If God had an attribute that wasn't intrinsically equal to His other attributes, He would be deficient in that attribute, therefore deficient in and of Himself and consequently He would not be perfect. Not being perfect, He would not be God. The Bible tells us however, that God and everything about Him are perfect:

The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.
- Psalm 19:7-9

Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
- Matthew 5:48

Being perfect makes God the end of all that is. There can be nothing beyond God. There can be nothing of greater value than God. In this sense God is the mark or target that is missed when we sin. God is the proper destination of the path we wander from when we sin. It is God Himself we give up when we give up the share ordained for us as our inheritance. And even when we think we are taking careful aim at the mark, even when we think that we are walking a spiritual path, because we are tainted with sin we substitute our way for God's; our targets are really of our own making and so we are like those who:

… are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.
- Matthew 15:14

The Westminster Shorter Catechism sums up the proper relationship that must exist between God and humanity when it asks the question "What is the chief end of Man?" and answers, "The chief end of Man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." But as we've seen, because of our sinfulness we are both unable and unwilling to glorify God and to enjoy Him; we have in fact broken the covenant relationship. Therefore, God must, because of His own nature, exact a penalty from us as lawbreakers even though it pains Him to do so:

"Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked", declares the Lord GOD, "rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?"
- Ezekiel 18:23

2. The penalty for sin is death
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life….
- Romans 6:23

A penalty is an action or actions taken against us for an offence against another, in this case God. It is also the disadvantage or painful consequence of such an offence. In this sense it is also the effect of a previous cause. It can also be seen as a kind of payment, forfeiture or sacrifice for a wrong done so as to re-establish the scales of justice, to make everything right again. Adam broke the (implied) covenant established by God and as a result forfeited his life to God:

Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
- Genesis 3:17-19

So Adam through sin forfeited his life as well as his right to dwell in Eden. This was his penalty, and because he was our representative before God, this became our penalty as well. The actions taken against Adam and his seed also included a cursing of the natural world, suffering of all sorts and, in a case of supreme irony, an existence that depended completely on works. In order to survive in the harsh world they would find themselves inhabiting as a result of Adam's enormous sin, Adam, Eve and their progeny would now have to toil and work for their paltry living. The original "work" that God required from Adam was simple obedience and humility. Now the work-because of pride-was to consist in backbreaking labour, rewarded with misery and death. But the penalty of death spoken of here was not just simple biological death. In the pages of the Bible, death is given a far greater consequence than mere cessation of all biological and electrical energy. What then can we understand about death in its context of being a penalty for sin?

For there is no mention of You in death; in Sheol [the shadow world after death] who will give You thanks?
- Psalm 6:5

What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?
- Psalm 30:9

In these and many similar passages, we see one meaning of death as a separation from God. The psalmist laments the fact that he is no longer in God's presence. This is for him, calamity. The New Testament writer Paul says:

…being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart…
- Ephesians 4:18 [emphasis added]

In an oblique reference to the sin of pride, Isaiah refers to an different dimension in addition to separation from God; the dimension of suffering as penalty:

Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire and among the brands you have set ablaze, this you will have from My hand: you will lie down in torment.
- Isaiah 50:11

We are given a hint from this passage that spiritual death is not just non-existence, not even separation, as bad as that undoubtedly is, but rather this death includes a penalty for wrong done. Paul says in one of his letters to the early church:

These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power….
- 2 Thessalonians 1:9

And in one of His parables, Jesus further explains God's justice:

So just as the tares [weeds] are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- Matthew 13:40-42

In a different parable, He says:

Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom [Heaven]; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades [Greek for "Hell"] he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame." But Abraham said, "Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and {that} none may cross over from there to us."
- Luke 16:22-26

It would seem then, from the foregoing, that biological death is not the end of life, nor is it the end of our experience. It further seems that sin will exact a penalty, a penalty to be served primarily after physical death 5, this then is the second death spoken of in the book of Revelation:

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes [sin] will not be hurt by the second death.
- Revelation 2:11

But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, [in other words, all sinners] their part {will be} in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
- Revelation 21:8

It might be appropriate at this point, to take stock of what we have learned thus far. All have sinned and continue to sin and that death-physical and spiritual-is the just end of all who sin. There would seem to be no escape (and why should there be?). Certainly, we cannot save ourselves, since we have no way to get beyond our own sinfulness. It's as if we were trapped in a deep ditch or pit of our own digging. The sides are steep and slippery and offer no means of escape. There is no person outside the ditch, no one without sin, perfect enough to take our burden of sin on himself; to reach down into the darkness and pull us out, to save us. Or is there?

3. Payment of the penalty
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us….
- John 1:1,14

In Genesis, after the sin of Adam, God said this to the Serpent, the Spirit of Deceit:

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel."
- Genesis 3:15

We hear in these words both a curse and a blessing. The curse is on Satan, the Evil Tempter "He shall bruise you on the head…." But the words "and you shall bruise him on the heel." really don't sound to us like much of a blessing, just more of a curse, but in them there is a faint promise of hope; a ray of light shining in the darkness. In these words God is telling the wayward sinners, Adam and Eve, that all is not lost, that God's love and power are infinitely greater than any amount of sin. God has chosen, in His own time and in His own way, to thwart the sin of Adam, to reconcile a fallen race to Himself so that ultimately:

…the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them.
- Isaiah 11:6

In effect God seems to be saying, "Even though you have rebelled against me, even though you have rejected my love and have dishonoured my Glory, still you are my children, made in my very own image. I will not abandon you to your own sin. See, I have determined a way for those I call and who hear to become redeemed in my sight, so that we may come together in fellowship as in days past. For I have plans for your prosperity, not harm."

But how was God to bring about such a redemption?

In the book of Genesis, we read for the first time of an offering to God in the form of a sacrifice:

So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions.
- Genesis 4:3-4

While these sacrificial offerings by Adam's sons were the first mentioned in the Bible, there is another, implied to have taken place even before them. We read in Genesis what God did for both Adam and Eve after the great sin in Eden:

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
- Genesis 3:21

This passage is often overlooked as a simple descriptive detail, but two things may be deduced from it. First, it appeared to be an act of compassion by God who may have been sorry for the shame felt by Adam and Eve at their own nakedness, as well as an act of protection against the harshness of the world outside of Eden. This is important because it shows that God was, even after the rebellion in the Garden, ready to show sinners His loving-kindness. This then is a type of promise for a renewed relationship for those who respond to God's call. Second, it inaugurated a great theme running throughout the entire Bible that has been called by some the "Scarlet Thread". The scarlet thread of sacrifice as an atonement for sin is implicit early in Genesis, and becomes more explicit as one progresses through the history of God's people.

For many early cultures, blood was understood as the vehicle of the life force. Since the life force carried in the blood was of paramount importance, only it could be worthy of being a substitute for sin in the eyes of God. Only life was worthy as a penalty to be paid to God, who was the author of life. But in order for life to be given, blood must be shed. This is the basic context that gave rise to the practice of the sacrifice of atonement in the Biblical world, and which Jesus was born into:

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.
- Leviticus 17:11

With these words God codified and formalized the provision of means (which were already ancient) whereby the death, rightly owed by sinners, is instead paid for by innocent animals 6.

In the Law, there were several related reasons for performing sacrifices. Central were the ideas of reconciliation, propitiation and expiation 7. Collectively, these terms are summed up in the word "Atonement" which originally meant the restoration of a positive, friendly relationship with God. Atonement was thought to be brought about temporarily through the rites of animal sacrifice found in the Law. In fact, God's wrath was temporarily set aside by the practice of ritual sacrifice so that through Christ's perfect work on the cross could make atonement real. Even though these regulations of the Law were given to God's chosen people as a gift, the Bible tells us these rituals had no permanent effect:

For the Law, since it has {only} a shadow of the good things to come {and} not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those {sacrifices} there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
- Hebrews 10:1-4

This makes explicit what the psalmist already knew generations before:

O LORD, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
- Psalm 51:15-17

What was required then, was a permanent sacrifice of Atonement; a sacrifice that was also perfect. But in order for the sacrifice to be both permanent and perfect it could only be made by God in order to achieve permanent and perfect satisfaction for the breaking of His own perfect covenant. So a new covenant had to be established and this could only be done through a perfect sacrifice:

For if that first {covenant} had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, "BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH….
- Hebrews 8:7-8

How did God determine to re-unite us with Himself in the bonds of a new, permanent covenant? Through the most amazing, unexpected and awe-inspiring way imaginable:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
- John 3:16

The magnitude of what God chose to do, in eternity past, and positively did in our own past, is staggering. Knowing as He did that mankind's sin was overpowering and that we are enslaved to our sin with no hope of redemption on our own, He decided to do the only thing he could do. He came to us and paid His own penalty, the penalty that only He could pay, the penalty was death, a sacrificial death to propitiate His own wrath and to expiate sin once and for all time. So God in the person of the Father sent God in the person of the Son to die on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. This was the only way and it was the way God chose from the very beginning.

So Jesus became the ultimate and final sin offering; the inauguration of a new covenant and a new, restored relationship with God through God's planned and deliberate sacrifice of His own Son on the cross of Glory:

"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know-this {Man,} delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put {Him} to death."
- Acts 2:22-23

The Prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before it happened, had foretold such an act:

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being {fell} upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke {was due?} His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting {Him} to grief; if He would render Himself {as} a guilt offering, He will see {His} offspring, He will prolong {His} days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see {it and} be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.
- Isaiah 53:5-11

When you were dead in your transgressions…He made you alive together with Him having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
- Colossians 2:13-14

So we see that Jesus Christ made the ultimate payment for sin and this full willingly. In Him all our debts have been cancelled and the righteousness of God has been ascribed to us, not through our own merit, not because we were in any way deserving, but simply because God loved us:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God {did:} sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and {as an offering} for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Romans 8:1-4; 37-39

Footnotes:
1 "A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.' So he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving {anything} to him. But when he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.' So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion {for him,} and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate."

2 Some Christians deny any covenant between God and Adam, as it is not explicitly stated as such in Genesis. However that may be, the Bible offers a clear description of the terms one would expect to find in such a covenant. This implicit covenant is sometimes referred to as the Covenant of Works because it depended on Adam's participation, in his doing what God expected of him. (See Genesis 1:28-30; 2:16-17 and Romans 5:12-21.

3 The fact that evil and sin can co-exist with God is also an interesting proof that God and His creation are different. God's creation is independent of Him as Creator; it is not an extension of His being as pantheists and some eastern mystics contend. If God is perfectly good and Creation is an extension of Himself or His being, then Creation would be perfectly good, which it manifestly is not. Conversely, if God and Creation are one, and Creation is imperfect, then God must be imperfect as well, which is a logical absurdity.)

4 This is not to deny that God can and does express one attribute over another whenever He wishes. Nor does it deny that Christians and non-Christians alike will focus their attention on one attribute over another at differing times and under differing circumstances. For many Christians, the greatest attribute of God is love, while for many critics of the Faith, the greatest attribute is wrath or jealousy (both of which are clearly taught in Scripture).

5 There are many passages in the New Testament that indicate a scale in the degree of punishment for sin. Such passages as Revelation 22:12, Matthew 7:2, Luke 6:37-38, and Mark 4:24-25 indicate that God's sense of justice is operative even after death and in the application of sin's penalty. Having said that, the root sin, the primal sin, is really pride-the wilful disobedience of God's laws, and a rejection of Him. It is because of this primal sin that all other sin takes place and it is really for this sin that we receive God's penalty and justice.

6 Human sacrifice was practiced from time to time in ancient Israel, as part of the corrupt worship of the Gods of other peoples, such as the Canaanites. This was a constant offence to God as many passages in the Bible show (see Jeremiah 19:4-6) because God created Man in His own image. That is, God set aside Mankind as being, in some mysterious way, like Himself. The rest of creation, especially after the Fall, was meant for humanity's support and pleasure. To sacrifice other humans was an abomination to God because Mankind was the pinnacle of God's creation. To sacrifice people was to offend and rebel against God in the harshest way possible; to sacrifice others offended and hurt God because of God's great love for Man who was the apple of His eye.

7 Reconciliation means the return of friendly relations after an estrangement or disagreement, propitiation means the appeasement or satisfaction of an offended party and expiation means the payment of a penalty for wrong or harm done or the improving or correcting of something such as a bad relationship.