Scripture Reference: Luke 24:44-53
The Curse of the World
The gospel message, according to our Savior, concerns His death for our sins on the cross and His resurrection from the grave for our justification. The gospel message addressed to the human heart concerns itself with the forgiveness of sin. When I hold the Bible in my hand and turn through its pages, I find that the whole written Word of God has to do with sin. The scene opens in the Garden of Eden when the Lord said to our first parents, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). This is the curse of the world.
If one sins against a friend, something dies within him. If one sins against a partner, something will die between them. If one sins against his home, something will die in it. If one sins against himself, something will die in him. When one sins against God, something dies between him and the Lord. When sin is added to anything, to any gift, any virtue, any achievement, it will spell grief and misery and death. A gun plus sin will produce violence and murder. Success plus sin will produce egotism, pride, and overbearing ostentation. Money plus sin will produce greed, bribery, and blackmail. Love plus sin turns to lust. A home plus sin will produce an atmosphere like hell. Alcohol plus sin, a car plus sin, any gift of God plus sin is damned to misery and perdition. God said, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” There is a curse in sin.
Too many people, including many Christians, sadly buy into the lie that the ends, justify the means. It doesn’t matter what I do if something good comes from it. That is justifying sin and all it will bring is misery, discontentment and death. I’ve seen it take place first-hand in others. Again, there is a curse in any sin.
The Everlasting Stain of Sin
There is an everlasting stain about sin. Sin is in your soul, in your memory, in your heart, in your life, and piece and parcel with you. Sin carries with it an everlasting stain.
In the book of Genesis, Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days.” – Genesis 49:1. One of those sons was to receive the blessing. He was to be the one through whom the Messiah was to come. So he turned to his firstborn son. The blessing should have been given to Reuben, but the patriarch said:
“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it— he went up to my couch.” – Genesis 49:3–4.
As Reuben stood there that day at the head of the twelve patriarchal sons of Jacob, he drew himself up to his full height. He was the firstborn; surely the blessing would be his. But Jacob pointed out to him a secret sin that he thought had been forgotten and buried; and it was as vivid, and as scarlet that day when Jacob looked upon him as on the day when he committed it. Your sins will be that way when you stand before the judgment bar of Almighty God. They were committed in youth, in childhood, in the dark, in secret; but they will be as vivid in the day of judgment as they were the day when you committed them.
If Reuben did not receive the blessing, then the second son, Simeon, should have received it. If he did not, then the third son, Levi, should. Jacob turned to them and said:
“Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council; let not my honor be united to their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man.” – Genesis 49:5–6.
What Jacob was referring to is recorded in the Bible and had happened over forty years before. It was a murderous and bloody sin that the two brothers had committed. I would think that Simeon and Levi, as they stood there, thought that what they committed forty years ago had been buried and forgotten in the passing of time. But in the great hour of judgment their sin, too, was as vivid, and as crimson as the day that they committed it. We do not get beyond the everlasting stain of sin in human life.
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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