So, what are your idols? Idols are false or man-made gods that take first place in our lives instead of the Creator of the universe (God). In 2012, for some people it is their ancestors or family members. For some it’s a hockey or football team. Money is a famous one. For others, it’s celebrities, political leaders, or even agendas. Whatever idols, there’s usually a person or thing that we would seriously give our lives for rather than God.

This is a gross slap in God’s face. This behavior is what we call sin. Sin entered this world because of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3). The fruit from the tree (some think it was an apple) is famous and the snake is a crafty character, but the root of that story is that the first man and woman didn’t obey God but wanted to live without Him. As humans we inherited this behavior from our first parents.

Psalm 51:5 says that “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Psalms is part of the wisdom literature for the world. It would be helpful to think of this sinful inheritance as a covenant (promise, agreement or treaty). Many generations inherit a historical covenant regardless of their choice and are encouraged to respect it. More on the covenant with Jesus in a moment.

There are lots of people who are nice (good people according to us), but who still sin because they are human. We inherited a type of behavior which separates us from God’s holiness. The religious leaders in the Bible did everything according to the Law, yet they still sinned. Jesus let them know about that sin too, quite appropriately. So it’s not just doing bad things. In the case of the Pharisees, it was trying to be really holy by themselves while oppressing others around them. We still have people like that today.

Our sin, and the reason why we need Jesus, is because this behavior separates us from God. Setting up idols, wanting to live without God, worshiping ourselves or all things of this world are all sin. We (all humans) are all in a covenant with God; this goes for religious people, a sweet grandmother we know, or a smiling baby. Nobody is good enough to get close to God without some serious help.

Because God is so holy, we can’t access Him like Adam and Eve could in the Garden of Eden. We need help and that’s why there’s a lot of sacrifice in the Old Testament (and a lot of destruction). Jesus is the new covenant I was referring to. Knowing why Christ died and rose from the dead helps us to understand God’s holiness, justice, and love.

There needed to be an ultimate sacrifice for everyone. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world is basically Jesus giving us an opportunity to access God again without receiving what we deserve for our sin. The covenant of Jesus is love, justice, and holiness all together. That love, justice, and holiness loses power if you do away with sin and hell.

It’s not “cool” to talk about sin these days. Nor is hell. I know. But if you don’t want to talk about sin or the cross, then Jesus means nothing to you.

Jesus died in order to restore us to God, but we must turn from our sin and constantly stick close to Him. Our ancestors, families, money, intelligence, culture, traditions, and ceremonies, are good but they’re not enough to purify us and get us right with Him. The gospel is Good News for us if we turn from our desire to live without God and place our trust in Jesus who purifies us enough to get close to God and His holiness.

People, who think we shouldn’t put too much stress on how sin entered the world, or skip past the reasons why Jesus died, don’t understand the gospel. Paul said in First Corinthians 1:18: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying in sin.”

There are some people who want to make the created (good) world written about in Genesis 1 and 2 the center of how they know Jesus or practice social justice, and make the world a better place. These things are biblical and good, but they are not most essential to our faith like Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection.

Jesus died on the cross because of our sin. Sin, which is flourishing in the world and inside us, prevents the Kingdom of Heaven from existing in all its fullness in our world right now. In fact, it prevents us from storing things up for Heaven like Jesus asked us to do (Matthew 6:20). God is trying to rescue us from our selfish destruction by restoring us to Himself. But because of our choices not everyone will get to experience Heaven. There is a narrow door, or one way, like Jesus tells us (John 14:6). He’s a narrow door because He takes away our sin so we can get close to God.

Jesus said people would experience the grinding of teeth in hell for choosing to live without God (Luke 13:28 and Matthew 13:42). Choosing our own way may look good in this world, but it leads to living without God in the next. It is impossible to disregard sin and hell and still call Jesus Savior and Lord.

This is what we believe as followers of Jesus. We may differ on many things (we’re not perfect). I mess up sometimes and sin, but I nail that sin to the cross (repent) and keep running the race with Jesus. However, we all agree in some way on how Jesus died to restore us to the Creator with sin and hell playing a major role in God’s Love, Justice and Holiness. And for some people, I know this stinks and they want to change it because they still love Jesus. But we who call ourselves followers of Jesus normally don’t get “cool points” in the world even if we water the message of Jesus down.

So what’s your idol now? It’s your choice. y