John 3:16-21
For God So Loved The World
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Matthew 9:9-13
Jesus Came for Sinners
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Acts 4:12
Salvation is Found Only in Jesus
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Genesis 3:1-13
The Fall of Man
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Do you believe we went years before we ate the forbidden fruit?...Or did we sin in a matter of weeks or months?...When we look at why we sin, what do we discover?...Do we sin out of pleasure or out of hate, because we are curious, or for some other reason?...Do we sin because the evil one has tricked or fooled us?...It seems sometimes we sin because maybe want more control...But control of what?...Do we sin and just do not know at the time we are sinning, and we at that moment of the sin, not know sometimes that we are sinning?...Do we know all the consequences when we sin?...
When Adam and Eve in the original sin, it seems that Eve wanted the pleasure looking forbidden Fruit...Was her reason that is looked good and she thought, in a curious way, it would be pleasurable to eat?...And why did Adam follow her sin and eat the fruit?...
It seems that Adam and Eve sinned, but did not know all the consequences...They would be thrown out of Eden, they would not be as close to God outside the Garden, they would have to work each day to provide their own food and shelter...
But regardless of why we sin, we are saved by a Savior who has a boundless LOVE for us...God could have condemned us, but He did not...This is because God LOVES the world and sent His Son for sinners...And because Jesus is the Son of God, He is the Only One who can save us...There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved...We are saved by an incomprehensible LOVE out of the gift of Grace and Mercy and Forgiveness of God...We are saved out of LOVE...