"If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible." - Leviticus 5:17 (NIV)
Each man must answer to God for himself. On judgment day every action, every thought, and every spoken word will be judged. As the first 2 chapters in Romans indicate, no man will have any excuse since "the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness" (Romans 2:15). Saved or not, the knowledge of good and evil are ingrained in the heart of every human being (which we inherited from Adam and Eve after they disobediently ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 3). Because of our inclination towards sin we often choose to ignore our conscience and follow after evil.
To sin or not to sin, that is the question? Every moment of every day we make choices. As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us which gives the ability not to sin. Those that have not the Spirit have no such ability. They can make good decisions, live good moral lives, however they are still bound by sin, falling short of their purpose in glorifying God through Jesus Christ in all that they do.
When you ask the average person if they believe they are going to heaven, their answer is usually "Yes! I'm a good person and God will let me in." However Jesus said that "there is none good but one, that is, God" (Mark 10:18). The Gospel destroys the erroneous belief that heaven is gained by our good deeds, because "all have sinned" (Romans 5:12) and "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Only through faith in Jesus Christ can we escape the penalty for our sins, which is death, hell, and ultimately the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).
As Leviticus 5:17 indicates, even when we don't have knowledge of sin we are still held accountable. There is no way to justify yourself, we can only be "justified freely by his [God's] grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24).
Not only is this is case with eternal wages of sin, but also temporal consequences. Every day our decisions shape our future. Many times bad choices mount up, and rather than own up to our condition, we hide and try to mask ourselves outwardly, while inwardly struggles plague us. Bad decisions can always be overcome by making good ones. Sometimes it "seems" like it is easier to make bad decisions than to do the right thing, but that is only an illusion.
"Every choice you make has an end result." - Zig Ziglar
What will be the end result of your choices for today? Will you choose to repent, choose to follow after Christ, choose to obey? The choice is yours.
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