Shayla: In the end (Judgment Day), does it matter what religion you believe in if you lived a devout life?

Meforshim:

Sin is disobeying God. Adam and Eve learned by painful experience that because God is holy and hates sin, he must punish sinners. The rest of the book of Genesis recounts painful stories of lives ruined as a result of the fall. Disobedience is sin, and it breaks our fellowship with God. But fortunately, when we disobey, God is willing to forgive us and to restore our relationship with Him.

• Genesis. 3:17 To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit I told you not to eat, I have placed a curse on the ground. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

Sin includes unintended wrongdoing. Have you ever done something wrong without realizing it until later? Although your sin was unintentional, it was still sin. One of the purposes of God’s commands was to make the Israelites aware of their unintentional sins so they would not repeat them and so they could be forgiven for them. As you read more of God’s laws, keep in mind that they were meant to teach and guide the people. Let them help you become more aware of sin in your life.

• Leviticus 4:1-2 The Lord said to Moses, “Give the Israelites the following instructions for dealing with those who sin unintentionally by doing anything forbidden by the Lord’s command.

Sin is a disease beyond human cure. Leprosy, like AIDS today, was a terrifying disease because there was no known cure. In Jesus’ day, the Greek word for leprosy was used for a variety of similar diseases, and some forms were contagious. If a person contracted the contagious type, a priest declared him a leper and banished him for his home and city. The leper was sent to live in a community with other lepers until he either got better or died. Yet when the leper begged Jesus to heal him, Jesus reached out and touched him, even though his skin was covered with the dread disease.

• Matthew 8:3 Jesus touched him. “I want to,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.
• Romans 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

Sin is also an incurable disease – and we all have it. Just as the leper could not save himself, so the sinner is helpless before his fate. And one sinner cannot save another just as one drowning man cannot save another. It takes someone outside our condition to save us from our condition. Only Christ’s healing touch can miraculously take away our sins and restore us to real living. However first, just like the leper, we must realize our inability to cure ourselves and ask for Christ’s saving help.

• Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
• Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned -