What is life and where did it come from? Could the existence of life, especially the life of human beings be communicating to us more than we are willing to admit? I think so. I believe that life is shouting to each one of us to honestly and urgently find out where we came from, why we are here on earth and finally where we shall go when it shall come to an end! Truly, life is complex and unfathomable. I am not ignoring that fact. I know that life is intriguing, bewildering and puzzling to say but the least. Nevertheless, the subject of life (particularly, where it came from and who originally caused it) must be thoroughly tackled, if you and I are going to hear what life is loudly and clearly communicating to us.

Complex as it is, life forces us to at least start thinking about where we came from, why we are here on earth and finally where we shall go when life shall come to an end. And it does this by revealing to each one of us the following two undeniable facts. The first undeniable fact that life reveals to us is the existence of an eternal self-existing Supreme Being: who is all-powerful, all knowing, everywhere present, and who rules all and overrules all what happens in the whole of this expanding universe. And the second undeniable fact that life reveals to us is that we the human beings are dependent finite beings who are totally accountable to this eternal self-existing Supreme Being, who is none other than Yahweh God of the Bible—the one and the only true and the living God there is.

Of these two undeniable facts that life reveals to us, the existence of Yahweh God is the most important one. In fact, it is the key that helps us to understand everything else in the universe. It is an impeachable fact that life reveals to us the existence of Yahweh God of the Bible, the one and the only true and the living God there is. The logic is simple. For life to exist, it must have a source and a sustainer of it. Owing to how complex life is, common sense and the scientific law of causality (which states that every effect must have a cause and a cause must be big enough to produce the effect) demand that the source and sustainer of life must be infinitely powerful and infinitely intelligent. It therefore means that physical or material things cannot be the ultimate source of life. This is because, physical or material things plus the energy they possess plus the laws of nature which acts upon them, do not have infinite power and infinite intelligence needed to create life. After all, common sense and the scientific law of causality have both revealed to us that life cannot come from non-life. A stone cannot produce a living cell let alone a living organism. In addition, common sense and the scientific law of causality assert that intelligent life such as yours and mine cannot come from non-intelligent source. Furthermore, common sense and the scientific law of causality dictate that an extremely well-ordered life with intricate details, organization and specialization cannot come from disorder, chaos or an explosion neither can it come from chance or nothing nor can it come from evolution (be it Darwinian or any other kind of evolution). By stark contrast, common sense and the scientific law of causality demand that life must originate from an infinitely powerful and infinitely intelligent source. Moreover, that infinitely powerful and infinitely intelligent source must be an eternal self-existing Supreme Being who must exist outside of time, space and matter as the Uncaused cause of all that exists and must be all-powerful, all knowing and everywhere present. For it logically follows that, only such a Being who possesses such kinds of attributes is powerful and intelligent enough to be the source and the sustainer of all the life of humans, animals and plants in the universe. The only one who perfectly fits that description is Yahweh God of the Bible, the one and the only true and the living God there is. That is why I am fully persuaded that life reveals to us the existence of Yahweh God of the Bible—the one and the only true and the living God there is!

Now, you could be an atheist and therefore you do not believe that God exists. Or you could be a polytheist believing in many gods. Or you could be a pantheist believing that all is god. Or you could be a deist believing in a god who created and left his creation on its own to guide and direct itself. Or you could be embracing one of many other belief systems that are in existence all over the world. Yet, regardless of your religious or irreligious persuasions, you cannot deny that your life has the ultimate source and sustainer beyond your biological parents, who is powerful and intelligent enough to create it and sustain it. Moreover, you cannot deny that, that ultimate source and sustainer of your life must have the following seven important attributes necessary to create and sustain a being like you. First, He must be an eternal Supreme Being who does not have a beginning or an end but is the first cause—the Uncaused cause of all that exists. Second, He must exist on His own not needing any help from anyone or anything to exist. Third, He must exist outside of time, space and matter because He cannot be part of His creation. Fourth, He must be all-powerful to create and sustain you. Fifth, He must be all knowing to possess all the knowledge and intelligence needed to create and sustain an intelligent being like you. Sixth, He must be everywhere present to sustain your life anywhere you live in the world. Seventh, He must be ruling all and overruling all what happens in the whole of this universe in order to provide for you, protect you and prosper you anywhere you live in the world, all the days of your life. Seeing that you cannot deny these things, I hope you will agree with me that your life is sufficient proof of the existence of such a Supreme Being who possesses all those seven attributes. And that Supreme Being is Yahweh God of the Bible, the one and the only true and the living God there is.

Now, before I leave this subject of the existence of Yahweh God, it is needless for me to say that “His finger prints” are all over the universe for those who would dare to look. Look and you will see “His finger prints” in the intricate design of your body. Why and how trillions of your body cells know when to divide, grow, move or even die will clearly show you the all-powerful and all knowing Yahweh God who created you and sustains you alive. In addition, if you carefully examine the animal and the plant life around you, you will definitely notice the immeasurable power, unsurpassed wisdom and creative genius of Yahweh God who created and sustains the life of all animals and plants all over the world. And if you are privileged enough to explore the universe with the most powerful telescope available today, you will definitely be amazed by how incredibly vast the universe is; what a complex master-piece of design the universe is; and what great power and intelligence Yahweh God must possess in order for Him to create and sustain such an expanding universe! No doubt, if you carefully look, closely examine, and diligently explore: you will realize that all these complex and yet highly intelligent designs of living and non-living things in the universe could not have been as a result of “nothing” giving rise to the existence of “all things” as some people suggest in spite of the glaring absurdity of such a suggestion. Neither could they be (as the evolutionists would want us to believe) a by-product of mindless undirected series of small gradual changes over billions of years whereby energy and matter happened to produce all these highly complex designs. But what you will realize is that, all these living and non-living things are the works of an infinitely powerful and an infinitely intelligent Being. Yes, indeed, they are the marvelous exploits of Yahweh God of the Bible, the one and the only true and the living God there is!

Now with all these revealers, indicators and compelling evidences which resoundingly prove the existence of Yahweh God of the Bible, you have no any excuse not to believe in the existence of Yahweh God of the Bible, the one and the only true and the living God there is. And this is simply because common sense intuitively affirms it; creation which points back to the Creator logically demands it; design seen all over the universe which points back to the Ultimate Designer of all the living and non-living things in the universe obviously requires it; intelligence possessed by humans and other living things which points back to the infinitely intelligent Being who must have created them strongly confirms it; the universal availability and use of moral law which points back to the moral law giver loudly declares it; conscience in all human beings which intuitively tells them what is right so that they can be doing it and what is wrong so that they can stop doing it unequivocally asserts it; the Bible itself which over and over again uses phrases like, “God said,” “Thus says the LORD,” “The word of the LORD came to me,” etc, claiming to have originated from Yahweh God Himself openly proclaims it; and most important of all, Jesus Christ who is repeatedly revealed in the Bible as Yahweh God Himself who has come into this world in the human flesh as fully God and fully man all in one person (the second person of the holy trinity) overwhelmingly proves it! No wonder the Bible categorically declares that no one has any excuse not to believe in the existence of Yahweh or Jehovah God saying that, “19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it to them; 20For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20). And to crown it all, the Bible goes on to state that, “1The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handy work. 2Day to day utters speech, and night to night shows knowledge. 3There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:1-3).

This therefore means that in addition to this evidence of creation which points back to the Creator God I have briefly highlighted in the foregoing section, there are many other convincing evidences which show without any shadow of doubt that Yahweh God of the Bible does indeed exist. However, it is beyond the scope of this book to study this subject in details. Therefore, if you are interested in exploring this subject further, there are many Christian Apologetic resources in print and electronic media which tackle this subject in great details. These resources which objectively and conclusively defend Christian faith provide (1) Historical facts, (2) Philosophical truths, and (3) Scientific evidences which confirm all the teachings of Biblical Christianity [1] to be both true and reasonable. So if you carefully and objectively study these resources, you will no doubt realize that Yahweh God of the Bible does indeed exist and that He is currently ruling and overruling all what happens in the universe. At the same time, you will be loaded with compelling evidences which prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the Bible is the written, inerrant, infallible, inspired word of Yahweh God. Therefore get hold of these apologetic materials and thoroughly study them so that you can once and for all remove any doubts you might be having about the existence of Yahweh God as well as the reliability of the Bible as His written, inerrant, infallible, inspired word.

Let us now turn to the second undeniable fact that life reveals to us. Life with all its complexities reveals to each one of us that we are dependent finite beings who are totally accountable to Yahweh God of the Bible, the one and the only true and the living God there is. And this is how life accomplishes this task. All human beings like all the other living things in the universe depend on Yahweh God of the Bible for the origin and sustenance of their lives. Therefore, the statement that you are a dependent finite being who is totally accountable to Yahweh God is an irrefutable fact. It is self-evident and does not need elaborate proof. This is because you yourself know full well that you cannot live on your own. You are neither self-sufficient nor are you self-sustaining. First and foremost, you know by experience that you are not self-sufficient because you depend on the rest of God’s creation for air, water, food and other essentials of life. Secondly, you know as a matter of fact that you are not self-sustaining because none of your body cells, tissues, organs, or body systems depends on you to function properly. Instead, they all depend on God to function as He designed them to function. Simply put, you are 100% dependent on Yahweh God Almighty in whose hands your life is!

Now, the fact that you are 100% dependent on Yahweh God for the source and sustenance of your life makes you totally accountable to Him. In fact, one way by which Yahweh God unequivocally demonstrates that all human beings are totally accountable to Him is through this life-ending universal phenomenon known as death which unfortunately entered into the human race when Adam and Eve (the father and the mother of the human race respectively) sinned against God. It therefore follows that you cannot fully understand why and how you are totally accountable to Yahweh God Almighty in whose hands your life is unless you know and understand the following four important truths about death:

1. Death entered into the world because of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden as is clearly stated in the Bible in the book of Romans chapter 5 verse12 (which in short is written as Romans 5:12).
2. Due to Adam’s sin also known as the original sin, sin and death spread to all human beings thereby making all human beings sinners by nature according to Romans 5:12 and Ephesians 2:1-3 .
3. All human beings as a result of being born sinners by nature are therefore in danger of facing the following three jaws of death:

a) Spiritual death by which a person is born with a dead spirit or rather a spirit that is separated from God because of the sin nature he or she inherited from Adam and Eve (Ephesians 2:1-5).

b) Physical death by which the spirit and the soul of a person are separated from his or her body resulting to death and decay of their body as it turns back to dust (James 2:26 and Revelation 6:9).

c) Eternal death known as Second death by which a person’s spirit, soul and body are forever and ever separated from God by being cast into hell to face everlasting punishment for all their sins when a person dies unsaved having rejected salvation that Jesus Christ freely offered him or her (Revelation 20:11-15).

4. Yahweh God of the Bible has one and only one plan to save you from the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell.

Now, this brings us to a very crucial point in our study. While many people beat around this bush of life fearing to draw close enough to find out what life is communicating to us, you no longer belong to that camp. Having read this book this far, you have as a matter of fact drawn close enough to this bush of life to at least see and understand for yourself these two undeniable facts which life reveals to us. First, considering all what is required for the source and the sustenance of life, you are compelled to accept this undeniable fact that life of either humans, or animals or even plants could not have arisen on its own or by a series of mindless undirected processes, but it was ably brought into existence by an infinitely powerful and infinitely intelligent Being, who is none other than Yahweh God of the Bible, the one and the only true and the living God there is. And secondly, the fact that Yahweh God of the Bible is the source and sustainer of your life compels you to accept this second undeniable fact that you are a dependent finite being who is totally accountable to Yahweh God of the Bible who created you and in whose hands your life is. Therefore knowing that you are totally accountable to Yahweh God of the Bible who created you and in whose hands your life is, you ought to right now, right where you are embrace His one and the only plan to save you from the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell.

Consequently, this sets the stage for us to study in details what the plan of God for salvation of sinful mankind requires you to do in order for you to be truly saved from the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell. Therefore, from this point going forward to the first three chapters which make up part one of this book, I will be sharing with you from the Bible what I choose to call “The ABCs of Salvation” which are summed up by the following three important things you must do in order for you to be saved:

1. Accept you are a sinner in need of salvation.
2. Believe in Jesus Christ to be saved.
3. Confess Jesus Christ as the LORD your God to receive your salvation.

Putting it in another way, the above “ABCs of Salvation” or the three things which you must do in order to be saved seek to answer the following three questions. The first question is “why you must be saved” to be answered here in chapter one. The second question is “who alone can save you” to be answered in chapter two. And the third question is “how you must be saved” to be answered in chapter three. With the help of my lord and savior Jesus Christ, I will try my level best to answer these three questions in the first three chapters of part one of this book. So with that lengthy introduction, let us turn to the first thing that the plan of God for salvation of sinful mankind requires you to do in order to be saved. And that is to accept you are a sinner in need of salvation. There are two main reasons why you must accept you are a sinner in need of salvation. The first reason is that you are a sinner by nature. And the second reason is that you are a sinner by choice. Let’s examine the first reason.

1) YOU MUST ACCEPT YOU ARE A SINNER BY NATURE IN NEED OF SALVATION

In order for you to be saved from the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths, you must first and foremost know and accept that you were born with a sin nature and as a result you are a sinner by nature. This is the toughest truth to believe in. It pricks one’s ego to the core. It destroys any hope you might have of having a good relationship with God because of your good works. Therefore, let us carefully and objectively examine it so that you can find out why and how you were born with a sin nature which makes you a sinner by nature.

To get us started, we must first of all find out where death came from. To do this, we must examine what happened at the very beginning of the human race. This is because death and decay interrupted the smooth existence of humanity shortly after the beginning of the human race about 6,000 years ago. And all this was as a result of man’s refusal to be accountable to God. Adam and Eve, the father and the mother of the human race respectively, refused to keep one of the only few commandments that God had given them when He created them and placed them in the Garden of Eden. Just see how simple and clear this commandment was as is recorded in the first book of the Bible, “16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).

As a timely precautionary measure, God informed Adam and Eve well in advance of all the consequences of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The warning was well sounded and the consequences were clearly spelt out. God made sure that Adam and Eve knew that they would surely die if they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So this particular commandment of God was not limiting but it was actually beneficial to them. God wasn’t putting unnecessary restrictions to Adam and Eve. It wasn’t as if they did not have anything to eat. There were many trees, thousands, perhaps even millions of trees from which Adam and Eve could have freely eaten. And of all those trees in the Garden of Eden, it was only one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God commanded them not to eat of its fruit.

But a tragic incident happened. One day, Satan, an angel of the order of cherub, whom by then had already rebelled against God and had become the archenemy of God (Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-17) approached Eve and deceived her. He began by lying to Eve that she would not die if she ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-4). And having succeeded in planting doubts in the mind of Eve regarding the truthfulness of the word of God, Satan went on to lie to Eve that if she ate the forbidden fruit, she would become like God and would therefore know good and evil (Genesis 3:5). Unfortunately, when all this was going on, Adam did not intervene to protect his wife from being deceived by Satan. Worst of all, he knowingly sinned against God when he ate the forbidden fruit which Eve his wife gave him (Genesis 3:6). Remember, while Eve was deceived by Satan, Adam on his part was not deceived by Satan as 1st Timothy 2:14 clearly tells us. Adam ate the forbidden fruit knowing full well that he was sinning against God. As a result, both Adam and Eve in sheer rebellion against God chose to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil against a clear commandment of God. Here is what happened, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6).

Sadly, Adam and Eve disobeyed the commandment of God not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Longing to taste this forbidden fruit which seemed to be good for food, pleasant to the eyes and desirable to make them wise; they ignored the warning of God that they would die if they ate it. In their quest to know both good and evil, they ate the forbidden fruit and got what they wanted. They succeeded to know both good and evil but at an immensely horrible price of being infected and affected by evil itself.

This particular incident ushered in the greatest tragedy in the human history. Sin and death entered into the world! Consequently death and decay interrupted the smooth existence of humanity ever since. The Bible expounds on this incident declaring that, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12—NKJV). Failure by Adam and Eve to be accountable to God ushered sin and death into the world. Through this one sin of Adam which is also known as the original sin, everything in the whole world changed. The perfect world that God created and declared it to be very good (Genesis 1:31) was significantly ruined. This is what theologians call the fall of man.

So great a fall this was that everything in the whole world was affected! The ground was significantly affected while animals and plants were intensively and extensively affected. Just to highlight in passing, the ground was cursed by God. As a result, poisonous plants, thorns and thistles which were previously unknown to Adam and Eve sprung up (Genesis 3:17-18). Animals on the other hand were not spared. Some of them became carnivorous and started eating other animals. Remember, before the fall, Adam and Eve plus all animals ate vegetation according to Genesis 1:29-30. But with the fall of man, considerable internal and external changes took place in the bodies of many animals resulting to significant changes in the food chain throughout the world. Some of the animals like lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena, etc., experienced considerable internal changes in their bodies particularly in their digestive systems as they shifted from being herb-eaters to flesh-eaters. Other animals experienced considerable external changes in their bodies. A good example is the serpent which seems to have had an upright posture but after the fall of man it changed to crawling on its belly for it was cursed by God for allowing Satan to enter into its body through which he deceived Eve as is recorded in Genesis 3:1, 14. In short, the fall of man was so extensive that it affected all the spheres, particularly the biosphere.

As a result, the world that was previously peaceful became unbearably painful. Death, decay, diseases, disorders, defects, pain and suffering filled the world. The world became a groaning world characterized by sin, evil and wickedness all leading to death and decay. Ever since this episode, we have a fallen world that is far from what God intended it to be. We now live in a world that is laden with human and animal diseases; hostilities between animals and humans; animosity between siblings, families, tribes and countries; natural disasters and cataclysmic events all leading to death and decay. Surely this is not the world that God intended. Certainly death and decay wasn’t in God’s agenda as He was creating this world. But man longing to know both good and evil, got infected and affected by evil itself as he sinned against God ushering into the world the dictates of death and decay.

While this fall greatly affected everything in the whole world, it was the human beings who experienced the greatest fall. Adam and Eve experienced the greatest fall in the whole of God’s creation. This is because they fell from glory to groaning, from perfect to imperfect, from sinless to sinful and from a good loving relationship with God to a broken and a hostile relationship with God. In summary, Adam and Eve experienced intensive and extensive fall which adversely affected their whole being. Since the fall of Adam and Eve affected their whole being (that is, everything they were made up of), it is important for us to know what constituted the whole being of Adam and Eve. So let us find out what were Adam and Eve and by extension all other human beings made up of. In other words, what is the true nature of a human being? Many answers have been given ranging from sheer speculation to outright lies. But what all these answers have in common is their dogmatic assertion that human beings are just but physical beings which do not have any immaterial dimensions like a soul and a spirit which cannot be seen or touched. But as we are about to see, nothing can be further from the truth. Yet, supporters of this view insist that human beings are exclusively made up of a body and nothing else. As a result, they adopt the following misguided philosophy of life: “This body is all that you are. Whether you misuse it or abuse it, defile it or desecrate it, it does not matter because once your body dies that is the end of you!” Whereas this philosophy is gaining popularity all over the world, truth be told, this is a Satan-inspired philosophy which aims at deceiving people about their true nature so as to prevent them from eternal salvation of their souls and spirits thereby handing them a free ticket to everlasting punishment in hell (See Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25).

In spite of these blatant lies about the true nature of a human being, the irrefutable fact is that, a human being has a material as well as an immaterial nature. This means that a human being is made up of what can be seen and touched as well as what cannot be seen and touched. Therefore a human being is not exclusively a biochemical being made up of trillions of cells organized into tissues which are further organized and specialized into various body organs, which make up various body systems which in turn make up the whole body. That is not the case. There is more about the true nature of a human being than a collection of biological chemicals operating harmoniously in the body. This is because, in addition to the physical nature of atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, organs and body systems which make up the whole body of a human being; a human being also has an immaterial nature consisting of a soul and a spirit, both of which cannot be seen or touched yet they exist.

For proof, let us turn to the Bible so that we can briefly see how God created Adam and Eve and by so doing understand the true nature of every human being and how it was affected by the fall.

According to the ages given in Bible genealogies and all other dated events in the Bible, God created this universe and everything in it in 6 literal days of 24 hours each, about 6,000 years ago. In particular, on the sixth day, God created the first two human beings named Adam and Eve (the father and the mother of the human race respectively) just as is recorded in the Bible as follows, “26And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. 27So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them” (Genesis 1:26-27). So then, what does it mean that man was created in the image of God? Does it mean that we look like God? That God has a head, two hands, two legs and so on and so forth? Not so!

Yahweh God is infinite and invisible hence He cannot be confined to any form, shape or image and He strongly warns against doing such a thing in Exodus 20:4-6. Yet, He has not left us in darkness concerning His nature. (For your information, we will study in details the nature of Yahweh God in chapter two). So for the sake of our study here in this chapter, it is important to note that Yahweh God is revealed throughout the whole Bible as one God who eternally exists in three distinct but equal persons namely: God the Father, God the Son known as Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit. To begin with, the Bible in Deuteronomy 6:4 among many other scriptures emphatically states that Yahweh God is one God. Then, the Bible goes on to clearly teach that Yahweh God exists eternally in three persons as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is because, the Bible teaches that the Father is God in 2nd Corinthians 1:3 among many other scriptures; the Son known as Jesus Christ is God in John 1:1-3, 14 among many other scriptures; and the Holy Spirit is God in Acts 5:3-4 among many other scriptures. Yet, these three persons are not three Gods but One God existing in three persons. This unity of the three persons existing as one Supreme Being known as Yahweh God is commonly referred to as the holy trinity. Though holy trinity is a difficult concept to understand, it is nevertheless not an impossible concept to believe in. And this is the reason why. Most of us are familiar with an equilateral triangle. It is a figure that is made up of three equal sides. This figure of an equilateral triangle gives us an excellent analogy of the holy trinity. All its three sides are the same in their size or their nature so to speak, but they are nevertheless distinct from each other in terms of the direction they face as they join together to form this one figure. This means that they are different in their position or if you would, they are different in their relationship to each other.

Similarly, Yahweh is one God who exists in three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) who are equal in power, authority, glory and nature as God. Yet, they are distinct from each other in terms of their personality, position, function and relationship with each other. Just as all the three sides of an equilateral triangle are the same in their size or their nature so to speak, likewise the three persons of Yahweh God are the same in their power, authority, glory and nature as God. And just as all the three sides of an equilateral triangle are different in their position or their relationship to each other; likewise the three persons of Yahweh God are distinct in their relationship to each other. This means that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have distinct personalities, positions, functions and relationships with each other. In other words, as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit execute their divine functions and responsibilities: 1) they have perfect love for one another, 2) they have perfect submission amongst them, 3) they have perfect unity between them, 4) they have perfect order amongst them, and 5) they have clear functions and responsibilities for each person. So clear and distinct are their personalities, positions, functions and relationships with each other such that the Father is not the same person as the Son or the Holy Spirit. Neither is the Son the same person as the Father or the Holy Spirit. Nor is the Holy Spirit the same person as the Father or the Son. But all the three distinct persons are co-equal and they exist co-eternally as one Yahweh God. Hence Yahweh God has a three-in-one nature which is essential for you to understand how man is created in the image of God.

The following figure of an equilateral triangle is commonly used to represent three-in-one nature of Yahweh God. I have slightly modified this equilateral triangle by inserting a heart, the symbol of love in the middle, so as to underscore the fact that Yahweh God by His very nature is love according to 1st John 4:8.

Once you understand this three-in-one nature of Yahweh God of the Bible, you will clearly understand and gladly appreciate how man was created in the image of God according to Genesis 1:26-27. Simply put, man was created with a three-in-one nature just as Yahweh God is by nature a three-in-one eternal Being. It is an indisputable fact that God created man with a three-in-one nature comprising of a body, a soul and a spirit. The Bible confirms this three-in-one nature of human beings in this prayer that Apostle Paul prayed for the church of Thessalonians saying, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1st Thessalonians 5:23). In this prayer of Paul the Apostle, God the Holy Spirit reveals to us that the whole being of a human comprises of a spirit, a soul and a body. Therefore a holistic view of a human being portrays every human being as a three-in-one being resembling Yahweh God who is also a three-in-one Being. In other words, just as Yahweh God is one God existing in three distinct persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) so is every human being one person who exists in three distinct dimensions of a body, a soul and a spirit.

The body is the physical dimension of man that is made up of air, water and dry matter. It is the material, visible and tangible dimension of the man that helps him to express himself in the physical world around him. The soul on the other hand is the psychical dimension of man which comprises of the mind, the emotional centre and the will. It is the immaterial, invisible and intangible dimension of the man that governs how he thinks, feels as well as his will (Revelation 6:9). The spirit on the other hand is that spiritual dimension of man which enables him to interact and have intimate loving relationship with God. Like the soul, spirit is also an immaterial, invisible and an intangible dimension of man (1st Corinthians 6:20). Once the spirit is regenerated, it becomes a channel through which man gets to know, to love and to worship God. Therefore, spirit is the realm through which man meets and worships God (John 3:3-8, 4:24 and Romans 8:15-16). It is worthwhile noting that the soul and the spirit are housed in the body as distinct dimensions of man. Even though both of them are immaterial, invisible and intangible; they are not one and the same dimension. But because of how integrated the soul and the spirit are; they can easily be mistaken to be one dimension. However, the Bible in Hebrews 4:12 makes it abundantly clear that there is a clear distinction between the soul and the spirit—a distinction that is only recognized by the help of the word of God. Furthermore, it is also important to note that the Bible frequently uses the term “heart” to refer to the immaterial, intangible and invisible facets of man, be it the soul or the spirit. The phrase “inner man” is also used in the Bible to refer to the same immaterial, intangible and invisible facets of man, be it the soul or the spirit.

The figure below represents three-in-one nature of every human being. Note that a circle is used to represent the nature of a human being so as to differentiate it from a triangle which is commonly used to represent the nature of Yahweh God. Here I am representing three-in-one nature of a human being with a circle that is divided into three equal parts to denote a person’s body, soul and spirit. By the way, I am greatly indebted to one Professor Mbugua from whom I learnt this concept of dividing the circle into three equal parts to represent the three dimensions of a human being i.e. body, soul and spirit. [2]

In summary, according to Genesis 1:26-27, Adam was created in the image and after the likeness of Yahweh God. This means that God created Adam in His own image in order to resemble God and after His own likeness in order to represent God. In brief, this is how Adam was created in the image of God in order to resemble God. First, Adam was created as one person who exists in three distinct dimensions of a body, a soul and a spirit similar to how Yahweh God is one God who exists eternally in three distinct persons namely: Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. In short, Adam was by nature a three-in-one being similar to how Yahweh God is by nature a three-in-one Being. Second, Adam was created a rational being with capacity to think, understand, reason and make decisions similar to how Yahweh God is an infinite eternal rational Being. Third, Adam was created an emotional being with capacity to feel, sympathize and empathize similar to how Yahweh God is an infinite eternal emotional Being whose main emotional characteristic is love. Finally, Adam was created a volitional or a self-determinate being who has a capacity to decide, choose and exercise his will similar to how Yahweh God is an infinite eternal volitional or self-determinate Being who eternally wills and does what is right. These are some of the ways in which Adam was created in the image of God in order to resemble God.

Let us now see how Adam was created after the likeness of God in order to represent God. Adam was created after the likeness of God in order to represent God in the following two ways. First, he was to rule and reign on behalf of God in the world. And secondly, he was to reveal and reflect moral attributes of God to the rest of God’s creation. To accomplish this, Yahweh God who has all power and authority delegated some of His power and authority to Adam according to Genesis 1:26-30. Having received delegated power and authority from God, Adam was therefore in a position to further the plans and purposes of God here on earth as the representative of God. First, in the physical world around him, Adam was mandated to rule and reign over all of God’s creation. He was to have dominion over every living and non-living thing as the representative of God through discovering, developing and using all these living and non-living things in the world for God’s glory (Genesis 1:28). Secondly, Adam was to reveal and reflect the moral attributes of God to the rest of God’s creation. It was God’s original intention that His love, grace, mercies, kindness and goodness among many other of His moral attributes were to be revealed to the rest of His creation through Adam as His representative. Through his actions and attitudes, Adam was to reveal and reflect moral attributes of God to the rest of God’s creation. In short, Adam was created after the likeness of God to represent God by (1) ruling and reigning on behalf of God and (2) by revealing and reflecting moral attributes of God to the rest of God’s creation.

Now that we know what Adam was made up of or rather what constituted his whole being, let us see how his whole being was affected by the fall.

When Adam sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit, he was intensively and extensively affected in all the aspects of his being. As a result, his three-in-one nature consisting of a body, a soul and a spirit was significantly affected by the fall. This is so frightening yet it is so factual. But long before it happened, God had clearly warned Adam of it with these words, “16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).

Therefore when Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he knowingly and willfully sinned against God thereby inviting the judgment of God upon his life. Consequently, he had to bear all the consequences of his sin. True to His word, God had to unleash on Adam all the dictates of death and decay. And this is how it happened.

First, Adam’s spirit experienced instant spiritual death. It died there and then. No sooner had Adam eaten the forbidden fruit than his spirit was separated from God. This triggered an instant loss of God-conscious state that Adam had always enjoyed ever since the day he was created by God. Consequently, the warm loving relationship that existed between Adam and God was instantly broken. Hence Adam’s ability to readily meet or access God was immediately curtailed. His ability to receive and fully experience the unconditional love and acceptance of God was right away inhibited. And his ability to enjoy intimate loving relationship with God was immediately and severely limited. Because of the death of his spirit, Adam ceased from being a true worshipper of Yahweh God. Remember, the Bible categorically states that, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). This means that Yahweh God who is by nature a Spirit can only be accessed and thus be truly worshipped by a living human spirit and not a dead one. Therefore a true worshipper of Yahweh God must have a human spirit that is no longer dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-3) but one that is made alive by being born again by God the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-8). It is this born again human spirit that is necessary for one to become a true worshipper of God who is able to truly worship God!

But such a living human spirit was nowhere to be found for both Adam and Eve. The following verse confirms to us that the human spirits of both Adam and Eve died immediately they ate the forbidden fruit, “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8). Prior to the fall, Adam and his wife Eve enjoyed intimate loving relationship with God every day in the Garden of Eden. They eagerly longed for the cool of the day when the LORD their God used to come and have a warm intimate loving fellowship with them. But immediately they sinned against God, the Bible records for us that they ran away and hid from God. Because of their sin, the unlimited access and intimate loving relationship they had with God came to a screeching halt (Isaiah 59:1-2). Henceforth Adam and Eve no longer had the same desire to be in the presence of God as before. Worst of all, they became the enemies of God and sought to be as far as they could from God. In summary, they fell from glory to groaning, from perfect to imperfect, from sinless to sinful and from a good loving relationship with God to a broken and a hostile relationship with God.

The second thing that happened to Adam when he sinned against God is that his body started to experience the process that eventually led to his physical death. Forces of death and decay were set on course throughout his body to ensure that his body died and decayed back to dust from where it was initially taken (Genesis 2:7). Starting from that moment, Adam’s body cells, tissues, organs and body systems which could have continued to live forever without ageing or dying were immediately set on course of ageing. In addition, the ageing process was swiftly followed by the emergence of disorders, defects and diseases which most likely infected and affected his body resulting to its death at the age of 930 years as is recorded in Genesis 5:5. Mark you, this fall did not just affect his spirit and body but it also affected his soul. Adam’s soul was severely wounded. This therefore means that his rational faculty, his emotional centre and his volition or self-determinate capacity were severely wounded. Consequently, Adam had a self-deceived mind blinded to the truth of God; self-consumed emotional centre not controlled by God; and a self-destructive will not surrendered to the will of God. The end result was that, Adam who was previously perfect and sinless became imperfect and sinful. The following figure represents the three-in-one fallen nature of Adam that is passed on to all human beings at conception.

By now you must have a clear understanding of how Adam the father of the human race sinned against God and brought sin and death to all human beings. Therefore the ground is level and smooth enough to enable you understand how you were born with a sin nature, which makes you a sinner by nature.

There are two ways by which the Bible proves that you are a sinner by nature. The first one is that Adam’s original sin was imputed to you. And the second one is that you inherited Adam’s sin nature from your parents who inherited it from their parents, all the way back to Adam and Eve. Let’s take a look at the first one.

I. You are a sinner by nature because Adam’s original sin was imputed to you

As Adam brought sin to the rest of humanity, death and decay passed on to the rest of humanity as well. The Bible reminds us that, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12—NKJV). This verse makes it abundantly clear that through one sin of Adam which is known as the original sin, three things happened as a result. First, sin entered into the world infecting and affecting everything in it especially all human beings. Second, death as a result of that sin of Adam spread to all human beings without exceptions. And third, all human beings sinned when Adam sinned. What this verse therefore means is that, when Adam committed the original sin, that original sin which he committed and death which came as a result of that sin, were right there and then imputed to all human beings thereby making all human beings (1) guilty of that original sin, and (2) subject to physical death because of that sin.

To say that the original sin that Adam committed was imputed to all human beings simply means that the original sin of Adam was right there and then accounted or reckoned to each and every human being whoever will live. Obviously, these two words “account” and “reckon” are accounting terms which imply that Adam’s original sin was transferred or rather was credited to the account of each and every human being whoever will live. The result was that all human beings became guilty of the original sin without any exceptions.

Theologians have identified two ways by which the original sin was imputed to or transferred to the account of each and every human being thereby making each one of us guilty of it. In the first way, all human beings were in Adam genetically speaking when he lived here on earth about 6,000 years ago. What this means is that all human beings derive their genetic make-up back from Adam hence it can be rightly said that they were all in Adam. Therefore when Adam committed the original sin, all human beings committed the original sin in him and with him. This is not an outrageous or a far-fetched concept. We find it taught severally in the Bible. For example, in Hebrews 7:9-10, the author of the book of Hebrews used this concept to expound on an episode that happened in Genesis chapter 14 where Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec king of Salem. Commenting on that episode in the New Testament, God the Holy Spirit inspired the author to make the following remarks concerning it, “9And as I may so say, Levi also, who receives tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. 10For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him” (Hebrews 7:9-10). So here we find Levi who was not yet born, being said to have actually paid tithes to Melchisedec while in the loins of his great grandfather Abraham. This means that Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec together with Abraham while in Abraham’s loins as his descendant. Similarly, all human beings committed the original sin together with Adam while in Adam’s loins as his descendants. Therefore, you too are guilty of the original sin because you committed it together with Adam while in Adam’s loins as his descendant. Hence the guilt of the original sin that Adam committed was imputed to or transferred directly to your account making you a sinner by nature.

The second way by which the original sin was imputed to or transferred to the account of each and every human being was through Adam as our representative before God. As the representative of the human race before God, Adam was the epitome of what human beings could be, could have and could do. This means that Adam was the champion and the federal head of the human race. Therefore when Adam ate the forbidden fruit thereby committing the original sin, he did it as the representative of the human race. In other words, Adam committed the original sin on behalf of each one of us. As our representative, federal head and our champion: Adam’s failure became our failure! It therefore means that we must all accept this tragic consequence which Adam the best representative of the human race achieved on our behalf, the same way we accept the results which our best representatives in sports attain on our behalf, be they good results or bad results. This makes all human beings guilty of the original sin because Adam committed that sin on their behalf as their representative, their federal head and their champion. Therefore, you too are guilty of the original sin because Adam your representative, your federal head and your champion committed it on your behalf. Hence the guilt of the original sin that Adam committed was imputed to or transferred directly to your account making you a sinner by nature.

The bottom line is this. All human beings are guilty of the original sin in the above two ways: through participation in Adam as well as through representation by Adam. By the virtual of being descendants of Adam, Adam’s original sin was transferred directly to the accounts of all human beings making all human beings sinners by nature. Indeed, no one can succeed to refute this truth because he or she must fight against the following six scriptures which unquestionably prove that Adam’s original sin was imputed to the accounts of all human beings without any exceptions. The first scripture is 1st Corinthians 15:22 which states that, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” The second scripture is Romans 5:15 which says that, “For if through the offence of one [Adam] many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded to many.” The third scripture is Romans 5:16 which states that, “For the judgment was by one [Adam] to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences to justification.” The fourth scripture is Romans 5:17 which states that, “For if by one man’s [Adam] offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ.” The fifth scripture is Romans 5:18 which states that, “Therefore as by the offence of one [Adam] judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men to justification of life.” The sixth scripture is Romans 5:19 which states that, “For as by one man’s [Adam] disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” (Note: I am the one who have inserted the name Adam in brackets in the above five verses for emphasis and clarity). So any person who would dare to claim that they are not guilty of the original sin would be deceiving themselves because they cannot deny that their body is subject to physical death, which is the consequence of having the original sin according to Romans 5:12. Therefore, the fact that all human beings including babies who are still developing in their mothers’ wombs can and do actually die physically is the undeniable and verifiable proof that all human beings without any exceptions are all guilty of the original sin of Adam! It therefore goes without saying that you too are guilty of the original sin of Adam like all other human beings. Hence you are a sinner by nature.

We have briefly examined the first way by which the Bible proves that you are a sinner by nature. Let us now examine the second one which reads as follows:

II. You are a sinner by nature because you inherited Adam’s original sin

The Bible is crystal clear that all human beings without any exceptions inherited Adam’s original sin from their parents, who inherited it from their parents, all the way back to Adam and Eve. For example, Apostle Paul writing to Christians in Ephesus reminded them of how they were spiritually dead and thus sinners by nature before they became born again believers in Jesus Christ. This is what he had to say, “1And you has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: 3Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:1-3). From these three verses, we see three things which confirm to us that, Christians in the city of Ephesus and by extension all other human beings inherited sin nature from Adam and Eve. The first thing is that they had all undergone spiritual death, which means that their human spirits were dead due to trespasses and sins. And the second thing is that by nature they were all children of wrath simply because they were sinners by nature. And the third thing is that other people (not just Christians in Ephesus) were also by nature children of wrath because they were sinners by nature. This is confirmed by the fact that Apostle Paul used the phrase “we all” implying that all people all over the world and throughout all generations are by nature children of wrath because they are all born sinners by nature. In Colossians 2:13, the same truth is reiterated asserting that all human beings are born spiritually dead because they have all inherited Adam’s original sin from their parents, who inherited it from their parents, all the way back to Adam and Eve.

And this is how it happened. God created Adam and Eve with a diverse yet perfect biological gene pool. This diverse gene pool allows Adam’s descendants to have diversity in their physical features such as height, blood group, skin colour, eye colour, hair type and colour, shape and sizes of various body parts like noses, earlobes, cheek and chin bones among others. Thankfully, this biological diversity in the human race is well attested by the facts of science and is also confirmed by the Bible, which speaking about how God did it, declares that, “And has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). However, what God intended to demonstrate with this perfect biological diversity in the human race was curtailed when Adam sinned against God. This is because degenerative mutations which lead to minor and at times major bodily defects, disorders and diseases affected Adam’s body as well as all the bodies of his descendants ever since. And it wasn’t just his body that was affected, because his soul was also wounded and his human spirit died. As a result of this fall, God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24). Sadly, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden in their fallen sinful nature. So when they had children, they definitely reproduced children after their kind. Consequently, their children inherited their sin nature and were therefore born with dead human spirits, wounded souls and bodies which were subject to death and decay. It is unfortunate yet true that the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve were born with dead human spirits hence they were unwilling and unable to know God intimately, to love God supremely, to serve God faithfully and to glorify God exclusively. Also, they were born with wounded souls hence they were prone to have evil ungodly thoughts, evil ungodly feelings and unsurrendered self-destructive will. Finally, they were born with bodies which were subject to ageing process, disorders, defects, diseases, death and decay. Sadly, therefore, all sons and daughters of Adam and Eve were born imperfect, sinful and worst of all separated from God.

Furthermore, this process of inheriting Adam’s sin nature did not end with the immediate sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. It continued in the successive generations up to the present day in the following three stages. The first stage covers ten successive generations from the fall of Adam all the way to the 600th year of Noah’s life when God judged the rebellious sin-filled world with a world-wide flood saving only Noah and his family of eight in the ark (see Genesis chapters 5 to 9). During this first stage which runs for slightly less than 1656 years, Adam’s sin nature was passed down to ten successive generations of people who used to live for close to a thousand years (Genesis 5:1-32). The second stage covers the period immediately after the world-wide flood and runs all the way to the time when God stopped the construction of the tower of Babel in the land of Shinar (present day Iraq) by dispersing human race into the whole world speaking different languages which eventually led to emergence of different people groups (Genesis 11:1-9). During this second stage which runs for approximately 101 years, Adam’s sin nature was passed down to successive generations of people by the three sons of Noah and their three wives who repopulated the whole world after the flood (Genesis 9:18-19). The third stage covers the period immediately after God dispersed human race throughout the whole world and continues all the way to the present day. During this third stage which runs for over 4,200 years to the present day, Adam’s sin nature has continued to be passed down to successive generations of all the people groups which emerged from this dispersion speaking different languages and settled in the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, and in many other small islands (Genesis 10:1-32 and Acts 17:24-26).

This therefore means that, at conception, Adam’s sin nature is passed on to the newly conceived baby in the womb. King David commenting on this truth wrote, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). Elsewhere King David wrote these words concerning how all human beings are born sinners by nature, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Psalm 58:3). Also, Prophet Isaiah declared these words of the LORD God of Israel to the southern kingdom of Judah, “Yea, you heard not; yea, you knew not; yea, from that time that your ear was not opened: for I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb” (Isaiah 48:8). All these scriptures confirm to us what the Bible declares in Romans 5:12 that, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12—NKJV). It therefore means that all human beings since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden to the present day are born with Adam’s sin nature. Hence every human being is born with a dead spirit, a wounded soul and a body that is subject to death and decay. Born with a dead spirit, every human being is therefore born unable to know God intimately, to love God supremely, to serve God faithfully and to glorify God exclusively. Also born with a wounded soul, every human being is prone to be governed and controlled by evil ungodly thoughts, evil ungodly feelings and unsurrendered self-destructive will. And finally, born with a body that is subject to death and decay: every human being’s body is subject to ageing process, disorders, defects, diseases, all of which shall ultimately lead to its death and decay. In short, all human beings are therefore born imperfect, sinful and worst of all separated from God. Sadly but truly, this applies to you as well. For, you like all the other human beings inherited Adam’s sin nature from your parents and therefore you became a sinner by nature.

A quick way you can verify that you have Adam’s sin nature hence you are a sinner by nature is through honestly examining yourself with the following eight questions. First question, why is your body undergoing the ageing process? Where did this process of degrading of your body cells, tissues, organs, body systems and thus the whole of your body come from? Second question, why is your body prone to have minor and at times major defects and disorders? Where did these defects and disorders originally come from? Third question, why is your body prone to be infected and affected by all manner of diseases? Where did all these diseases originally come from? Fourth question, why is it inevitable that your body will ultimately face the jaws of physical death and thereafter decay? Where did death and decay originally come from? Fifth question, why do you have a natural tendency to sin? Is it not because you inherited Adam’s sin nature from your parents, who inherited it from their parents, all the way back to Adam and Eve? Sixth question, why do you have a sense of right and wrong? Is it not because Yahweh God, the Supreme moral Being who determines what is right and what is wrong in this world He created has given you a conscience through which you know what is right and what is wrong? Seventh question, why do you naturally tend to be governed and controlled by evil ungodly thoughts, evil ungodly feelings and unsurrendered self-destructive will? Is it not because you have a wounded soul due to sin nature you inherited from Adam and Eve which negatively affects how you think, feel and decide? Eighth question, why do you naturally tend to worship, regardless of who or what you worship? Is it not because you have a dead spirit that is yearning for what you lost in Adam when he committed the original sin: that is, the ability to know God intimately, to love God supremely, to serve God faithfully and to glorify God exclusively? No doubt, if you honestly examine yourself with these eight questions, you will be fully convinced that you were born with a sin nature and you are therefore a sinner by nature hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Therefore you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

For some time now, we have been exploring part one of the first thing that you must do in order to be saved from the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell. And that is to accept you are a sinner by nature. With that clearly understood, let us now turn to part two of the first thing that you must do to be saved, which can be summarized as follows:

2) YOU MUST ACCEPT YOU ARE A SINNER BY CHOICE IN NEED OF SALVATION

Being a sinner by nature is the root cause of being a sinner by choice. For purposes of comparison, being a sinner by nature is equivalent to a seed of sin planted in a person’s life waiting to germinate. While being a sinner by choice is equivalent to that seed of sin germinating and eventually growing to become a tree of sin full of all kinds of fruits of sins. This implies that sin nature is to a sinner what roots are to a tree. And actual sins are to a sinner what stem, branches, leaves and fruits are to a tree. It therefore follows that a person is a sinner by choice (i.e. commits sins by the choices they make) because he or she is a sinner by nature (i.e. has a sin nature or root cause of sin).

But what exactly is sin? According to the Bible, sin is defined as follows, “Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1st John 3:4). This verse defines sin as the transgression of the law. Therefore, sin is simply breaking the law of God which includes all the laws which God expects every human being to abide by and not just the Ten Commandments listed in Exodus 20:1-17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. So whenever a person knowingly or unknowingly fails to keep any of the laws which God has established, he or she breaks the law of God and is therefore guilty of sinning against God. Since you are a self-determinate being endued with a God-given freedom of choice, you are bound to exercise your freedom of choice as you journey through this life. Day by day, hour after hour, minute by minute you are bound to make decisions. Some decisions are significant with far-reaching consequences while some other decisions are insignificant with little or no consequences at all. Now, it is through this process of making decisions or rather exercising your freedom of choice that you are once in a while prone to sin against God. For, as you go about making decisions in your life, you are prone once in a while to break the law of God either knowingly or unknowingly thereby sinning against God. Hence by the choices you make, you sometime sin against God which makes you are a sinner by choice.

But to know for sure that you are a sinner by choice, all you need to do is to honestly examine yourself using the Ten Commandments listed in Exodus 20:1-17 and are also repeated in Deuteronomy 5:6-21 and you will quickly discover that you have sinned against God by the choices you have made in the course of your life. These Ten Commandments can be summarized into two categories according to the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:37-40. The first four commandments deal with loving God supremely or having a right relationship with God while the other six commandments deal with loving your neighbor as yourself or having a right relationship with your fellow human beings. I therefore invite you to honestly examine yourself with these Ten Commandments so that you can see for yourself the extent to which you have sinned against God by some of the choices you have made in the course of your life which makes you a sinner by choice.

To set the ball rolling, examine yourself with the first four commandments which deal with loving God supremely or having a right relationship with God. Do you love Yahweh God supremely? Would you truly and honestly say that Yahweh God is your only God, whom you love with all your heart, soul and mind? To find out, kindly allow the first four commandments to act as a mirror revealing to you whether or not Yahweh God is truly your God, whom you love with all your heart, soul and mind. So, let us begin with the first commandment.

1. Do you have other gods beside Yahweh God?

In the first commandment, Yahweh God of the Bible prohibits having or worshipping any other god beside Himself. Here is that universal and timeless commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). The reason why Yahweh God of the Bible issued such a commandment requiring all people in all places and at all times to worship Him and Him alone is because He is the one and the only true and the living God there is. The second reason and more important one is due to the fact that Yahweh God of the Bible has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that He alone deserves to be worshipped by all people in all places and at all times. One way He has given this proof is through thousands of fulfilled prophecies found in the Bible. It is a well established fact that approximately 27% of the Bible at the time it was written prophesied of people and events that were to happen in the future. [3] It is also a well established fact that up to date, all those prophecies which should be fulfilled have been fulfilled exactly as the Bible prophesied they would (Isaiah 46:9-10 and 48:5).

This lends itself to the following conclusion. Yahweh God who inspired every word written in the Bible must be all knowing, all-powerful and ever-present. And here are the reasons why. First, the fact that Yahweh God was able to prophesy with such precision what would happen in the future proves that He must have perfect knowledge of everything in the past, present and in the future. In other words, He must be all knowing. Second, the fact that Yahweh God was able to cause people and events to happen exactly as He prophesied they would proves that He is all-powerful. And third, the fact that Yahweh God was able to cause people and events to happen exactly where He prophesied they would happen in the whole of this expanding universe proves that He must be everywhere present. And since it is only Yahweh God of the Bible who is known without any shadow of doubt to have perfectly prophesied the future up to the present day, then it logically follows that He is the only one who can and should be trusted to correctly tell us what happened in the past as well as what will happen in the future. Consequently, Yahweh God of the Bible qualifies and deserves to be praised and worshipped by all people in all places and at all times simply because He alone has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that He is all knowing, all-powerful and everywhere present!

So if you consider all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you have always praised and worshipped Yahweh God and Him alone? Or do you have some other gods and/or goddesses that you praise and worship either openly or secretly? Secondly, would you truly and honestly say that you have always praised and worshipped Yahweh God with all you are (body, soul and spirit), with all you have (material and immaterial possessions), and with all you do (occupation, vocation and vacation)? In summary, if Yahweh God is not your God whom you exclusively worship, then you are definitely guilty of breaking the first commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

2. Do you have any graven images that you bow to, serve or worship?

In the second commandment, Yahweh God vehemently prohibits the practice of making statues and worshipping them as gods or goddesses. Here is that universal and timeless decree, “4You shall not make to you any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; 6And showing mercy to thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments” (Exodus 20:4-6). Because as we have seen above that Yahweh God is the only one who qualifies and deserves to be praised and worshipped by all people in all places and at all times, He therefore prohibits and condemns the practice of making statues and worshipping them as gods or goddesses. So no statues, objects, images, or pictures representing anyone or anything in the heavens above or in the earth beneath should be adored, served, bowed to or even worshipped. And this includes all those invisible gods and goddesses in the hearts and the minds of many people. This is because, a person who lives for self or success or sex or pleasure or power or prestige or wealth or education or fame, etc, has knowingly or unknowingly made these pursuits his or her “virtual” gods and goddesses. And no doubt, these “virtual” gods and goddesses are also prohibited by God. Finally, Yahweh God totally prohibits any attempt to curve supposedly His image in the likeness of anyone or anything in the heavens above or in the earth beneath with an intention of worshipping it. And this is because He is infinite and invisible hence He cannot be confined to any form, shape or image.

So bearing in mind all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you have always adored, served, bowed to, and worshipped Yahweh God and Him alone? Or do you have a statue, an object, an image, or a picture representing someone or something in the heavens above or in the earth beneath which you adore, serve, bow to or even worship whether openly or secretly? Do you have “virtual” gods or goddesses in terms of pursuits or hobbies which you have knowingly or unknowingly allowed to control your life? Finally, is there any person or pursuit which you have allowed to take the place of God in your life? In summary, if you have anything or anyone, a person or a pursuit which you have allowed to take the rightful place of God in your life, then you are definitely guilty of breaking the second commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

3. Do you take the name of Yahweh God in vain?

In the third commandment, Yahweh God strongly prohibits thoughtless use of His name in speech or in an insincere worship. Here is that universal and timeless commandment, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). The name of God of the Bible is YAHWEH or JEHOVAH. It is translated into most of the English Bibles as “LORD” with all its four letters spelt in capital letters. This is done to distinguish “LORD” from the Hebrew name “Adonai” which means master but is also translated as “Lord” in English. This name YAHWEH or JEHOVAH sums up all what God of the Bible is: from His essence and nature to His character and reputation. Consequently, to disrespect this name of Yahweh God by using it thoughtlessly in speech or in an insincere worship or by belittling and misusing it as a curse word is synonymous to undermining the true nature, the perfect character and the amazing reputation of Yahweh God of the Bible. So anyone who does that is guilty of blasphemy: that is, dishonoring or taking the name of Yahweh God in vain.

So if you consider all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you have always honored and revered the name of Yahweh God? Do you undermine the nature, the character and the reputation of Yahweh God by using His name thoughtlessly in your speech or in an insincere worship, or as a curse word? In summary, if you have once or regularly dishonored the name of Yahweh God, then you are definitely guilty of breaking the third commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

4. Do you have physical rest for one day after every six days of work and spiritual rest to your soul in and through Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior?

In the fourth commandment, Yahweh God commands all human beings to have physical rest for their bodies as a precursor of spiritual rest for their souls in and through Jesus the Messiah. This is how He stated that universal and timeless commandment, “8Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shall you labor, and do all your work: 10But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: 11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: Wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11). God started Sabbath day right after creating everything in six days in order to allow human beings to have physical rest to refresh their bodies and also to have spiritual rest to their souls and spirits as they fellowship with Him on the seventh day. Therefore, this fourth Commandment deals with physical rest that God commands all human beings in all places to have which ought to serve as a precursor of spiritual rest that God wants all human beings to experience in and through Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior according to Matthew 11:28-30, Colossians 2:16-17 and Hebrews 4:1-11. Starting with physical rest, God commands every human being to give their body a chance to rest from work, one whole day after every six days of work so that their body can recuperate and be refreshed (Exodus 23:12). However, this aspect of the Sabbath day law which deals with the physical rest has two notable variations regarding how God expected it to be observed 1) by the Children of Israel, and 2) by all the other Non-Jewish peoples. To the Children of Israel, this physical rest was to be observed on a specific day, that is, on the Sabbath day itself which runs from Friday evening to Saturday evening and it served as a unique sign of a perpetual covenant between the Children of Israel and Yahweh their God according to Exodus 31:13-17 and Ezekiel 20:12-13, 20-21. But to all the other Non-Jewish peoples, this physical rest was and still is not limited to a specific day, but it can be observed any day of the week so long as it is done as unto the Lord Jesus Christ as a matter of one’s conscience and never ever by compulsion or coercion. To stress this latter fact, God the Holy Spirit inspired Apostle Paul to write in Romans 14:1-11 and in Colossians 2:16-17 exhorting Jews and Non-Jewish Christians not to judge each other regarding this God-given freedom to have physical rest on the Sabbath day itself or on any other day of the week.

By God’s design, this physical rest that God commands all human beings to have ought to serve as a precursor of spiritual rest that God wants all human beings to experience in and through Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus Christ calls to Himself any person who is willing to come to Him so that he or she can find rest to their soul. Having perfectly fulfilled all the physical and the spiritual requirements of the Sabbath day law according to Matthew 5:17-18, Mark 2:27-28 and Colossians 2:16-17 among many other scriptures, Jesus Christ became the “True Sabbath of God” or rather the “True Rest of God” which all people all over the world are yearning for. Consequently, the spiritual rest which God wants all people all over the world to experience is found in Jesus Christ and in Him alone when a person sincerely repents all their sins and then believes and receives Jesus Christ into their life to become their personal lord and savior. This is the point at which a person receives rest to their soul as God the Holy Spirit infuses eternal life to their dead spirit making it alive forevermore and then He permanently indwells and seals their newly regenerated spirit instantly converting that person into a true born again believer in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:13-14; 2:1-3, John 1:12-13; 3:1-18, Romans 8:9-11 and 1st John 5:12-13). This therefore means that anyone who sincerely repents all their sins and then truly believes and willingly receives Jesus Christ into their life as his or her personal lord and savior has truly received the “True Sabbath of God” by becoming a born again believer in Jesus Christ. Consequently he or she has entered into spiritual rest which Jesus Christ provides to all the people who truly believe in Him just as Hebrews 4:3 declares saying, “For we which have believed do enter into rest.”

So if you consider all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you always experience physical rest by resting from work, one whole day after every six days of work to allow your body to recuperate and be refreshed? More importantly, have you experienced spiritual rest to your soul by repenting all your sins and then believing in Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior? In summary, if you do not have physical rest for one day after every six days of work nor do you have spiritual rest to your soul by having truly become a true born again believer in Jesus Christ, then you are definitely guilty of breaking the fourth commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

So far you have examined yourself with the first four commandments which deal with loving God supremely or having a right relationship with God. So now turn to the remaining six commandments which deal with loving your neighbor as yourself or having a right relationship with your fellow human beings. Kindly allow the following six commandments to act as a mirror revealing to you whether or not you love your neighbor as yourself. Let’s begin with the fifth commandment.

5. Do you honour your parents?

In the fifth commandment, Yahweh God commands all people in all places and at all times to respect and honour their parents saying, “Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God gives you” (Exodus 20:12). Children are a gift of God to their parents according to Psalm 127:3. To that end, God has delegated some of His power and authority to parents so that on His behalf they can nurture and take care of their children as God would (Ephesians 6:1-4). In other words, parents and to some degree guardians have God-given power and authority to provide for and protect their children. That’s why in this fifth commandment, God commands children including all adults who are under the care of their parents or guardians to obey and submit to their own parents or guardians who take care of them. It therefore follows that, both parents and children should first of all obey and submit to God who is the ultimate provider and protector. Therefore, in an ideal situation children should submit to parents who are likewise submitting to God. But because that is not always the case, children are therefore supposed to obey and submit to their parents or guardians as long as they are not being commanded or enticed to disobey God.

So if you consider all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you have always respected and honored your parents or guardians? And as an adult, to what degree do you respect, honor, and support your parents or guardians who took care of you when you couldn’t? In summary, if you do not respect and honor your parents or guardians so long as they are not commanding or enticing you to disobey God, then you are definitely guilty of breaking the fifth commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

6. Have you ever been guilty of committing murder at any time in your life?

In the sixth commandment, Yahweh God emphatically prohibits murder saying, “You shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13). Since God is the giver of life, He is the only one who has the right to determine when life should come to an end (Job 1:21). Other than in the administration of capital punishment which God Himself instituted in Genesis 9:6 as well as in legitimate warfare between nations such as is described in Joshua chapter 10, God does not permit the life of any human being to be taken by another human being. This therefore means that any time the life of a human being is taken contrary to the will of God; the person who takes it is guilty of murder. And since life begins at conception and ends in natural death, therefore abortion, euthanasia and anything else that ends human life in between conception and the moment of natural death amounts to murder. Moreover according to Matthew 5:21-22, God holds guilty of murder all those people who have committed murders in their own hearts by harboring murderous rage, anger and bitterness against other people.

So if you consider all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you have never ever been guilty of committing murder? Have you ever assisted or unlawfully taken the life of any human being at any stage of their life: right from after they were conceived in their mother’s womb all the way to any time before their God-appointed time of natural death as per Hebrews 9:27? Also, have you ever committed murder in your own heart by harboring anger, rage or bitterness against another person? In summary, if you are guilty of committing “actual” murder by killing another person or “virtual” murder by harboring in your heart anger, rage or bitterness against another person, then you are definitely guilty of breaking the sixth commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

7. Have you ever been guilty of committing adultery at any time in your life?

In the seventh commandment, Yahweh God prohibits any sexual relationship outside of marriage using this universal and timeless decree, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Marriage is a divine institution that was started by God as a life-long covenant relationship between a man and a woman to live together as husband and wife respectively till natural death separate them (Genesis 2:18-25). Therefore, in order to have a healthy marriage relationship, God has ordained that husband and his wife should become one. That is, they should be united in who they are (i.e. bodies, souls and spirits); what they have (i.e. material possessions and immaterial possessions like spiritual gifts, natural abilities and acquired skills); and what they do (i.e. occupation, vocation and vacation). To this end, God gave sex as an excellent unifying gift to be enjoyed exclusively between husband and his own wife for the purposes of pleasure, procreation and unification. Consequently any sexual relationship outside of marriage is categorically condemned by God. This prohibition extends to all other illicit sexual activities such as homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, prostitution, fornication, masturbation and pornography-cum-voyeurism among others. In fact, this commandment prohibits not only the “act of adultery” but also the “thought of adultery” which Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:27-28 equated to committing adultery in one’s own heart with that person one is lusting for.

So if you consider all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you have never ever been guilty of committing any immoral sexual act or guilty of entertaining any immoral sexual thought? First, have you ever committed adultery or could you be currently in an adulterous relationship? Secondly, could you be guilty of engaging in any one of these illicit sexual activities such as homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, prostitution, fornication, masturbation, pornography-cum-voyeurism, etc.? And thirdly, could you be guilty of committing adultery in your own heart by lusting for another person who is not your spouse? In summary, if you are guilty of committing any immoral sexual act or have entertained any immoral sexual thought at any time in your life, then you are definitely guilty of breaking the seventh commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

8. Have you ever been guilty of stealing anything at any time in your life?

In the eighth commandment, Yahweh God prohibits unlawful acquisition of anything material or immaterial that belongs to another person saying, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). God is the owner of everything in the entire universe according to Psalm 24:1. The heavens above belongs to Him and the earth beneath is His. Everything living or non-living in the air, in the water or on the land belongs to God. As the owner of everything, God distributes material and immaterial possessions to the inhabitants of this world as He sees fit (James 1:17). Therefore we are all stewards or managers of God’s property. And as stewards, we are not only supposed to be faithful with what God has entrusted to us (1 Corinthians 4:2) but also we are supposed to be contented with what God has given us (1st Timothy 6:6-8). Since God is the owner of everything in the entire universe, whenever a person steals from another person, they are indirectly stealing from God. How daring and ridiculous it is to steal from God! And yet the world is full of thieves, robbers, muggers, corrupt people, con men and women, etc., who through force and/or deceitful means acquire what belongs to other people.

So if you consider all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you have never ever been guilty of stealing anything material or immaterial? Have you ever stolen, robbed, or mugged anything belonging to another person or an institution? Could you be guilty of directly or indirectly engaging in corrupt activities to acquire material or immaterial possessions belonging to another person or an institution? In summary, if you are guilty of stealing anything material or immaterial at any time in your life, then you are definitely guilty of breaking the eighth commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

9. Have you ever been guilty of bearing false witness at any time in your life?

In the ninth commandment, Yahweh God prohibits bearing false witness against another person saying, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). Bearing false witness against another person is both physically and emotionally damaging. Through lies, slander, gossip, rumor, backbiting and exaggeration of facts many people have suffered untold physical and emotional torture. Many are physically and emotionally languishing in jails because of lies that were told against them. Through slanderous allegations many marriages are broken leaving children and their parents in great physical and emotional pains. Through gossip the best of friends are separated becoming bitter enemies and rivals. Because of rumors, nations have risen against each other, often times ending up with catastrophic consequences. And through exaggeration of facts many people have had their reputation permanently damaged. Lies, slander, gossip, rumor, backbiting, and exaggeration of facts are conceived by a deceitful heart (Luke 6:45). Therefore as the heart is so shall the witness be. A good heart will be prone to give good and true witness. But an evil heart will be prone to give evil and false witness. Therefore whenever a person bears false witness, it reveals that their heart is full of evil.

So if you consider all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you have never ever been guilty of lying? Have you ever borne false witness against another person? Have you ever made slanderous allegations against another person or spread rumors or even exaggerated facts in order to benefit and gain advantage over others? In summary, if you are guilty of bearing false witness against another person, spreading lies, slander, gossip, rumor, backbiting, and exaggeration of facts at any time in your life: then you are definitely guilty of breaking the ninth commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

10. Have you ever coveted something or someone that is not yours at any time in your life?

In the tenth commandment, Yahweh God prohibits coveting something or someone that is not yours saying, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17). God is the giver of every good and perfect gift according to James 1:17. And as the giver of every good and perfect gift, God knows the right thing that you need and the right time that you need it. Unfortunately, sometimes you want things that God knows that you don’t need; therefore God does not give you any of them. And at other times, you do not want the very things that God knows that you need; therefore, God gives you all of them. Therefore, what you need to know is that, Yahweh God who is all-loving and all-wise can never give you what will ultimately destroy you and neither can He withhold from you anything that is good for you both now and in eternity (Psalm 84:11). If you always remember that, then you will not covet what belongs to another person. For the moment you covet what belongs to another person, you are in actual fact finding fault with the all-loving and all-wise Yahweh God who knows what is good for you and the best time to give it to you. This leaves you with only one option: and that is to patiently wait on Yahweh God to give you what is best for you at the time He knows it will be best for you!

So if you consider all the choices you have made in the course of your life, would you truly and honestly say that you have never coveted something or someone that is not yours? Do you covet what belongs to another person, yearning to possess what does not belong to you be it a thing or even a person? In summary, if you have ever coveted something or someone that is not yours at any time in your life: then you are definitely guilty of breaking the tenth commandment. Therefore you are a sinner by choice hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths. Consequently you desperately and urgently need to be saved from these jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell!

Now, as I conclude this section, it is my hope and prayer that the law of God has perfectly fulfilled its God-given purpose of revealing to you that you are a sinner by choice in urgent need of salvation. This is because, God gave the law not to save you by keeping it, but to reveal to you all your sins and your inability to save yourself from all those sins (Romans 3:19-23). And having done that, the law acts as a finger of God that points you to Jesus Christ who alone is able and ever ready to save you (Galatians 3:21-26). And that is what I hope that the foregoing examination of these Ten Commandments has done for you. For, if you have truly and honestly allowed each one of these Ten Commandments to thoroughly examine your life, you must have discovered that you have knowingly or unknowingly broken some if not all of them. Therefore, you must be at this point fully convinced that you have made decisions in the course of your life which have led you to break the law of God. Moreover, this conviction must be greatly enhanced when you factor in what the word of God in James 2:10 declares that, to break one law of God makes you guilty of breaking the whole law of God.

So as we now come to the end of exploring part two of the first thing that you must do in order to be saved, you must be fully compelled by all these undeniable facts to accept that you are a sinner by choice. This therefore means that you are to grapple with the eternal consequences of being a sinner both by nature and by choice which puts you in double danger of hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell. It is therefore not surprising that this journey of examining the first thing that you must do in order to be saved has led us to the following conclusion:

3) YOU MUST ACCEPT YOU ARE A SINNER IN URGENT NEED OF SALVATION!

Without a doubt, you urgently need to be saved considering the double danger that you are currently facing for being (1) a sinner by nature, and (2) a sinner by choice. This is because, being a sinner by nature means that you are currently living in a state of enmity and a broken fellowship with God (Romans 5:10) which makes you are a child of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) who is destined to face the full wrath of God in hell (John 3:36). It therefore goes without saying that being a sinner by nature is nothing but gloom and doom because it means first and foremost that you were born with a dead spirit which makes you unwilling and unable to know God intimately, to love God supremely, to serve God faithfully and to glorify God exclusively. Secondly, it also means that you were born with a wounded soul prone to be governed and controlled by evil ungodly thoughts, evil ungodly feelings and evil ungodly decisions. And thirdly, it also means that you were born with a body that is subject to ageing process, disorders, defects, diseases, death and decay. This is bad news indeed. But as if that is not bad enough, you are also a sinner by choice which means that you are guilty of breaking the law of God by the choices you have made in your life (Romans 3:19) which have led you to sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) hence you are destined to receive the full wages of sin which is death: starting with spiritual death then physical death and finally eternal or second death in the lake of fire known as hell to face everlasting punishment for all your sins (Romans 6:23).

Individually, these two grave conditions of being a sinner both by nature and by choice spell gloom and doom. But collectively, they spell something even much worse that can only be described as immeasurable everlasting disaster. Such a disaster that is so tragic, so devastating and so grave because it has only one outcome: that is, everlasting punishment in hell! This is how the Bible puts it, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). This therefore means that the righteous and just “payment” that you ought to receive for being a sinner both by nature and by choice is to face all the three jaws of death. In other words, if you do not receive the gift of eternal life which God freely gives you when you repent all your sins and put your faith in Jesus Christ, then you will have to face all the three jaws of death. You will have to face spiritual death, physical death and eternal death. Sadly, spiritual death is already at work in your life because it is that spiritual state in which all human beings are born separated from God with a dead human spirit because of having sin nature inherited from Adam and Eve (Ephesians 2:1-5). But thank God because physical death and eternal death are yet future giving you a golden opportunity to be saved. So seize the opportunity right now and be saved before physical death catches up with you unsaved and sadly ushers you into eternity separated from God in hell. This is because physical death serves as a gateway to eternity. It will serve as a gateway to the presence of God in heaven if you die truly saved (2nd Corinthians 5:8 and Psalm 116:15). But if you die unsaved, physical death will serve as a gateway to eternity separated from God: first in hades (Luke 16:19-31) the place of unrighteous dead and later on in hell forever and ever after the final judgment of God (Revelation 20:11-15). Therefore (and may God forbid) should you die unsaved having not repented all your sins and truly believed in Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior, then you will have to taste eternal death by being cast into the lake of fire known as hell to face everlasting punishment for all your sins (Hebrews 9:27 and Revelation 20:11-15)!

No doubt, facing these three jaws of death is an immeasurable everlasting disaster. And the only way you can understand its magnitude, is if you would realize that to remain unsaved is equal to choosing to stay hanging above the flames of fires of hell on a thin rope hung around your neck, which is just about to break and plunge you straight into hell below you. Now, hell is a horrible place which the Bible warns you never ever to go there describing it as follows. First, hell is the place of everlasting punishment (Matthew 25:46). Second, hell is the place of everlasting fire (Matthew 18:8). Third, hell is the place of everlasting destruction (2nd Thessalonians 1:9). Fourth, hell is the place of everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Fifth, hell is the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15). Sixth, hell is the furnace of fire where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42). Seventh, hell is the place where worms do not die and fire is not quenched (Mark 9:44). And eighth, hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Luke 13:28).

But thank God that you do not have to plunge into hell because right there below your feet are the nails-pierced hands of Jesus Christ, whose still small voice is saying to you: “Come to Me you who is hanging above the flames of fires of hell just about to be punished because of all your sins. For, I Jesus Christ—God the Son, out of My unconditional love for you became the God-Man about 2,000 years ago so that I could take your place on the cross, where I died paying in full for all your sins. Then three days and three nights later, I rose from the dead defeating Satan, sin and death for you so that if you would sincerely repent all your sins and truly believe in Me, immediately I will truly and eternally save you. So will you allow Me to save you, right now, right where you are? Remember this fact: I cannot save you by force or by coercion; but only if you are willing to be saved because the choice is yours and yours alone to make!” Once you hear these gracious words of Jesus Christ, you have two choices to make. You can right away allow Jesus Christ to save you by repenting all your sins and believing in Him. Or you can reject His offer of salvation and remain unsaved hanging above the flames of fires of hell. What will you choose? The choice is yours and yours alone to make!

Now as we come to the end of this chapter, it is my earnest hope and prayer that the above illustration has shown you that the immeasurable everlasting disaster that you are currently facing because of being a sinner both by nature and by choice can be averted. With the help of Jesus Christ: spiritual death can be instantly conquered; eternal death can be forever and ever avoided; and the sting of physical death can be immediately plucked off as the physical death stops being a dreadful gateway to eternity in hell for you and becomes a harmless gateway to eternity in heaven for you! Glory to God that right now, right where you are, hope and help is available in and through Jesus Christ to once and for all save you from the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell. For, all you need to do is to sincerely repent all your sins and truly believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved. The question is: will you do that? I hope you will. And as for the reasons why you must believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved, chapter two is dedicated to answer that question for you while chapter three is dedicated to give you the reasons why you must sincerely repent all your sins in order to be saved.

And with that appeal-cum-warning, I once again plead with you to choose eternal life and shun eternal death. Remember you have no reason and no excuse to remain hopelessly and helplessly hanging between the jaws of spiritual and eternal deaths which are threatening to confine your life to everlasting pain and suffering in hell. The way out has been provided for you. The ABCs of salvation are slowly but surely being revealed to you throughout Part one of this book so that you can be truly and eternally saved. Here below is the sum total of what “A” is urging you to do: