Sin is anything that goes against the will and Word of God, the epitome of sin, as far as our natural senses will allow us to see at this time, is Satan, but we are mistaken if we believe that there are levels of sin. All sin is categorized under the same heading, a willful disobedience to the Sovereignty of the Lord God. All sin is done by the act of free will, a personal choice, yes, we are born in sin, but when the cognizant ability to recognize the difference between what we like to call good and bad is recognized by an individual, and the choice is made by our own volition to do the evil, it becomes sin.
The most recognizable one is of course pride, every human has at one time or another willfully and deliberately decided to express their own “I will,” the first act of disobedience against God almost always comes from the defiance of the will against what the inner man knows as right, the conscience that is put into every soul by God, “And 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 creepeth upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:26)
The sphere of influence of sin is determined by the Almighty, no sinful act has ever gone unnoticed, no sin has ever been performed that the Lord has not been aware of before that action occurred, He who created all things is bound by none of His creation, time is irrelevant to the Lord, He lives in an unbounded now. Satan was commanded to appear before the Lord in the Book of Job, (1:6, 2:1) twice, and so it is fair to presume that these are not the only two times since his creation that this has occurred, in fact, with the attitude of insubordination that he has towards God, my guess that it is much more often then he would prefer, it is probably a great inconvenience to him. I am sure that God finds this quite amusing.
Satan does not need to ask permission for all that he does though, certain guidelines and rules were set up for him many thousands of years ago, and he must abide within them. Sin, wickedness, evil, whatever terminology you have decided to use, is always allowed only so much free reign, the leash is only so long, the boundaries are set, and He who told the mighty seas, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further,” (Job 38:11) has no more difficulty in maintaining these boundaries than He did in the creation of all that is. The evil that is done by our adversary and all those who fell with him is only done by permission of God, not one step over the line is ever permitted.
Our Father in heaven allows sin for His own reasons, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:8) This decision is His and His alone, Satan and all the demons must perform all of their actions within a prescribed area of guidelines, and although I can only think and comprehend as a man, if there is one thing that upsets some more than anything else, it is being told what we can and cannot do. No evil will befall the children of the Most High, (Psalm 91:10) but we have a choice to commit evil, to sin, to be wicked in our thoughts and intents. It is only the Holy Spirit of God within us that inhibits our actions in these areas, He is conforming our image into that of the Lord Jesus, and we must come to the realization that the reason we do not rebel, the reason that we do not return to our own vomit (Prov. 26:11) is not because we love Him, but because He loved us first. (1 John 4:19)
Evil grows exponentially, like weeds in a garden, if it is not kept at bay the produce in the garden will be choked out, all will become useless. There is a reason our adversary is called the Abomination of Desolation, (Matt. 24:15) the complete destruction of all that is Holy, righteous, and true is his purpose, hatred is his weapon, fear is the sword he wields. But he can only do what he is allowed to do.
When we are removed from this plane of existence, the day we meet the Lord in the air, (1 Thess. 4:17) the chains, the boundaries will be removed, evil will know a free reign that it has never known, but compared to the wrath that the Lord God Almighty will pour upon this planet, it will seem as child’s play. The roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8) will be placed in chains, (Rev. 20:2) released for a season (Rev. 20:3) then cast forever into the lake of fire for all of eternity. (Rev. 20:10) The scene is set, God has set it, it will happen, we are the only ones caught, as it were, in the river of time.
The Lord our God is in complete and total control, nothing happens in all of creation unless He ordains it, evil can go only as far as He allows, you have absolutely nothing to worry or concern yourself with. Trust Him my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, trust Him with all you are, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6) We are safer than we can ever imagine.
