What will ultimately determine where a man spends eternity depends solely on his attitude towards sin i.e. whether he embraces sin or abstains from it.
Sin has been with man from the beginning. Right from creation sin has been a problem to man.
What is sin?
The Greek word for sin is Harmartia meaning to miss the mark of perfection in order to be considered righteous by God.
The dictionary defines sin as the act of deliberately breaking divine or moral law.
But according to the Bible sin is lawlessness, that is, sin is the free moral transgression of God's law or man's free moral non-reaction to the law of God.
1st John 3 vs 4
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
This means there is sin of commission and sin of omission.
James 4 vs 17
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Sin is also defined as all unrighteousness.
1st John 5 vs 17
All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death
In other words, any words, thoughts or actions that are not right' In the sight of God are sin.
Ordinarily the nature of sin is such that sin is sweet and pleasurable to the natural man.
1 Johnn 2:16
For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
There is a daily battle for the soul of man between God and the devil. See Romans 7:21-25 which tells us how this battle is carried out in our minds .
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Sin is preceded by temptation.
)1st John 5:3, confirms that God's commandments are not burdensome.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
So, God does not ask us to do what we cannot do. Let us note that what it means to overcome sin is that you have the power to say NO to sin; and not that you will no longer be a human being or that you will be taken away from this planet.
Galatians 2 verse 20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Jesus showed us an example to follow.
Hebrews 4 verse 5
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
God hates sin
Zechariah 8 verse 17
do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the LORD .
Proverbs 6 verse 16-17
There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
Although God hates sin, yet He loves sinners. This is why He sent His only begotten Son to the world to save man from sin. And because of God's hatred for sin, He turned His eyes away from Christ when the latter carried the sins of the world on the cross .
If we do not overcome sin, sin will overcome us and this will consequently lead to death -eternal separation between God and man.
Revelations 21 verse 8
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars,they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”