Forgiveness and SinThe overall theme of the Bible is easy to find, as it is on almost every single page of it. It is that of man's sin and God's attempt to forgive him that sin while being absolutely holy and absolutely righteous. First, God gives man His Law. These are the same rules and regulations that many Orthodox Jews still follow today. Next, in the supreme act of love, God sends His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for man's sins in a final act of forgiveness. Both of these acts are seen through the life of a single person, the essential founder of the Protestant faith and one of the principal founders of Christianity throughout the ages: the apostle Paul. Paul was raised as a Roman Jew from Tarsus known as Saul. He was a free-born Roman citizen who was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, as prescribed by Jewish law. His father was a Pharisee and would eventually become one too. His early training included the trade of a tentmaker and the study of Jewish law under the famous Pharisee of his day, Gamaliel. As a Jew, Saul was “a Jew of Jews.” According to Jewish law, he had never committed any wrong. Saul had every law memorized and never broke a single one. He was a zealous man, he persecuted those who proclaimed Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. He sent many to prison and had many others tortured and executed. He held the cloaks of the men who had stoned Stephen, the blasphemer, and was on his way to Damascus to destroy the blasphemers when his life changed. On the road to Damascus, Saul saw a light coming out of the sky so bright it blinded him. He heard the voice of Jesus Christ asking him why he was persecuting him. Then and there, Saul's life was c... center of paper... race. His intimate knowledge of what had been showed him God's extraordinary power of forgiveness and all the joy that it brings. In this way he could proclaim that God's grace was sufficient for every situation and that God's power was unlimited. In conclusion, through the life and eyes of the apostle Paul we see both the Old Testament thinking on sin and forgiveness and the New Testament view on those same issues. According to the Old Testament, Jewish Law was the standard by which man must live, and only through ritual sacrifice could man be forgiven for breaking any of these laws. We see it through the eyes of Saul, Paul's life before Christ. Through Paul's eyes, we see the New Testament approach to sin and forgiveness, that sin is all that separates man from God. Forgiveness of sin comes only through faith in Jesus Christ and His resurrection.