BIG IDEA
We do not have to let sin destroy us.
READING
Rom. 1
THOUGHTS
Limitations
God doesn’t leave creation alone. In the beginning, He is actively involved in planting, hydrating, and growing the garden. He interacts very personally with humanity and places them in the garden to care for it. He encourages humanity to eat the fruit of every tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He warns humanity that death awaits those who consume its fruit.
The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Gen. 2:15–17
Temptation
Satan (Isa. 14:12–13; Matt. 12:43; Luke 10:18, 11:24) seduces humanity to question the limitations God places on them. Satan questions the validity and the weight of the prohibition. He asks about God’s motivations, intentionality, and the literal meaning of the boundary. He challenges the result of disobedience. He invites humanity into the place of God rather than dependency on Him.
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” Gen. 3:4–5
Sin Enters
Satan convinces humanity to take of the tree. Humanity uses its criterion to determine that the tree and fruit seem good to eat. Humanity wants to be like God—to have the wisdom and expe- rience not only of good but also evil. Humanity wants indepen- dence from the limitations of God and decides to disobey God and trust Satan’s voice and their inner voice. Sin enters at this mo- ment. Because God is love, He allows humanity to make choices and experience the outcome of their decisions.
The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beau- tiful, and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wis- dom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. Gen. 3:6
Immediate Consequences
Immediately, humanity loses the innocence that comes from dependency, experiences shame, tries to cover their guilt, and hides from God. God searches for humanity and outlines the re- sults of their choice to be self-sufficient.
• On Satan: God curses Satan’s earthly existence and foretells the hostility between humanity and Satan. We see that Satan will influence humanity but will ultimately be destroyed by one of Eve’s descendants.
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:15)
• On Humanity: Humanity is removed from the garden to experience independence. The woman will experience pain in child birth and the desire but inability to control her husband. The man will experience a cursed earth, causing a lifetime of struggle and work.
At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame … So they hid from the Lord … Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy…and you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you”… And to the man, the ground is cursed because of you… all your life, and you will struggle…by the sweat of your brow”… So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. Gen. 3:7–24
Long-Term Results
There are long term effects to sin.
- A) A sinful nature is passed on to every human being. This propensity to reject God is ingrained in us from birth. Each of us has sinned since being born. Each of us is a “slave” to sin and has come under its power (Gen. 8:21; Ps. 14:1–3; Isa. 53:6; Rom. 3:10, 23, 5:12, 6:16–22).
- B) Sin is the path to death. When we separate ourselves from God (source of life) and the parameters He has established, we experience varying degrees of death in our mind, bodies, relationships, and the world (Prov. 10:16; Rom. 6:23, 7:5). We experience physical death, which is passing from this world (Gen. 6:3). We also experience eternal death (Matt. 10:28, 18:8; Rev. 21:8).
What Does Sin Look Like?
As we have learned, sin is an attitude that begins with the de- sire to live independently from God, who is the source of life and love. Throughout the Bible, God reveals lists of actions that reflect this attitude.
The Conscience and The Voice: In the Old Testament, up to Moses’s arrival, we see that the entry of sin consciousness in every individual (Gen. 3:22). The awareness of good and evil is built into every human being from this point on. We also see at the beginning the personal nature of the relationship God has with people: Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:8), Enoch (Gen. 5:22–24), Abraham (Gen. 17:1), Isaac (Gen. 26:24), Jacob (Gen. 35:9), and Noah (Gen. 6:13). God would speak, and people would listen. Sin was disobe- dience to God’s voice.
The Law: After rescuing Israel from slavery in Egypt, God gives the nation of Israel a Top 2 and a Top 10: The Shema (Deut. 6:5) and the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20) summarize what it means to live right. God then speaks through Moses and gives regulations about temple worship, nation-building, social structure, health and dietary function, etc. In total, we find 613 laws designed to articulate what it looks like to promote life and the nation’s advancement.
Jesus: Jesus emphasizes the Shema as the ultimate articu- lation of right and wrong—and what it means to listen to one’s conscious.
Jesus replied, “’You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two command- ments.” Matt. 22:37–40
Jesus reinforces the Old Testament Law as having originated from God. He emphasizes the recognition of sin and a humane and compassionate approach to the sinner (John 8). Those who are not born Jewish are not required to keep the Law but the spirit and heart of the Law that Jesus emphasized (Acts 15; Rom. 6:12–14).
The Church
In the many letters to the first followers of Jesus, we see an emphasis of the idea that all of us have a conscience that directs us. We also know that we tend to ignore it, justify our actions, and lose sight of right and wrong (John 3:19; Rom. 2:15, 3:23, 14:1–23).
Lists of what it looks like to sin were also communicated as an outflow of this idea that sin is living independently from God and not living with love for Him and others (Rom. 1:26–32; Gal. 5:19–21; Eph. 5:3–7; 1 Tim. 1:9–10).
DISCUSSION
- What activities did you not categorized as a sin in the past that you do now?
- Why do we like to ignore the idea of sin?