Sin
Sin changes things!
Sin manifests itself by the choices we make. In one sense, making choices is the most
potent exercise we engage in every day. Our choices will either draw us close to God and
the blessings that come through obedience, or they will distance us from Him and expose
us to the consequences of sin.
Before we choose to say “yes” to temptation, we must say “no” to God. - Do you agree
or disagree with this statement?
The history of the human race as presented in Scripture is primarily a history of man in a
state of sin and rebellion against God and of God’s plan of redemption to bring man back to
himself.
Sin includes not only individual acts such as stealing or lying or committing murder, but also
attitudes that are contrary to the attitudes God requires of us.
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Sin
What is sin?
Where did it come from?
Do we inherit a sinful nature from Adam?
Do we inherit guilt from Adam?
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This definition of sin specifies that sin is a failure to conform to God’s moral law on only in
action and in attitude, but also in our moral nature. Our very nature, the internal
character that is the essence of who we are as persons, can also be sinful. Before we were
redeemed by Christ, not only did we do sinful acts and have sinful attitudes, we were also
sinners by nature.
Romans 5:8 (Paul states)
But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died
for us!
Ephesians 2:3
We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the
inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under
wrath as the others were also.
Sin is lawlessness.
1 John 3:4
Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law (also commits iniquity); sin is the
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breaking of law.
Sin is directly opposite to all that is good in the character of God. God necessarily
and eternally hates sin. It is, in essence, the contradiction of the excellence of his
moral character. It contradicts his holiness, and he must hate it.
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God himself did not sin.
It was man who sinned, and it was angels who sinned, and in both cases they did so by
willful, voluntary choice.
God is not to be blamed for sin.
To blame God for sin would be blasphemy against the character of God. Deuteronomy 32:4
“The Rock—His work is perfect; all His ways are entirely just. A faithful God,
without prejudice, He is righteous and true.”
It is impossible for God even to desire to do wrong.
Abraham asks with truth and force in his words, “You could not possibly do such a
thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked
alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of all the earth do what is
just?” (Genesis 18:25)
Job 34:10 states, “Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding. It is
impossible for God to do wrong, and for the Almighty to act unjustly.”
God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one.
James 1:13 states, “No one undergoing a trial should say, ‘I am being tempted by
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God.’ For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone.”
Even though we must NEVER say that God himself sinned or he is to be blamed for
sin, yet we must also affirm that the God who “works out everything in agreement
with the decision of His will” (Ephesians 1:11), the God who “does what He
wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who
can hold back His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Daniel 4:35) did
ordain that sin would come into the world, even though he does not delight in it and
even though he ordained that it would come about through the voluntary choices of
mortal creatures. This still remains largely a mystery to us.
Sin came into the world through one man. Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin
entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread
to all men, because all sinned.”
Romans 5:16, “because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation”
2 Corinthians 11:3, “But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning”
1 Timothy 2:14, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and
transgressed.”
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Romans 5:13-14
13 In
fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s
account when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not
sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a prototype of the Coming One.
Paul is pointing out that from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, people did
not have God’s written laws. Though there sins were “not charged” (as infractions
of the law), they still died. The face that they died is very good proof that God
counted people guilty on the basis of Adam’s sin.
Romans 5:18-19
18 So
then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also
through one righteous act there is life-giving justification for everyone.
19 For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also
through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
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Paul explicitly states that through the trespass of one man “the many were made
sinners.” When Adam sinned, God thought of all who would descend from Adam as
sinners. Though we did not yet exist, God, looking into the future and knowing that
we would exist, began thinking of us as those who were guilty like Adam.
We have been found guilty!
We are corrupted!
Psalm 51:5
Indeed, I was guilty when I was born;
I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
Psalm 58:3
The wicked go astray from the womb;
liars err from birth.
Ephesians 2:3
We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the
inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under
wrath as the others were also.
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Satan, the serpent, is the main character of this chapter. The word Satan or Devil does not
appear in Genesis 3. However, John identifies the serpent with Satan when he called the
Devil “the ancient serpent” in Revelation 12:9 and 20:2.
Notice how the serpent asks a question and distorts God’s word. God said that the man
and woman could eat of any tree in the garden except for one. The serpent, however,
asked, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Genesis 2:16-17
16 And
the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the
garden,
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the
day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
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Why did Eve add the phrase, “or touch it” to God’s command?
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Jesus called the Devil a liar.
John 8:44
You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He
was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is
no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a
liar and the father of liars.
God said, you will certainly die. Satan said, No! You will not die.
Satan then gives Eve an excuse to eat. God does not want her eat of the fruit
because He is an insecure tyrant. God, according to the Devil, must lie to his
creation to stop them from becoming as powerful as Him. He implies that God is
holding back something good.
Satan is constantly trying to say that sin has no consequences.
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Let’s look at the progression of sin.
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First comes the look. This is more than a glance, this is a full on stare. This is beyond
temptation.
Then comes the taking, the hook has been set.
The final is the partaking – she ate.
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Satan did tell them a truth in the middle of his lie. He told them that there eyes would be
opened (vs. 5). After Adam and Eve sinned, the eyes of both of them were opened.
When there eyes were opened all they saw was their own guilt. They saw their own
nakedness. Sudden, stark awareness of their loss of innocence. And what was the first
thing they attempt to do when aware of their sin? Cover it up!
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Note that the serpent is cursed MORE THAN any livestock and MORE THAN any wild
animal. This implies that other animals would be cursed also, but would not be affected as
much.
Romans 8:20-22 affirms that all of creation has been affected by sin.
20 For
the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who
subjected it—in the hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know
that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.
Genesis 3:15 is the first messianic prophecy in the Bible. Satan would strike his heel
(Jesus Christ), but Jesus would strike Satan’s head, a mortal blow.
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The punishment phase begins:
Pain, or greater pain during child birth.
Your desire will be for your husband. What does this mean?
It could mean that even after going through the pain and anguish of childbirth you still have
the desire for physical relations with your husband that results in childbirth.
It could mean a desire to dominate or your husband, but he will rule over you.
Ephesians 5:22
Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord,
Colossians 3:18
Wives, be submissive to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
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1 Peter 3:1
In the same way, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, even if
some disobey the Christian message, they may be won over without a message by
the way their wives live.
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Punishment continues:
The ground is cursed causing painful labor all the days of his life
Thorns and thistles are added the problem making agriculture more complicated by
allowing weeds to crop up in the garden.
A returning to the dust.
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