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Sin
Sin
Psalm 8:5, Genesis 3:1-6, Hebrews 11:25, Romans 6:23
Intro
Today we are going to be discussing the origin of sin and what it did to those who were walking in perfect relationship with God. We will also consider it’s effect on us as we step back into identities that God has brought us out of.
Illustration
Purchasing a new car is a special kind of rush! We all love that moment when we make the decision to upgrade our current vehicle to something new or new to us at least. When my family found out that we were expecting our second child we made the decision to jump into the mini van community but we did so with little to no research as to which model of minivan we should purchase. This resulted in us purchasing a vehicle that was riddled with issues and lacked reliability. Finally we gave up on trying to make it work and went to a Toyota dealership to trade it in on a trusted and reliable Camry. We found a good deal and negotiated a fair trade and came home with our new sedan for our family of four. The problem with this transaction is the fact that this Camry had cream cloth interior. We purchased a new vehicle with cream cloth interior while having two little boys under the age of seven. Within weeks we had discovered the problem with this scenario. We had purchased something new and beautiful but in just a few short weeks we had tarnished the newness through the mismanagement of cheeseburgers, drinks, ice cream, and countless other materials. What was perfect, was perfect no more.
Body
This is a great picture of what took place in the Genesis account of the world immediately following creation. In the beginning we see a world that is exactly as it should be. Every blade of grass is untainted by any element that was not birthed in the word spoken by the creator. Mankind was walking in the authority granted by God and according to Psalm 8, doing so with the weight of God’s glory resting upon them.
For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
This was God’s intention for man but this was not the reality that man sustained. As man was enjoying their existence in the garden, they only had one stipulation in order to maintain their arrangement… “do not partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” This was not because God was withholding something good but because God understood the ultimate outcome of the insertion of sin. But man did not keep this arrangement. Satan took on the persona of a serpent and tempted Eve to partake of the fruit of the tree and in turn Eve tempted Adam to do the same!
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
This was the insertion of this thing called sin. It was the falling short of God’s intention and arrangement for man. The New Testament gives us a greek word for the concept of sin; hamartia. The typical greek understanding of this word is to “miss the mark.” But a south African theologian name Francois Du Toit gives us a better definition of the word based on etymological construction.
The word sin, is hamartia, from ha, negative and meros, form, thus to be without form or identity; hustereo, to fall short, to be inferior, doxa, glory, blueprint, from dokeo, opinion, intent.)
When sin was inserted into the equation, mankind lost their capacity to carry the glory of God and as such walk in the authority that God had intended for them. This resulted in their expulsion from the garden and turned the task of cultivating the earth from a pleasure into a burdensome toil.
This is the result of sin. It turns that which is beautiful into that which is burdensome. But we must understand that sin is less about what we do and more about who we allow ourselves to be. The true tragedy of the fall of man was the fact that they abandoned their identity as God’s perfect creation in order to partake in that which was apart from their identity. When we as Christ followers enter back into the sin we have been delivered from we do the same thing.
May we never forget that though sin does offer us some level of enjoyment and pleasure, it is only for a season. But the pay day of sin has always been and will always be death.
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer;
Father, forgive us for taking sin lightly. Help us to understand that we are abandoning the identity that you have given us in Christ when we walk in the sin of this world. Today we renounce our sin and ask for a fresh start with you.
Discussion Questions:
Why do you believe that Eve was susceptible to the temptation of the serpent in the garden?
How does the consideration that Eve’s sin did not stay with her (her sin led to Adam’s sin) make you feel?
Does the consideration of sin as being an abandonment of identity cause you to give more weight to your decisions in seasons of temptaiton?
Application Questions:
What steps can we take to better prepare ourselves for resisting the temptation to walk in sin?
How can we respond in seasons of failure in order to reassume our identity in Christ?
What does the consideration of the juxtaposition of the wages of sin and the gift of God cause you to feel?