Welcome back to our lessons on what being a Christian means. If it’s your first time here, welcome, and might I suggest you start at lesson one where I explain a little about myself and the mission of these lessons. In this lesson we'll learn how sin entered our world, the results of sin, and what God did for us sinners. Over the next few lessons we'll be discussing who Jesus is and what He has done for us, so be sure to check those out also as they're posted.
In chapters 2 and 3 we saw God's creation of Earth, mankind and everything natural on it. Every part of creation God saw was good, or in other words, perfect. So why isn't the world "good" today? The answer is sin entered our world. At some point during the 6 days of creation, God created the angels of Heaven. Based off of the very little revealed knowledge we know that some angels disobeyed God and are now living in Hell. Jude 1:6 gives us a tiny history. “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgement on the great Day.” Most notorious is the Devil, another word for liar, also known as Satan, another word for enemy. Peter tells in his 1st epistle, “8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
In chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, we see God's creation of our world and mankind. In chapter 3 we see the beginning of sin in world. In the following chapter we see that the devil tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God. Through this deliberate disobeying, Adam and Eve lost God's image, or their perfection.
“1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,3but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" 4"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." 11And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" 12The man said, "The woman you put here with me --she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." 13Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." 14So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." 16To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." 17To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." 20Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. 21The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Right away we see how Satan works, God set up the tree as an altar for Adam and Eve to look upon and obey, not to eat from. Eve says she'll die if she eats of the fruit. Satan knew that God meant spiritual death, or separation from God, but he speaks of it in terms of mortality. "Surely you won't die," he says, "if you eat from it you'll become like God." So Eve takes it and shares it with Adam, who also knows he shouldn't eat of it, but is filled with the same temptation and they do. Not only do they sin here, but they hide in shame from God and then proceed to lie to Him. Sin after sin after sin. God in his anger curses Satan, snakes and life on Earth for sinful man. Then He cuts Adam and Eve off from the Garden. One note I want to make is that He banished us lovingly. For God knew that if man had eaten of the Tree of Life that He would permanently have to separate Himself from us.
When sin entered the world, it had results that have carried into our lifetime and continues to do so. Why is it that we are suffering for what Adam and Eve did today. Their children weren't around yet not to mention us. One result of sin is that we are all born into a sinful condition. Jesus tells in the book of John 5:6 “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” In other words, humans give birth to humans, only God can give perfection. Flesh in the Bible is also a euphemism for sin and evil. The term Christians use is inherited sin. Genesis goes on to make this point in chapter 5. “1bWhen God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 3aWhen Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image;”
Our sinful condition leads us to sinful words and actions, or actual sins. In Matthew 15, Jesus is speaking to a crowd and is teaching about proper customs and what actually leads to sin and later explains this to his disciples. “10Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. 11What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'" 18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
Because of sin we deserve God's punishment and an eternal death. Paul goes back to the lesson in Genesis chapter 3 in Romans 5. “12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” In chapter 6 he says, “23aFor the wages of sin is death,”. Death meaning separation from God. In the passage above God outlines what our sinful condition means for us in our daily life. We suffer pain and sorrow as the consequences of sin. Pain in giving birth, trouble in our marriages, even the food which God had provided for us will hurt our bodies, and make us sweaty and dirty. Even if you're not a farmer, think about how hard you work to get your pay check to buy your food. We don't have the Garden of Eden any more, it was shut off to us. All of nature lost its perfection as well. We have droughts, fires, floods, earthquakes and pollution. Paul writes in Romans 8, “19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
Sin has destroyed ourselves and our world. There is no happy message there. This world is ruined with sin. That said, all is not lost, here we can see what God has done for sinful mankind. If our earned wages for sin is death, then what? God says that sin must be punished and paid for, but that a savior would take the punishment for us. In verse 15 of the above lesson, God promises that from Eve, a descendent would defeat Satan. In Isaiah 53, Isaiah describes how Jesus would pay for our sins, by taking our punishment and shepherding us back into his care. “5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ”
Leviticus 19: “1The LORD said to Moses, 2"Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” God still requires perfection for eternal life, but promised to send a savior that would give us His holiness as a gift. He promised in Jeremiah 23, “5"The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.”
God sent us His, son Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life in our place and died on the cross for our sins. Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians writes in chapter 5, “21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God sent Jesus, as the perfect lamb of sacrifice. John the Baptist preached in John chapter 1, “29The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"” God gives salvation to all those who personally trust in Jesus. In the book of Acts chapter 16, after a frightened jailer asks Paul and Silas what he needs. “30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved --you and your household."”
When Jesus died on the cross, He took our sins away. When we trust in Jesus death our sin is taken from us and we are made holy again. This is a constant cycle. Below is the diagram titled God's Great Exchange in which we bring our sins to the foot of the cross and Jesus makes us righteous through His Death.
This concludes lesson 4. I urge you to continue to lessons 5 and 6 to continue to study how Jesus' perfect life and death made us righteous and why He deserves our praise. Next time specifically we'll discuss how God the Father sent his Son to save mankind. I also urge you to read the article I wrote God's Great Exchange, which further discusses these points and is a great jumping on point for new Christians, or people in need of Christianity. I pray that these words reach you and open your heart to God and His Word and allow you courage to share it with others. I also hope you were able to learn something you may not have known before, or refreshed your memory on this teaching.
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