Genesis 3: Original Sin
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as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Prayer
Catechism Question: May all men make use of the holy Scriptures?
All men are not only permitted, but commanded and exhorted to read, hear, and understand the holy Scriptures.
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Good Morning and Welcome to Confessors of Christ Church
We continue our walk through the book of Genesis as we seek to discover our beginnings and how this effects us today.
This book gives great insight to who God is, who we are, what has lead us to this moment, and what hope we have for the future.
This book also gives us many opportunities to look at some of the great doctrines of the faith.
Understandings that are established and rooted in Genesis.
In the fall we took time to understand covenants and specifically looked at the Covenant of Works that were established with Adam and Eve.
We sought to see how Covenants play a major role in human history as well as a major role in our understanding of the Bible.
We discovered that we should, not only, understand the covenant that God has made with His people at that time,
But, we should also keep covenants in mind when we are reading our Bibles to best understand the context of what is being said and why.
Today, we come to another great doctrine of the faith, an incredibly important doctrine that we must understand to fully grasp our condition.
This doctrine is vital to us for us to see clearly ourselves and those around us,
But, also greatly enhances our understanding of the Gospel and our need of a Savior.
We are not pausing our journey in Genesis, but actually digging deeper into the understandings of this book of beginnings.
Today we are going to look at the doctrine of Original Sin.
Two weeks ago we jumped back into Genesis with Adam and Eve eating of the fruit and sin entered into humanity.
Last week we saw the first effects of this sin and what the results were upon rejecting God’s will, purpose, and plan.
Today, we will seek to better understand the scope and the reality of what this sin actually brought forth into humanity.
So, before we begin our survey of this doctrine first discovered in Genesis 3, let us better understand what Original sin is, and what it is not.
Let’s first start with what Original Sin is not.
Original Sin, is not a reference to the first sin committed by Adam and Eve.
While, yes, it was the first and definitionally speaking, the “Original” sin.
It is often confused because of the term original can be used in different ways.
When we think of the first of something, we can often refer to it as the original.
Have you ever come across a restaurant and it will say, Home of the original, such and such?
Or, it will say something like the Original Olive Garden, and it means the very first.
I didn’t know this, but the original Olive Garden restaurant was started right here in Orlando.
The Original Red Lobster was started next to where I grew up in Lakeland.
My favorite fast food chain, PDQ, has its Original location in Tampa.
There is one about 20 minutes up the road on the 429 if you ever have a craving for chicken that is not Chick-Fil-A.
While this is certainly a correct and proper use of the word Original, that is not what we are speaking of when we are talking about Original sin.
It is not the first sin committed by Adam and Eve.
So, make sure you make a note of this and make sure you do not confuse the terms with the first.
The other thing that Original Sin is not, is that it is not speaking of a Unique sin.
You may have heard the term original used in this way.
When something is uniquely done, say you find a new way to solve a problem, you could say, that is an original solution to that problem.
So, Original Sin, does not mean a unique and different or new way of sinning.
Having 8 kids, if this was the definition of Original Sin, I would have a whole list of Original sins I could share with you.
Sins, that I never could fathom, but my kids made it a mission of theirs to discover unique, ground breaking, and original sins.
One of my favorites is explaining to Chloe that chickens are not allowed in the house.
She can play with them outside, she can put bows on them outside, she can carry them around outside.
But, no chickens in the house.
I finish doing some work and decided to check on Chloe and her and the chickens are gone.
I start to panic and run into her room to find her on the top bunk, with her chickens, having a tea party or something like that.
Eleni as a toddler would not leave the Doritos alone.
We would take them, put her in time out, corner time, you name it, to leave the Doritos alone.
Then we got side tracked doing something and next thing we know we lost Eleni.
After searching high and low we hear a noise behind the couch, we pull back the couch and there she is.
Enjoying the doritos like a depraved little child she was.
Voddie Bachman said it best when he said, that’s no angel, that is a viper in a diaper!
However, this too, is not the biblical understanding of Original Sin.
It is not the first sin to have happened in our Bible.
It is not a unique sin or even an unexpected sin.
So, then, what is Original Sin?
This is where I want you to write this down, or take a note, or find someway to remember this.
Are you ready? (Pause)
Original sin is our fallen sinful condition, out of which actual sins progress. (Repeat)
To put it differently, Original Sin is our nature, which is opposed to God, in which our sins manifest from.
To put it even clearer: Original sin declares that we are first sinners who then sin.
Let me ask this: Do you think you are generally a good person who occasionally slips up and makes mistakes?
or Do you believe that you are rotten to the core and incapable of doing that which God calls us to do?
Well, what the Bible declares may shock you.
Original sin declares that we are bad people and thus do bad things.
Even good things we do are for bad reasons and thus are corrupted.
Our status is not good, righteous, and upright, our status is evil, corrupt, and depraved.
Thus, instead of doing good things, we do bad things.
We will go to God’s Word in a moment to see this displayed.
Another important distinction is this: Original sin is not the sin itself, Original sin is the cause of our sin. It’s the nature that brings forth sin.
Original Sin refers to the fallen condition in which Adam and Eve entered into upon sinning,
And you and I enter into upon, get this, from birth.
Let’s jump into Scripture and unpack this doctrine and see what it is, and why it is so important that we grasp it.
Let us open our Bibles to Psalm 51 and our focus will be on verse 5, but I want us to look at the first 4 verses to get our context.
You will find the book of Psalms in the middle of our Bible, then turn to the 51st Psalm.
The Chapter numbers are the large numbers in your Bible, the smaller ones are the verses.
In this Psalm, King David is lamenting because the Prophet Nathan had just rebuked him for his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba.
David was cut to the core and had no other place to go except to God.
Which is exactly what we talked about last week, when we sin, we run too God, not hide.
David wrote this out of great despair.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
Now let us pause.
We see the context, we see the guilt and the shame, and David’s only hope is to seek out God’s Mercy.
That God is fully justified in bringing forth his condemnation.
How sin is ever before Him, and ultimately His sin is against God, even though it effects so many others.
Then David declares this shocking truth.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
What does this mean?
If we look at this verse by itself we would be tempted to think it is David’s mother who sinned.
That she committed a sexual immoral act when she conceived David.
However, that is not at all the context of this verse.
David is declaring that he was brought forth, or entered into this world in iniquity or immoral or corrupt.
He was brought forth guilty from birth.
As the verse continues, in sin did my mother conceive me.
From conception, David was in sin, was a sinner. His nature was not good, not even neutral.
Well hold on, you may say, David had done nothing good or bad.
David had not even been born yet, how is it that he was already condemned?
Remember, Original sin is not the sin you commit, it is the nature that brings forth sin.
It is because of Original Sin that this was David’s reality, and not just David’s but every person born from Adam and Eve.
Listen to this, this is what I want everyone to grasp, and then I’ll continue defending this understanding.
After defending this understanding, I’ll then get to the solution for our situation.
Original Sin can be understood this way:
Because of the sin entering into the world through the rebellion of Adam and Eve, the corruption of sin, the nature of sin, came upon Adam and Eve and also passed on to their offspring.
Original Sin means that everyone is corrupt with a sin nature and this is from conception.
We are thus conceived in guilt, guilty before God, even before our first actual sin.
What I’m about to say may be a paradigm shift in your thinking, and it is a biblical shift.
We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.
Sin is not what makes us sinners, it is being a sinner that brings forth our sin.
Let me repeat this phrase because it is at the core of what we must understand to rightly understand this doctrine.
We are not sinners because we sin.
You do not become a sinner at a certain age, at a certain understanding, or after a certain failure.
We are not born righteous, like Adam and Eve and then sin.
However, we are born in sin, with a sinful nature, and our only desire is that which is opposed to God.
We are sinners who do what we desire to do, what is our desire? Sin.
Listen to what David has to say in this regards:
The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Paul echos this reality when he declares in Romans.
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Now, we must pause here for a moment because the natural question that arises is that unbelievers do good things all the time.
Even you, before Christ can probably point to a good deed or moment in life.
You are absolutely correct, ……..and incorrect.
Let me explain.
God’s law is written on our heart and because of this we do have a sense of right and wrong.
Therefore it isn’t uncommon for unbelievers to do that which we are called to do.
However, the key isn’t just the action, it is the reason for the action that matters just as much.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Everything is not for our glory, but for God’s glory.
Therefore, if we do a good act, one that we are called to do, but if we do it for our own glory, then we are still sinning.
Illustration: There was a friend of mine who would post videos of doing random acts of kindness.
He would video himself giving water bottles to homeless, giving out food, giving out money.
But, he was not doing this for God’s glory, he was doing this for his own following, so that people would think of him as righteous.
Even the act of doing good is wicked in the sight of God because of the heart.
Currently, one of the most popular you-tuber, goes by Mr. Beast.
His entire channel is about giving away money, cars, houses, dogs, and all sorts of wild and crazy things.
He just gave away $25,000 dollars to 10 random people on X social media.
However, the reason is not God’s glory, it is for the views. It is for the popularity.
It is for his business.
So, and this may be a wild and new concept for many of us, but in God’s eyes,
Doing something good for your own glory is just as sinful as doing something wrong.
Well, if this is the case, then we sin every day, every hour, even every minute at times.
Yes, we truly are way more depraved, way more sinful, way more rebellious than we even realize.
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
This is what you are to do at every moment, for every second, for every minute, for every hour, of every day.
Every time you are not doing this, you are disobeying our God.
You might be thinking to yourself, there is no way that I can accomplish this!
I am further away from perfection than I ever imagined possible!
You would be correct and you will begin to see with greater clarity the need of a Savior.
See, here is the reality that we discover. Even those who claim to be atheist have to concede this.
Even if the Bible did not teach our depravity, we see it clearly every day.
Even if you do not agree with this biblical teaching, and if you say there is no biblical evidence, you would have to affirm it just by seeing our very nature.
We would have to affirm just by reading the news.
Even our Pagan world knows that we are not good, we are not even neutral. We are chaotic Evil!
No respect for rules, other people's lives, or anything but our own desires, we are selfish and cruel.
But, can’t we just choose good instead of evil? Can’t we just will ourselves to Love God and love our neighbors to God’s glory?
Adam and Eve could before they sinned, you and I cannot.
The answer is no.
Even if the action is good the heart is wicked.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
But, this reality is not just something we learn to become over time. It is who we are.
Paul shares the wicked and depraved state in which we find ourselves before Christ.
Speaking of our pre-redemptive state he says:
And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience,
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
By Nature, we are children of wrath, the only way this could be true is if our nature was sinful from the beginning.
Proverbs 22:15 (ESV)
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
If we jump forward a bit in Genesis to chapter 8, we see God declaring the true nature of everyone, even as a child and from our youth.
Genesis 8:21 (ESV)
And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.
Jonathan Edwards, speaks on this verse: “The word translated youth, signifies the whole of the former part of the age of man, which commences from the beginning of life. The word has reference to the birth or beginning of existence . . . so that the word here translated youth, comprehends not only what we in English most commonly call the time of youth, but also childhood and infancy.”
Since this is how the Bible describes our fallen nature, how then can we overcome it?
We…..you and I….can’t.
Illustration: Chick-Fil-A pickles.
The best way I can explain the condition of our heart is to use the conditions of my taste buds as an example. Now just go with me for a moment.
Because PDQ is so far away, Chick-Fil-A is where I normally go.
Whenever I order a number 1, I always, without fail, no matter what, order it without pickles.
I do not like pickles, I do not enjoy pickles, I have zero desire for pickles. Just having to say the word Pickle is bringing up awful memories in my mind.
Now, I can order it with pickles, it actually comes with pickles and I do not even need to say anything.
Nothing is preventing me from eating it, except my tongue and my will.
Every time I get my sandwich, I still check just to make sure there are no pickles.
If there is, I will throw them out the window, or I will give them to my wife.
I abhor pickles.
The only way I would ever eat a pickle is if God changed my taste buds because apart from that, I will never choose to eat a pickle on my own will.
Yes, I am capable of choosing a pickle, I could eat it if I wanted to, but there in lies the problem, I do not want to, I am repulsed by it.
This is our reality based on our depravity when it comes to doing good for God’s glory.
Due to original sin, we do not want to, we do not desire it, we are repulsed by it.
If we do good at all, it is for motives other than God’s glory and His fame.
How did we get this way?
It is because of what we see in Genesis 3.
Adam and Eve’s sin, remember Original Sin is the corrupt nature as a result of our sin.
Original Sin is the Fallen Condition of the present human race.
When Adam and Eve first created, God made them with the possibility to sin. With the ability to sin.
They were not made sinners, they were made with the ability to sin.
But, they were also created with the ability to not sin. They could truly do either or.
Upon their sin, they no longer had this ability. They could no longer be able to abstain from sin.
We are so sinful in nature that we can never expect to see anyone to be able to live without sin.
There is no greater place to see this play out than at the abortion clinic that I serve at on Fridays.
The women there do not want help, they do not want resources, they do not want the gospel.
A couple of weeks ago said, “Give me 10,000 dollars and we will keep the baby.” OK, done.
Where’s my money they said? I said have the baby and I’ll give you $10,000. I’ll work a second job if I have to.
Did they take the offer? Of course not, because it wasn’t about the money.
They do not need a new bank account filled with money, what they need is a new heart filled with the Holy Spirit.
Unless God opens their eyes and and softens their heart, they not only our offers, but will curse us and yell the most vile and wicked things at us.
Brian was up there with us on Friday and saw first hand the hardness of hearts.
However, what Brian also got to see, was God’s incredible transformative power as well.
Coty joined me on Friday by God’s Providence, and was used in a mighty way to be a part of a miracle.
A woman named Va-neece came out with her boyfriend the front door of the clinic as they waited for the doctor to arrive.
A fellow servant named TJ and Coty began talking to her and sharing the Gospel and began sharing the hope they have in Christ.
TJ shared about his daughters and Coty shared about our kids and Coty said something just changed instantly inside of her.
Coty thought she had said something wrong, that she may have messed things up by telling her about our 8 kids.
But, Va-Neece reached in her purse, took out the card from the abortion clinic, and threw it on the ground with tears in her eyes.
She said she believed and was going to keep this baby.
She didn’t know how, she didn’t think her boyfriend would stay with her, but that she was going to trust God.
Coty got choices women’s clinic on the phone, a ministry that we support and serve, and set it up for her to get a free ultra sound
and all the resources she would need.
The uber arrived and had the wrong location and then refused to update the address to the correct spot.
So TJ jumped in his vehicle, pulled around front, and I opened his doors and TJ drove them to choices himself.
It was one of the most amazing experiences I have seen in all of the times I’ve been down there.
Even a well known evangelist was there named Sye, said he had never seen anything like that in all the years he’s done ministry like this.
God moved in a miraculous and amazing way and Coty, Brian, and I had front row seats to it.
There is so much more to this story to that I encourage you to ask Coty about it, it will bless you.
You see, Original sin is so imbedded in us, that there is nothing that we, in and of ourselves, can do to be rid of it.
But, there is one who was born of woman who did not have Original Sin.
Because this one was not born of man and woman but of the Holy Spirit and woman.
This man man, who would also be the God-man, the Son of God, would not have this nature.
He would also never sin.
He was the only one who lived a perfect life and the only one who could deal with Original sin once and for all.
He did this by taking sin upon himself and paying for it with his own life.
The one who would not die, because he would not sin, offered himself freely for us sinners.
He chose to die, who did not have to die, in order to give us life, who would not have life.
Jesus defeated sin, Jesus defeated the sin nature, Jesus defeated death.
Jesus rose from his tomb to declare victory over the grave.
Original sin is in us all and the only cure is Jesus.
May we receive the gift of grace and faith today through the Holy Spirit.
Amen? Let us pray.