Who We Became

Gen 3:1-13

Now 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’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but 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.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When 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. Then 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. Then 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. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Sin Enters the World

We as humanity fall. We are cast out of garden and our sin has consequences.

From this moment the world is not as it should be.

Sin is a God sized problem

it has separated us from relationship to God

We all inherit the brokenness of the world from this moment

James 1:13–15 “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

What is Sin?

Sin is not the way the its supposed to be

Sin is culpable shalom breaking.

God created a harmony in creation and sin is the disruption of the harmony through thought, word, or deed.

Throughout the Bible almost every sin reaches for things with some intrinsic value, such as security, knowledge, peace, pleasure, or a good name. But behind the appeal to something good, sin ultimately involves a raw confrontation between obedience and rebellion

Sin separates what God wants together and pulls together what God wants kept apart

The Bible talks about sin in a multiple of ways

Use my slide here

Ways sin is talked about in the bible

Lawlessness

faithlessness

Missing of a target

wandering from the path

Straying from the fold

Hard heart

stiff neck

Blindness

deafness

overstepping of a line and the failure to reach it

transgression and shortcoming

Sin is a beast crouching at the door

people attack or evade or neglect their calling

Sin has an Inward, Outward, and most Importantly Godward Focus

Psalm 51 and David as a case study

David commits adultery, murder, lies, and covers-up

Inward- He spoils his relationship with the Lord,

Outward- He steals a mans wife, commits murder, looses his son

Godward- He has disrupted the peace of God but has also rebelled against God and his way

Psalm 51:4 “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.”

He recognizes his most grievous sin is ultimately against God and his peace.

Sin Perverts

Twists God-given desires.

perversion is the turning of loyalty, energy and desire from God

to pervert something is to twist it that it serves an unworthy purpose

ex: twisted politician, sex outside of marriage or pornography

Sin Pollutes

to defile something pure.

ex. putting motor oil in drinking water

Pollution brings together what God wants kept separate

ex. adultery, idolatry- adds something into your worship that is only supposed to be for God.

like cancer. Sin both kills and makes more. it is leading to death but by excess. Like cancer it constantly reproduces until it kills you.

Jesus enters the world

we talk more about this next week but we cannot leave it here tonight

We have hope that sin can be over come through Christ’s death burial and resurrection

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

Romans 8:31–39 “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”