Christianity 101: Sin
Today, we’re talking about sin and its impact. It will be a little bleak, but don’t worry: things will brighten considerably next week when we talk about the cross. This week, we’ll talk about the problem; next week, we’ll talk about the solution.
Now, we use the word “sin” to refer to a few different ideas. The word “sin” can refer to an act, or the consequences of an act. “A sin” is something you do: “sin,” in theological terms, can refer to the repercussion we face because of it. Perhaps the most helpful description is this: when we describe something as “sinful,” it means it’s contrary to God’s nature.
As we talked about last week, God is a God of holy love. He’s both merciful and just. He’s a moral being; His character is what defines good, and therefore evil. He is our standard.
We can find an illustration of sin and its effects very early in the Bible, unfortunately. Let’s turn to Genesis 2, and the story of Adam and Eve.
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
-Genesis 2:15-17
1 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’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 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.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 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. 7 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.
8 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.
-Genesis 3:1-8
Right and wrong are not only based on God’s character, but also God’s commands.
Adam and Eve had one rule they had to follow, and they broke it knowingly. And sure, when someone puts something in front of us and says, “don’t touch that,” it’s tempting. But think about it: they had the whole garden for food. They had the plants and animals to tend. And they had God, in close relationship. They lacked nothing. They had no excuse to eat of the fruit, but they did.
So, was there something evil in the fruit? Did it taint them when they ate it? No. The sin wasn’t in the fruit. The sin was disobedience. As soon as they ate the fruit, their eyes were opened, and they knew good and evil – because they had disobeyed God, and therefore committed evil.
Their actions had drastic consequences. Immediately, several things happened. They felt shame for the first time, because for the first time, they had something to be ashamed about. That’s why they tried to cover themselves.
But even worse, they hid from God. They knew that they had violated His trust. They broke the single rule He had given them, which broke the relationship between God and His creation. Let me emphasize that: they messed it up for everyone.
This is what we call Original Sin. They broke the world. Because of what they did, we are all born broken. We are inclined to sin. We’re weak to it. It’s like alcoholism or AIDS: it’s not your fault if you’re born with it, but it affects you deeply. Not only that, but the world itself was affected. You can read on in Genesis 3 to see that sin changed the ground. One sin had dire consequences for all of us. That’s why God warned them in the beginning: He knew what the consequences would be.
…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
-Romans 3:23
That’s everybody. We all fall short of the standard God sets by His character. Now, we find ourselves bent to do things that harm us. Remember, sin isn’t just for people who know the laws of God. There are commands that God gave because of the way He created the universe. God’s moral laws reflect His creation: it’s inherently harmful to violate them.
It’s because of this inclination to sin that God eventually gave the Israelites the Law. He wanted them to be a holy people, a group set apart for Him, an example of what life with Him is like. Because we’re all broken, He had to lay down rules for how they were to live. I want to talk about this for a second because it’s going to be very important for our discussion of the cross next week.
Some of those rules were moral laws, those things that are inherently harmful to break. Some of them were ceremonial laws, the things that established Jewish culture and helped set them apart from the rest of the world. It was a sin for them to break any of the laws.
That’s one of the primary things the Law did: it proved that everyone was sinful. Somewhere along the way, everyone broke the Law.
Some violations of the Law meant death. Some, however, could be covered by atonement. God allowed you to make an offering to Him, which He would accept to cover the debt of your sin. You could transfer the punishment meant for you onto your offering. It usually meant that an animal had to die as a sacrifice. It had to be a clean, good-quality animal. It had to meet a certain standard.
1 The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.
3 “‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the LORD. 4 You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you. 5 You are to slaughter the young bull before the LORD, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
-Leviticus 1:1-5
22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
-Hebrews 9:22
When you understand that, the cross begins to make more sense. That’s what we’ll talk about next time: Jesus and the cross. That’s the answer to this enormous problem.