In Part I of this Series, Spiritual Foundations, a four-part Episode was introduced on “What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden.” The following two questions were addressed in some detail:
- What is the significance of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life? Are they really trees with potent fruit or are they symbolic of something spiritual?
- If man is body, spirit, and soul, how has the fall affected the total man?
Today, Part II will continue by addressing question 3:
- What really is sin and what are its effects on man? Is there a difference between sin as a power or influence and sin as an immoral act?
3. What really is sin and what are its effects on man? Is there a difference between sin as a power or influence and sin as an immoral act?
Rm. 5.12 clearly states the sober reality of Adam’s actions in the Garden, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” The tragedy of sin lies first in the disappointment of our Father in Heaven. Jesus spoke that He enjoyed a constant close relationship with His Father because, Jn. 8.29 “for I always do those things that please Him.” Jesus always did things that were (and are yet today) pleasing or acceptable to God; He did those things that met with His approval. Jesus obediently allowed John the Baptist to ritually baptize Him in water; this baptism of repentance was not necessary for the Son of God, but the act was deemed necessary for reasons of the Father. Even John the Baptist tried to prevent Him saying, Mt. 3.14 “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus assured Him saying v.3.15, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Fulfilling righteousness is doing the will of the Father. Immediately following the baptism, verse 3.17 reads, “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
In terms of our relationship with our Heavenly Father, being sinful and self-willed is “missing the entire target,” doing righteous is hitting the bull’s eye. And, if “missing the mark,” which by the way is the root definition of the word sin, is the cause for not winning the prize or reward. However, doing righteousness is victoriously hitting the mark and winning the grand prize.
Obedience to the law and will of God brings closeness and acceptance. Sin, however, always involves an act of disobedience, a violation of the law or will of God immediately having a Divine reaction. Please note, I am using the term “law” of God, not “laws” as in the Old Testament list of commandments and ordinances. The intention here is that there is a “divine law” in the heart of God that expresses the moral principles and holy character of God, which is distinct from and contrasted with secular laws or self-made judgments of right and wrong, good or evil.
This disappointment of God is but a mild kind of a divine emotion. It is like having your child lie to you the first time; you are very disappointed because this immoral flaw of deception has entered into his or her life, but you are also distressed for the consequence to come, that is, discipline or punishment. God is greatly saddened by sin because all sin is diametrically opposed to righteousness, as darkness is to light; the two cannot occupy the same place. Sin becomes a barrier between man and God; sin is immoral and unholy; God is altogether moral and holy. In regards to sin, it is written in 1 Tim. 6.16 “who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light.” “Unapproachable light” describes how God cannot be approached or accessed by sinful man; specifically because of God’s holy divine nature causes the separation between God and sinful man. Following is a parenthetical comment:
(This discussion must heighten the awareness of man’s deplorable condition with regards to our moral fabric and hopelessness to live a pleasing life in the law and will of God, and ultimately our great need for a Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. His blood sacrifice on the cross cleanses us from sin and whose spiritual life becomes inherent in us⎯to the thanks, honor and praise of His holy name. To deny Christ is to deny the only source of righteousness for man before God. There is no other way.)
Sin is the culprit. The focus of all generations, from Adam to today, is about sin and its consequences⎯principally the effect of which is, first of all spiritual death and separation from the living God, followed by physical death. Being corrupted with sin and death, mankind must yet stand before the Great White Throne judgment seat of a holy God and give account of himself. Six times it is recorded in Matthew that Jesus repetitiously repeated Himself of those outside the Kingdom of God being thrown into a fiery furnace, or outer darkness, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It is referred to as “the lake of fire” and “outer darkness” in the Book of Revelation as well. If Jesus is quoted repeating Himself one time in scripture, that is enough to sit up and take particular notice; thus repeating Himself six times must come like the sound of the “trumpet of God” signifying a dire warning of the cataclysmic event to come.
Herein now stands two great spiritual opposites, two states diametrically opposed to one another: sin and death on the one side for missing the mark, and grace and life on the other side for hitting the bull’s eye. Either or both may be inherent in man; the former is inherited from the fall of Adam, but the latter may be inherited from redemption in Christ. Reading Rm. 5.12-15 more fully,
”Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”
Sin entered the world and death through sin. Sin did not exist in creation before the disobedient actions of our parents in the Garden. It came into existence then and was subsequently passed on to all men. Before Christ, the entire world laid in sin, death, and darkness. Every square inch of planet earth laid in spiritual darkness: Is. 60.2 reads, “2For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people;” However, verse 1 of Isaiah 60 begins, “1Arise, shine; For your light has come!” This describes the few square feet of the Kingdom of God on the earth when in Jesus Christ, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That Kingdom of God first appeared in that stable in Bethlehem with His birth and was taken up again with His ascension into heaven.
However, when Christ ascended, the Father sent the Holy Spirit to the earth to fill the believers and therefore forming the Church, it being the gathering of believers. And today, this light of the Kingdom of God is in His church, the body of Christ. Where the believers are is the Kingdom of God. Where the believers are not is darkness and the kingdom of Satan. The expanse of true Christianity upon the earth is the expanse of the light of the Kingdom of God.
Death reigned from Adam to Moses. Even before the Law of Moses, sin was in the world as evidenced by the fact that all men die, because death is the result of sin. However, “without the law sin is not imputed” to them; this meaning that though man continued in sin he could not be held accountable for his actions until there was a law clearly telling him right from wrong, better yet, “good and evil.” When people sinned after the Law was given, they were held accountable for their actions and disciplined accordingly. However, whether before the Law was given, or after the Law was given, their preexisting condition of being born in sin was the condemnation of sin and death. The prize for “hitting the mark” could never be rewarded to a people found guilty of being in sin, having a sinful nature, even though not held guilty for sins committed because of sacrifices for their sins.
To live under the Law of the Old Covenant, where knowledge of the law and will of God is made evident in specific commandments and ordinances, obedience to the Law is required and a reward of safety, peace, abundance of crops, absence of diseases, long life, etc. for hitting the mark; or there might be a loss of rewards for “missing the mark” with sin; this may bring drought, war or even captivity, diseases or pestilence, even their lives might be required of them. This is living under an outward Law; it is a form of “legalism” in which strict conformity to “the Law” and a religious or moral code of conduct is stressed. Institutionalized legalism in religion restricts the free will, whether it is the Law of the Old Testament or a false representation of the Gospel of the New Testament. A truer representation of the Gospel promotes a personal inner life that guides behavior through a relationship with God in Christ Jesus. Maturity of the “new man” in Christ brings forth a living experience in the “word of righteousness.” (Heb. 5.12-14) What does it mean to become skilled in the “word of righteousness?” It means to show unequivocally that the pure, perfect and everlasting righteousness of Christ “in me,” as shown as fruit in my life, is superior to the religious legal works of obedience to commandments and man’s own supposed righteousness of good works. This is confirmed in Jesus’ own words, Jn. 15.5 “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Let’s return now to our original focus on the distinction between sin as an evil act and sin as a power or force, as a compulsion to act in its own behalf. The power of sin like gravity, is ever present at work to corrupt the inner nature of man; and when given into, man commits sins by his outward actions. The simple sentence, “I sin,” is a complete sentence because it has a noun “I” and the verb “sin” that implies the action of committing sins. If however, as Paul writes, “…the law of sin in my members,” here the word sin is a noun, not indicating the action of sinning but of a present power of sin. The complete passage reads as follows,
Rm. 7.21-25 “21I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
I believe the word “sin” appears over forty-one times in Romans 5-8, forty times as a noun, which identifies a thing present, such as a power, and only once as a verb, indicating the act of sinning. This is an important fact to remember. People who sin (verb) before the Law was given, or those who know nothing of the Law, cannot be held accountable for their sins but still have the corrupting power of sin resident in them. Those who are under the Law, the Jews, who sin (verb) and offer blood sacrifices for the atonement of those sins (verbs), even though their sins are covered by those sacrifices, sin (noun) as a power is also still resident in them corrupting their souls. Repentances and sacrifices may deal with the committed sins, but they have no power over the resident power of sin. There is no escape from sin and death for any of them. The only provision given by God to all mankind is to break the power of sin and re-create a new man having a sanctified clean soul, and that is through the atoning sacrifice of the most holy Lamb of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Adam was disobedient; he knowingly and impulsively transgressed God’s commandment. He sinned, and thus became a sinner, alienated from God. His nature was corrupted, and he passed that tainted nature on to all succeeding generations. Adam as much as said to God, “from this day forward I do not need to rely upon you or have need of your fellowship to determine the course of my life; I have a brain, I have feelings, I can deduce for myself good and bad, proper and improper, and what is true and what is false. “My” will is what is most important to me. I am the master, or god, of my fate.” Because, of Adam, today it is written, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” 1 Jn. 5.19 The “whole world” mind you, not just the material earth, but all the people who dwell on the earth, including all idolaters and all sinners of every nation, race and color. It is further written, Rm. 5.12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned.” With regards to today, the day in which Jesus Christ had already come into the world, I wish to paraphrase Jn. 1.10-13:
“Even though Christ was in the world, and the world was made through Him, the world did not know Him. He first came unto His own, the Jewish people and they did not receive Him. But as many as did receive Him, Gentile and Jew alike, He gave to them the authority to become children of God, regenerated and created anew, who were born, not of the natural or of fleshly parents, but born again of the Spirit of God.”
The greater part of mankind is now, as they came into this world, not born of God but of their fleshly mortal parents. Unknowingly, as part of the only life they know, they are addicted to sin; their minds are biased to it, they give themselves up to it; they are under the persuasion and dominion of the “wicked one” Satan, the god of this world. Deceived, they are under his influence; when thinking they are deciding for themselves matters of life, they are actually governed by him. Thinking themselves to be wise by all earthly standards, they have become fools. The Biblical word “woe” was frequently used by Old Testament prophets to express impending judgment of God on the people or impending doom on Israel or other nations. Note the use of this word in Is. 5.20-21,
“20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!
These stand in the shadow of their own darkness, calling evil good and good evil. They are truly persuaded by the evil one in perverse thinking. However, the evidence of their perversion is in the eyes of the saved, those born of God, Heb. 5.14 “to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their (spiritual) senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
The devil is ever convincing people that being independent and self-reliant sound appealing, but this is not how God designed us to live. When we consider ourselves self-sufficient, and trust only in ourselves, then we are worshiping and serving our autonomy in place of God; our egos are placed on the throne of our lives, and that is idolatry⎯ a deadly sin. In all reality, it is not ourselves on that throne, but the evil one saying take, eat of the fruit of this tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and “You will not surely die. 5For 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.” Gn. 3.4-5
Many are the *scriptures that focus on the word “reconciliation” as the primary motivating factor of God the Father in sending His Son Jesus Christ into the world to redeem mankind. Reconciliation emphasizes the total restoration of the relationship between God and humanity through Jesus Christ that was once broken due to the sin of independence. Being restored to fellowship with God does not mean one becomes like a puppet on a string programmed to act in a certain way. But it does mean he now has that greatest power on all the universe resident in him, the Holy Spirit, to help guide him in life. (*Rm. 5.10, 11; Col. 1.20, 21, 22; 2 Cor. 5.19, 20; 2 Cor, 5.18; Eph. 2.16; and 1 Tim. 2.5)
What reconciliation and restoration of Divine relationship does mean is that communion and fellowship with God is restored and that God takes His rightful place on the throne of our lives. Here, the Holy Spirit entices us to eat of the Tree of Life, the fruit from which comes the grace of God, 2 Pet. 1.3-4,
“3as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Man has been redeemed by God to Himself, his spirit has come alive to God, his soul has been renewed as a new man. However, his body is yet waiting for its redemption, in the resurrection at the coming of Christ. This is the target of the power of sin, to attack the weakest part of man in his fleshly, carnal nature. But it is here, at the battle front, where the power of God “has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” The power of sin is neutralized by the power of God’s grace to us in Christ.
God does not give to us all things necessary for the attainment of life and godliness in full maturity but supplies us with the means of acquiring them for ourselves by activating that most fundamental act of the free will, and that is the act of faith, to believe it into existence. As it is written in Heb. 11.6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” We do not need faith for what we see and feel in the natural world around us, but faith is required to function in the spiritual world of the Kingdom of God. Most people do not want to walk by faith; they prefer a religion that gives them a building to worship in, offices to serve God in, visual remembrances of God in icons, pictures, and statues, rituals to perform, ordinances to follow, etc. etc. But this does not bring spiritual maturity.
The apostle Paul challenged the Corinthians, and us today,
2 Cor. 13.5 “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.” Two phrases stand out in this verse: “are in the faith,” and “. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?”
The element of faith is believing in the word of God as if it is in reality the voice of God speaking to you of the full Gospel of Christ; this is an absolute minimum requirement. He is speaking today, this very minute, saying “of God are you in Christ Jesus”, and do you not know and realize it is “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Examine yourself. Test yourself, do you really believe that “Jesus Christ is in you? It is the power of God resident and inherent in you!
Why is this necessary? Because, the power of God is given to us upon these two great premises: faith and Christ in us! Without these there is no fullness of salvation; there is no power to overcome sin and the devil; there is no true spiritual fellowship with God; and there is no hope. His divine power given spoken of in 2 Pet. 1.3 is based solely upon these two great truths: the exercise of our faith, and firm resolute belief of Christ in us.
We will conclude here with two verses of confirmation and exhortation; the first is,
Eph. 3.20 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,”
Contemplate this, that God has given, not just abundant, but exceedingly abundant blessings, and yet we may further ask in prayer for that which is beyond our understanding and expectations, and He is able to give us even that. God is both able and willing to give us “above all we ask or think,” or rather, “exceedingly above all we ask or think.” This is the same power or Divine energy “which God worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.“ Eph. 1.20 This is the mighty finger of God inscribing His laws and will upon our hearts. (Heb. 8.10) This is the Spirit of God who has been commissioned by God to finish the work of grace in us so we may become His pleasing inheritance. The second scripture is,
1 Thes. 2.13 “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”
God has given to us, in the natural, all the energy we need to live our lives; This energy is in the sun. But we cannot access this energy for it is in “unapproachable light.” Instead, this energy is received and taken into plants and animals. We then receive this energy when we eat those plants and animals. Spiritually, God dwells in unapproachable light. (1 Tim. 6.16) When we believe and receive the word of God, it contains this energy or power that works effectively in us who believe. It is our enabler to overcome the power of sin, to cause the love of God to well up from within us, to bring true repentance and forgiveness, to sanctify us to God for His will and purposes, to reckon our self-nature dead and the resurrection of a new life within, and to bear the fruit of righteousness which is most pleasing to God.
S5.E2. Questions for Discussion
- Explain the concept of “original sin” in Adam and its significance in all of mankind.
- What are the consequences of sin” both present and eternal?
- What is the present condition and extent of the Kingdom of God in the earth today? What was ot like when Christ was born?
- Explain sin as a power. Cite scriptures. What is its significance your life today?
- What is the effect of repentance and/or sacrificial offerings on sins as an act; and on sin as a power?
- Discuss 2 Cor. 13.5 as it relates to you personally, and to the Church at large.