“There is one other thing I have learned. God made people good, but they have found many ways to be bad.” Ecclesiastes 7:29 (ERV)
Welcome back, my friends. This will be the second part of “What is Sin?” This two-part series lays the foundation for everything that comes next. I’ve taken the gloves off for this second lesson. We’re going to journey deeper and get more specific on how Satan uses your sinfulness too blind you and keep you from a relationship with your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Please always keep in mind as we journey through this study that I’m not sitting here with a holier than thou attitude condemning you for who you truly are. No, I’m right there in the trenches with you. Everything I write points its boney Sinful finger squarely back at me also. So I understand the gravity of what I’m saying to you.
Some may feel I’m just belaboring the point on what Sin is and I should just move on with the series. But, my friends, you need to know more than “I’m just a sinner saved by Grace.” You need to understand the nuances of Sin —the way it impacts your life without you truly understanding it. Sin is subtle; it comes naturally to us, and this is Satan’s number one tool he and his minions use against you. The Apostle Paul says it best;
I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to—what I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking. But I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things. Romans 7:15-17 (TLB)
In part one of “What is Sin?” I showed you how Lucifer and his angels committed the first sin against God in Heaven. Lucifer, now known as Satan, and the angels that followed him were cast down to earth by God, which naturally provided an open door for him to introduce sin to the inhabitants of the earth.
At this point there are only two people living on the Earth—Adam and Eve. However, that was all Satan needed to condemn the entire human race.
SATAN BRINGS SIN TO EARTH
I’m sure by now most of you know how Satan tricked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, and then she gave some to her husband, Adam, and Sin entered into the world.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Genesis 3:6 (NKJV)
I could leave it at that and move on in our study, but, my friends, that is far from the whole story about Satan and sin. We need to go back and look at what Satan and his minions went through to get Adam to sin. Why? Because Adam would be the legal representative of the entire human race, and Satan’s entry point into each and every one of our lives would be through Adam’s sin.
A Garden Named Eden
Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8-9 (NLT)
The Lord God told the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden. But do not eat from the tree of learning of good and bad. For the day you eat from it you will die for sure. Genesis 2:16-17 (NLV)
After God had placed Adam in the garden, God made a Covenant with him concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This covenant with Adam became known as the Covenant of Works (which I will discuss later), and it communicated the consequences of Adam failing to follow God’s command. So Adam was put to a test of obedience just as Satan and his angelic minions were. God was testing Adam to see whose will Adam would submit to—God’s will or his own.
After God finished making His covenant with Adam, 18 GOD said, “It’s not good for the Man to be alone; I’ll make him a helper, a companion.” Genesis 2:18 (MSG)
God proceeded to create a helpmate for Adam, a woman who would be called Eve. They were married by God Himself (Genesis 2:24).
Satan immediately knew how he would get Adam to sin. He figured why bother dealing with Adam directly when he could use Eve. He would basically use Adam’s beautiful wife to entice him to sin. Satan reasoned that Eve was not the head of the covenant with God (Adam was), and therefore she probably wouldn’t feel the same sense of responsibility as Adam.
Since Eve hadn’t been created yet, she did not hear the covenant that God made with Adam. She would only hear about it indirectly from Adam, which can lead one to be more susceptible to suspicions and doubt.
And finally he knew that Adam was deeply in love with Eve and she would undoubtedly prove to be the most effective agent in reaching the heart of Adam.
Minister and author, Matthew Henry, aptly pointed out, “Satan tempted Eve that, by her, he might tempt Adam; so he also tempted Job by his wife, and Christ, by Peter. It is Satan’s policy to send temptations by unsuspected hands, and those that have most interest in us and influence over us.”
One morning as Eve was walking through the garden, she rounded a bend and to her surprise she saw Satan dressed in his finest snakeskin suit leaning against the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil eating one of the very forbidden apples God had warned Adam about.
Satan begins by engaging Eve into a discussion about what she could and couldn’t eat in the garden. This was the biggest mistake Eve, as well as you and I, can make when it comes to temptation. Engaging Satan in a conversation over a temptation he’s offering is the first step in surrendering to it. Remember that the serpent was the craftiest of all the creatures the Lord God had made. Like Eve, we will always lose such a discussion with Satan.
When you start toying with temptation in your mind, weighing the pros and cons, Satan knows he’s got you because it always implies you are already lusting after the object presented.
Compare Eve’s conduct with Jesus’ and observe how very differently He acted when being tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Jesus steadfastly refused to enter into any debate with the Devil. He did not dillydally with temptation, for He had no desire for anything but the will of God. Each time He firmly rejected the enemy’s advances by taking His stand on God’s Word.
Eve had fallen for Satan’s lies and took a bite of the apple that she was now coveting. Eve then turned to Adam and convinced him to doubt God’s reasoning for denying them access to the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam was not … tricked The Devil tricked Eve, and Eve caused Adam to sin (1 Timothy 2:14). So Adam agreeing with her logic taking a bite of the apple Eve had given him. 7 Then it was as if their eyes opened, and they saw things differently. They saw that they were naked (Genesis 3:7). At this point Adam had willfully chosen disobedience to God over obedience.
God did not tempt, coerce, or lure Adam into disobedience.
And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. James 1:13 (NLT)
God allowed Adam the dignity of free choice and honored that choice with appropriate consequences.
When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. His sin spread death throughout all the world, so everything began to grow old and die, for all sinned. Romans 5:12 (TLB)
God may have provided the opportunity to sin by testing Adam’s obedience, but He did not create or instigate sin. Adam and Eve had the free will to obey God, but instead they choose to disobey the command of God. Without the free will God has provided us, human beings would be little more than robots.
Let’s take a deeper look into what happened to Adam and the changes that took place in him once he took a bite of the apple. These changes would have lasting effects upon all of his descendants for ages to come (that’s you and me). Watch what occurs to Adam’s thought process and demeanor as sin began to permeate every inch of his being.
Arthur W. Pink in his book,“The Total Depravity of Man,” describes it this way; No sooner had Adam revolted from his gracious Maker and Benefactor than the evil effects became apparent.
- His understanding, originally enlightened with heavenly wisdom, became darkened and overcast with crass ignorance.
- His heart, formerly fired with holy reverence toward his Creator and warm with love to Him, now became alienated and filled with hatred against Him.
- His will, which had been in subjection to his rightful Governor, had cast off the yoke of obedience.
- His whole moral constitution was wrecked and had become unhinged and perverse.
- His distaste for the supremely excellent One appeared in his flight from Him as soon as he heard His approach.
- His crass ignorance and stupidity were shown by his vain attempt to conceal himself from the eyes of the omniscient (all-knowing) God.
- His pride was displayed in refusing to acknowledge his guilt and his ingratitude, when he indirectly chastised God for giving him a wife.
- In a word, the life of God had departed from his soul.
Yes, they knew that they were disgraced, that their holiness was defiled, their innocence gone, the image of God in their souls broken, their tranquility disrupted, their protection against the law removed. Stripped of their original righteousness, they stood defenseless.
So swift and drastic was the change which sin produced in their relations and feelings toward their Maker that they were ashamed and afraid to appear before Him.
If Adam had been around in the time when Moses had received the ten commandments from God, he would have broken all ten of them at one time when he took that bite of the apple. Three hundred years ago, profound theologian, James Usher, pointed out that wrapped up in that bite was \”the breach of the whole Law of God.”
The First commandment, by choosing another “god” when he followed the counsel of Satan.
The Second commandment, by idolizing his palate, making a god of his belly by eating the forbidden fruit.
The Third commandment, by not believing God’s threatening, in that way taking His name in vain.
The Fourth commandment, by breaking the sinless rest in which he had been placed.
The Fifth commandment, by thus dishonoring his Father in heaven.
The Sixth commandment, by bringing death on himself and all his posterity.
The Seventh commandment, by committing spiritual adultery and preferring the creature above the Creator.
The Eighth commandment, by laying hands upon that to which he had no right.
The Ninth commandment, by accepting the serpent’s false witness against God.
The Tenth commandment, by coveting that which God had not given to him.
So, my friends, by seeing the consequences our first parents experienced through sin, we can only come to one conclusion. We simply are unable to live without sinning. We sin out of a kind of moral necessity because we act according to our fallen nature. We do corrupt things because we are corrupt people. This is the essence of what it means to be fallen.
People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD. Proverbs 19:3 (NLT)
Total Depravity
My friends in love, we need to understand what the total depravity of our soul means. We have to come to the realization that this is who we are in the eyes of God. Because of the sin of Adam, every part of our mind, will, emotions and flesh have been corrupted by sin.
In other words, sin affects all areas of our being including who we are and what we do. It penetrates to the very core of our being so that everything is tainted by sin and “…all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” before a holy God.
We are all infected and impure with sin. When we put on our prized robes of righteousness, we find they are but filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6 (TLB)
In our depraved state, the sinful lifestyle we lead seems right to us.
There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell. Sure, those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak. Proverbs 14:12-13 (MSG)
In our depraved state, we reject the gospel of Christ as foolishness.
Preaching about the cross sounds foolish to those who are dying in sin. 1 Corinthians 1:18 (NLV)
In our depraved state, our mind is “hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is unable to do so”
The mind that thinks only of ways to please the sinful old self is fighting against God. It is not able to obey God’s Laws. It never can. Romans 8:7 (NLV)
Total depravity means there is a wall between you and the Lord God of the Universe. You are separated from Him because of your sinful nature. It means you can do nothing on your own that pleases the Lord. But, most importantly, it means that without God’s help, you cannot even save yourself. Listen to the words of Jesus
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were astonished at these words. But again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but not for God; all things are possible for God.” Mark 10:23-27 (NET Bible)
(It is impossible for mere humans to save themselves without God’s help. This is a topic for a future lesson.)
Oh, we all try to be better people by our own self efforts. We promise not to swear as much, drink less except for Friday night, smile at our neighbor, and give a head tilt of acknowledgement to those you really don’t care for, but what the heck you tell yourself, it’s better than nothing, right?
Hard as we try through our own efforts to exemplify the fruits of the spirit:
But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; Galatians 5:22-23 (TLB)
If you’re like most of us the end results look more like this:
It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cut-throat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. Galatians 5:19-21 (MSG)
We all eventually have to admit it—it’s just not working for you, is it? Your own efforts to be self-righteous are just not going to cut it with your Heavenly Father.
In order for us to grow and change we have to realize who we truly are in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. We are totally depraved. But, we also have to realize who we truly are in the eyes of Satan— flawless in every way— and this is exactly where he wants to keep you.
I’m now going to split you into two separate you’s. The first one I’ll call the Worldly You, and the second one is the Spiritual You, which I will talk about in the months to come.
For right now I want us to focus on the Worldly You. This is the “you” that all of us are born with and the “you” that Satan and his minions dedicate their entire destructive existence on. This is a spiritual battle we will be fighting day in and day out for the rest of our lives.
However, this battle is not against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies—the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world. (Ephesians 6:12 TLB). This is a battle we try to fight on our own through our own efforts and abilities. However, each time we try on our own we will never be anything but the victim when the battle is over.
The Worldly You: (old nature, the flesh)
In my very first study entitled “Who Am I Really?” I spoke about Our Legacy of Sin and how Adam’s and Eve’s souls had now been stamped with Satan’s DNA for all time. Just like Satan, they are no longer perfect and sinless in the sight of God. As a consequence, they brought upon themselves and the whole human race the penalty for sin, which is spiritual, physical and eternal separation from God. Since Adam and Eve’s fall, every person is born with a sinful nature and becomes a sinner in thought, word and deed. In Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, God’s Word tells us “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Sin is part of the very fiber of our being. The flesh-and-blood existence we lead on this earth is shaped by our sinful, corrupt nature. Let’s dig a little deeper and review some of the things that make up your Old Nature controlled by Satan. “But when you follow your own wrong inclinations, your lives will produce these evil results: impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, Spiritism (that is, encouraging the activity of demons), hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group—and there will be wrong doctrine, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing.” Galatians 5:19-21 (TLB), Do any of these sound familiar to you?
My friends, I firmly believe what is currently going on in the world today is nothing more than our continued collective rebellion against God. The world we live in offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father but are from this world and as a result of our fallen nature, you have an irresistible bias for evil. In other words, SIN!
Finally, let me just say that however the world views you from an outward perspective, just remember one thing— God knows the secrets of every heart, so don’t think you\’re fooling Him.
Are all sins equal in God’s eyes?
There are degrees to sin. Some sins are worse than others when it comes to the earthly consequences they cause. At the same time, in regard to both eternal consequences and salvation, all sins are the same. Every sin will lead to eternal condemnation
When people sin, they earn what sin pays—death. Romans 6:23 (ERV)
Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.
As far as it compares to the holiness of God, all sin is the same. Every sin, from anger to murder, from white lies to adultery, will lead to eternal condemnation.
“I, the LORD, will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty. Isaiah 13:11 (NLT)
All sin, no matter how “small” goes against the nature and will of an infinite and eternal God and is therefore deserving of an infinite and eternal punishment. In this sense, there is no “worst” sin. There are some religions that break Sin into two categories called venial and mortal. However, there are no Biblical scriptures to support these categories, unless those scriptures are taken out of context and defined by man not God.
“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment. But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. Matthew 5:21-22 (NLT)
“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28 (NLT)
What is true though is that some sins will have bigger earthly consequences than others. Murder, for example, is going to have a much worse effect than harboring private hate. A chronic liar in a position of authority will have a wider negative effect than the child who fibs to his mother about stealing cookies before dinner.
It doesn’t matter if a person commits one small sin or several huge ones. The result is the same—the person is guilty of breaking God’s law. And the Lord declares that He will not leave the guilty unpunished.
The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. Nahum 1:3 (NLT)
Let me close this section with one final thought. A struggle with temptation may lead to sin, but the struggle is not a sin itself. We live in a lost world, and so we experience temptations every day. We have fallen, sinful natures, and so we struggle against ungodly desires constantly.
My friends, I know these last two lessons have not been very positive or encouraging when it comes to God’s view of who we are when it comes to our sinful nature. However, I pray that I’ve laid a solid foundation concerning “Sin” in your mind. I will now begin to build on that foundation by weaving together Satan’s Sin Plan and God’s Redemption Plan so that you’ll begin to understand which plan is influencing your life.
Join me next month as we dive into God’s Word and learn how Satan uses his gospel to distort the Common Grace of God and your moral conscience.
Until next month, my friends, may His mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
We are not sinners because we sin.
We sin because we are sinners.
The Anatomy of Sin
