Notes taken from Pete Woodcock’s talk on ‘Creation and Sin’ given at the 2003 Evangelists Conference. Talk was based on Genesis 3.
Today you won’t hear the ‘s’ word very much in conversation. If you do, it will have been put in a safety zone such as, eating cream cakes, celebrity slip-ups or getting promoted for my sins. People have redefined sin, it is not a lack of belief in God but a lack of belief in God. We can’t just call people sinners because they will redefine it.
The problem with sin (people will say)
- - Sin globalises what is local – what is wrong/right for some people is not for others, Geri Halliwell ‘Everyone’s truth is different’
- - Sin accuses the victim – people are more sinned against than sinning
- - Sin is so depressing and not uplifting – it’s a bit heavy isn’t it, it puts people off Christianity
We need to introduce the ‘sin’ word because it is the only valid explanation for problems of world and people, but also God tells us to, it’s in God’s Word.
What can we learn from the fall of man and the consequences of sin?
- - Satan tempts Eve to sit in judgment of God’s Word
- - Satan denies the goodness of God (v1) – Satan focuses selectively on the command not to eat, the negative, doesn’t speak of the freedom there is
- - Satan denies the holiness of God expressed in judgment (v4) – flatly contradicts God’s Word
- - Satan denies the otherness of God (v5) – you will become like God, there will be distinction; you can decide what is right and wrong. The essence of sin is that I make up my own rules, I decide what is right and wrong
5 results of disobedience:
- - Man is separated from God (v8-9) – no-one seeks God (no point of having seeker services), they run and hide; God is angry at them (v23-24)
- - Mankind is separated from man (v12, 16) – the social problem, the most violent place on earth is the human heart
- - Man from nature (v17-19) – ecological problem
- - Man from himself (v10) – the psychological problem; loses integrity, man tells half-truths
- - Ultimate judgement – driven from the garden
Adam is our head, his fall is our fall. Same as with the England Cricket Team, they lose England lose. We are doomed as a race because we are sons of Adam. Sin is not a friend. Face of evil is not just Hannibal Lector – it’s also you!
“sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the slight of his power, the contempt of his love” (Ralph Venning)
We are doomed because we are sons of Adam. If we don’t preach sin, people will never understand the cross of Christ. We are in a desperate state, we need salvation not advice.
Audio from which this is taken can be listened to HERE.
