Where Did Sin Come From?
In today’s society, it is obvious that sin is everywhere. All you have to do is watch the news and you will see stories of hate, evil, corruption, deceit, slander and many others. The problem, unfortunately, is that nobody actually categorizes these sins as actual sin. Sinful actions have been so deeply planted into our modern day thinking that they are typically ignored as what they truly are. My goal is to do an entire series on sin based on the topics below. Each point contains too much information to put in one article, so I will break it down into multiple articles as seen below:
This article will be the first of the series where we look at the origin of sin. We will start by looking at original sin, then discuss the danger of truth in lies, then discuss Jesus in the wilderness, followed by a comparison of Jesus and Moses before wrapping it up in the conclusion. To do this, however, we need to go back to the beginning and look at what most modern day, Western Christians believe is the birth of sin in this fallen world.
Original Sin
Let’s start by saying that God didn’t originally create sin into the framework of this world. We see this in Genesis 1:31 which says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” God made everything to be “very good,” and it was. God did not create sin, but He also didn’t prevent the original sin from happening. For those that may not be familiar with the term ‘original sin’ or are asking yourselves ‘what is original sin?’ then I will define it for you. It is simply the very first sin known to man. Since the Bible contains some of the oldest books in history, then we give it credit for recording the first sin, or original sin, known to man. In my next article, we will take a closer look into what sin actually is, but for this article, we will look at where sin started. However, for the sake of better understanding within this article, I will describe what was done that caused this original sin. God gave Adam and Eve one rule. One commandment. Do not eat the fruit from the tree of good and evil. They ultimately ate the forbidden fruit which means that they broke the one rule given to them by God. This breaking of the one commandment given to them is where that original sin lies. Disobeying God’s command is a sinful act, and the case of original sin begins in Genesis 3:1-7 (ESV) which reads:
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”
You may notice that the serpent is never called anything but a serpent. Many modern day Christians believe that this was the devil doing his dirty work. Yet, this serpent is never called the devil, the evil one, a demon or even satan. It is just a serpent. Though it may possess many satanic qualities, it is never actually given that title. I call them satanic qualities because in the original Hebrew, satan was defined as an adversary or accuser. Satan wasn’t a certain entity or being, but rather any being that tried to block your path or get you to follow a different one. We can see this when we look at the story of Balaam and his donkey in Numbers 22:22. The English Standard Version says, “But God's anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him.” Notice that it is an angel of the Lord that stood as an adversary. If we look at the Orthodox Jewish Bible then we will see this from that same passage, “But the Af Elohim (G-d’s anger) was kindled as he was going; and the Malach Hashem stood in the derech (road) l’satan (for an adversary, opposer) against him. Now he was riding upon his donkey, and his two servants were with him.” In this version that same “angel of the Lord” is referred to as satan. So, when I say that the serpent had satanic qualities, then I am referring to the fact that the serpent was simply being an adversary to Eve. He did this by telling the truth.
The Truth in Lies
When the serpent told Eve in versus 4-5 that they wouldn’t die but instead be like God knowing good and evil, this was the truth. It was the truth because when they did eat the forbidden fruit, they did not die instantly and they did learn good and evil. I understand that the argument could be made that Adam and Eve may have been immortal prior to the eating of the fruit, and the death that God referred to was the fact that from the moment they sinned, their lives had an expiration date. However, if you look at it from the eyes of Adam and Eve, who were told they would surely die if they ate of the fruit, then they were probably expecting to suffer an immediate death. Therefore, the serpent told them the truth. Also, the fact that they instantly realized that they were naked meant that the second part of what the serpent said was also true. This serpent didn’t tell them the full truth though. Only enough for Eve to decide that eating the fruit may be a good idea. This is how evil and sin work in our modern day culture. Through partial truths that will get you to do something that will ultimately lead you into committing a sinful act.
Jesus in the Wilderness
This is what Jesus went through when he was in the wilderness for forty days in Matthew 4. If you don’t remember this story then let me give you a brief overview. In Matthew 3, when Jesus was ready to start His public ministry, He went to John the Baptist to be baptized. As John brought Jesus up out of the water, the heavens opened up and God proclaimed that Jesus was His son. Immediately after this event, the Holy Spirit led Jesus away into the wilderness where He fasted for forty days. When Jesus was weak and presumed to be in poor physical and mental condition, the devil came to Him to try and trick Jesus into making a mistake and sinning. How does the devil do this? By using partial truths and scriptures. The devil does this in three different ways. First he tried to tempt Jesus into breaking His fast in Matthew 4:3-4 which states, “And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”” Even with the devil trying to lure him into sin, Jesus sees through the devil's schemes. The devil was being truthful in the fact that Jesus could have easily turned that stone into a loaf of bread and ate until His belly was full. Let’s be honest here, if Jesus can feed 5000 men, not including women and children, until they had their fill with very little food, He could have fed himself as much as He wanted. Although, it wasn’t about the miracle of changing a stone into bread, or even about food at all. Jesus knew that if He would have done this then He would have failed in keeping the same commandment that the ancient Israelites failed to keep.
Jesus and Moses
I’m referring to the forty years of exile in the desert after coming out of Egypt. Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai fasting and conversing with God. Does that sound familiar? Jesus also spent forty days fasting and praying in the wilderness. There are many other comparisons that we can make between Moses and Jesus. One such comparison is that after both Moses and Jesus finished their fasting periods, they ushered in a new covenant. Moses ushered in the covenant of the law where Jesus ushered in the covenant of grace. Where those comparisons differ is that the Israelites that were with Moses failed to keep the law that God provided. Whereas Jesus fulfilled the law. This is exactly what Jesus is trying to do during these temptations. When the devil is trying to get Jesus to turn the stone into bread, Jesus’ response echoed what was written by Moses in Deuteronomy 8:3 (NIV) which says, “[God] humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Jesus is telling the devil that it doesn’t matter how hungry He is or what His physical or mental condition is, what matters is being faithful to the promises of His father. Promises that the ancient Israelites ignored and rebelled against through complaints and grumbling. In Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Henry comments that, “it is better to starve to death, than live and thrive by sin.” This is the exact situation that Jesus finds himself in. He could have easily created Himself food, but it wasn’t worth entering into a state of sin over. Jesus is saying it is better to starve to death than to live in sin. Henry makes another great comment when he said, “it is better to live poorly upon the fruits of God’s goodness, than live plentifully upon the products of our own sin.” The next two attempts followed along the same line. The devil tried to get Jesus to make the same mistakes the ancient Israelites made that led them into sin. He did this by quoting more partial truths. Jesus, however, gave the devil the whole truth and sent the devil running with nothing to show for his efforts.
Conclusion
I know it seems like we fell into a deep well here, but this all ties back into our original point. That the devil, the evil one, demons, satan or whatever you choose to call the source of sin, is working through partial truths, cunning words and a crafty tongue to deceive believers into sin. When we as believers fall victim to schemes that lead us into sin, we then create a barrier or separation between us and God. This is what happened to Adam and Eve. They committed that original sin and because of that they were banished from the garden. They were forced from their home out into the world. They were no longer allowed in the presence of God. In the story of Adam and Eve there was an actual, physical barrier placed between them and God. We see this in Genesis 3:24 which states, “He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” Even if Adam wanted to get back into the presence of God, he couldn’t. The cherubim and the flaming sword were set in place to block any attempt of reentering into the presence of God.
For us today, we don’t have a physical barrier placed between us and God, but there are many other types of barriers there. When we sin, we put more barriers between God and us which make it harder to get into God’s presence. It is possible though, due to the fact that Jesus came and died for our sins. Since He acted as the sacrificial lamb, dieing once for all man’s sins, we are no longer slaves to that sin. Jesus gave us a path that Adam, Eve, Moses or any ancient Israelite didn’t have, and that is a path to redemption through repentance and forgiveness. If we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior then we have access to this path which leads back into God’s presence. It is a constant battle between good and evil, but if we choose God and put our hope and faith in Jesus then we can work our way through those barriers between God and us. Even though Adam and Eve brought sin into this world through their eating of the forbidden fruit, God has given us a path back to Him. Sin may still be in this world due to that original sin, but sin no longer has any power over us. The grace given to us by God through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, has taken away the power of sin, now and forever.
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