Theme: Sin

Genesis 6:5-6 (NIV): ‘The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.‘

Romans 3:10: ‘As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;”’

Question: I hope that, like me, you have received great kindness and goodness from many people in your life, but how do we reconcile that with the above verses?

Further reading – There are many other verses which relate to these, including Gen 2:16-17, Gen 3:1-19, Lev 19:2

How do we judge goodness?

In general, when we say “He’s a good bloke”, we usually mean his good points outweigh the bad, so we choose to overlook those. But we may meet people who appear to have no faults and always do the “right thing”, and the father of a school friend was like that. I tried to follow his example but failed.

But our readings tell us that even he was not acceptable to God.

God’s standard is stated in Lev 19:2, “Be holy, as I the Lord your God am holy”, and Jesus repeats that in Matthew 5, using the term perfect instead of holy.

Nature of Sin

In Genesis the story of the Fall of humanity in the garden of Eden shows us the nature of sin.

They were clearly told (Gen 2:16-17), “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

But in Gen 3, the serpent invites them to assume authority to question God’s command, by including an incorrect statement “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” It’s like the start of a philosophy tutorial, where we place human reason as our supreme guide.
And verse 2 shows how human reason is faulty; in analysing the command, Eve misquoted it, and muddied what was clear.

Taking on the role of judging and reinterpreting God’s commands in our own terms leads us to doubt, and she was tempted by the serpent with the false hope that they would be like God. It’s tragic because they were already “like God”, created in His image. Yet through sin, that perfect harmony with God was lost.

That shows the core aspect of sin, of rebelling against God by trying to put ourselves in His place, putting ourselves as the centre of interest instead of God, and trying to create heaven on earth by our own power.

In verse 6 Eve gave the fruit to Adam and he ate. He could have said no, but being agreeable can be another path to sin.

When mankind broke our perfect relationship with God, that soured all our relationships.
In verse 12, Adam refused to take responsibility, he blamed both Eve and God, saying, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
Eve also refused to be accountable, as if she had no choice, saying, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

From verse 16, God explains the consequences of sin, or separation from Him – sorrow, pain, conflict between man and woman, toil, thorns and thistles, sweat, and death itself, “to dust you shall return”.

In later chapters we see further descent into the results of man’s sin.
Cain’s self-focus led to jealousy and murder, yet he remained self-concerned and complained his punishment was more than he could bear. Later in the same chapter Lamech boasted of his revenge, of killing a man who had only injured him.

In our current era

We see the same pattern continuing today. In the workplace, in education, and everywhere, we are conditioned to continue that sin, to put ourselves first, with pride in our own strength and reason.
All people are affected, even in church circles.
I read of a pastor who said his time without sin after a sermon was the time it took to walk from the pulpit to greet the first person who congratulated him on his sermon, which changed the focus from thankfulness to God for His word, to pride in himself.
In bible study groups, I have often found someone who wants to dominate conversation and put their own ideas and concerns above what God wants to show us.
And in two churches I found musical arrangements were causing strife among personalities.

Good people

The wonderful part of this story is that God has acted where we were powerless. Jesus came into our world to save us from our sin, and this is what we celebrate at Easter.

And of those people from whom I have experienced goodness and kindness, I have often found the key to what made them special was their faith in Jesus, for that is truly life-changing.

Praise God for the good He is doing in our world, despite our sin.