Genesis 3
How bad does a deed have to be before anyone sees it as sin?
How bad does a deed have to be before anyone feels its effect?
How bad does a deed have to be before it affects God?
The question, Why is sin bad? Is a question that should be on the minds and hearts of every believer around the world. It is a question that runs throughout the entire Bible and the basis of whether we are heading for eternal glory with God the Father or the eternal abyss.
The way I see it, in order to answer the question, Why is sin bad? We must first explore three other questions:
What is sin?
Where did sin come from – why do we still sin?
How does it affect us and God?
What is sin?
We are quite fortunate, that this is a topic that God saw fit to include throughout his scriptures, so references are numerous and we could be here a long time exploring every one of them.
So, what is sin?
Let’s take a look at Genesis 3. We know the serpent was ‘more crafty than any of the wild animals’ (v1). We also know from Revelation 12:9 that the serpent was “called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” It was Satan who tempted the woman in v4 and although temptation, itself, is not sinning (Jesus was tempted in the wilderness in Luke 4 and did not sin!), yielding to temptation is sinning, as we read in Genesis 3. So, the woman listens to the serpent (not a sin!), but in v6 everything falls apart. The woman desires the fruit in a lustful way ‘pleasing to the eye’ and in a way that shows selfish ambition ‘gaining wisdom’. Is there stealing there as well when she takes some fruit from the tree she should not before leading her husband into sin?
And what about the man? Despite being directly commanded by God in Genesis 2:16-17, he still took the apple from the woman and ate it. He ignored the Word of God, rejected the gift of life and took control of his own destiny, rebelling against God.
Now, my intention is not to say who was worse than the other, was it the woman or the man? You can make that judgement yourself. But, there is something fascinating about what happens in the garden if we take the whole Bible into consideration.
The men and women of the world tried to make a name for themselves by building the tower of Babel in Genesis 11, the men of Sodom and Gomorrah tried to defile the messengers of God in Genesis 19, the Israelites worshipped the golden calf in Exodus 32 and so on down the ages through the times of the Judges, the Kings and the rest of the Old Testament. But it doesn’t stop there, in the New Testament, the Pharisees, the Teachers of the Law and Scribes rejected who Christ was despite clearly knowing the truth and a large part of Paul’s, Peter’s and James’ teachings are about the problem of false teaching and false prophets. You see, all these sins recorded in the OT and taught about in the NT refer to one major sin – forgetting God and what he has done for us. Just as Adam did in the Garden by taking that fruit and eating it.
Let’s turn to Exodus c20. Here we read the Ten Commandments given to Moses and written by the finger of God. Vv2-11, the first 5 commandments are about God himself, remembering him and what he has done for the people, v12 is about honouring your parents, vv13-16 are obvious sins and v17 covers the sins that are largely hidden; coveting, lusting and jealousy. These are the moral aspect of living, the moral law that God wrote to show us how to live a holy life. They are specific, if we break them, we are in the wrong. If we break any of the final 5 commandments, are we not breaking the first 5 as well? Similarly, if we break the first 5 commandments, do we not end up breaking one or more of the final 5?
Let’s turn to Proverbs 6:16-19.
Here we read that there are seven things that are detestable to the Lord; lust, lying, murder, evil hearts, easily falling into evil, false witnesses and a stirrer in the community (perhaps a gossip!), OK, not quite the seven deadly sins the Catholic Church have come up with as the basis of all human sin, but an indication, none the less of how God sees sin (v16) – he hates it and finds it detestable!
But it’s not just the OT we read this. In Matthew 5:17-48, Christ raises the bar considerably.
Vv17-20
Vv21-22
Vv27-28
Jesus is not saying that the law is defunct now that he is here, but rather gives a fresh perspective of the moral law. It’s not just about what people can see on the outside, how moral we are in society, but how we live on the inside. We must be sincere in obeying the law, to do otherwise, according to Christ Jesus is sin!
Time and time again throughout Exodus, the Israelites are commanded not to forget the Lord their God and what he has done for them. Time and time again throughout Deuteronomy, they are reminded not to forget the Lord their God and what he has done for them. Join with me and look at Deut. 8.
Vv1-5 & 18-19
And also in Matthew 22:37-38 – here Jesus reiterates the importance of being right with God, remembering him and what he has done for us.
God does not count one sin less damaging than any other because they are all linked to this one sin we are reminded about over and over again throughout the Bible. All types of sin (for want of a better phrase) are enough to send Christ Jesus to the cross. Committing one sin, is enough to send us to Hell and as James 2:10 tells us, God takes all sin seriously!
It, therefore, is the same with us. God takes our sin seriously, however small we think it may be. We are exactly like the Israelites who in Deut. 9 are called rebellious, stiff-necked, fickle, stubborn and wicked.
Now, that being said, I cannot move on from here without mentioning Matthew 12:31-32.
These two verses have sparked a lot of discussion over the centuries about what exactly does Jesus mean when he says this. This is what I think.
All sin, including those mentioned in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Proverbs, Matthew, Galatians and anywhere else in the Bible, are forgiven by Christ’s death if you believe. All, except this one type of sin that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 12. Putting this into context, this answer was in response to an accusation from the Pharisees in v24.
The Pharisees were learned men. They had spent their adult life studying the scriptures. They knew everything about them and therefore, it is reasonable to assume they would know exactly who Jesus was, but hated what he stood for and what that meant to their way of life. Jesus speaks about attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. But it is so much more than that. This unpardonable sin, is so because, not only does the culprit have a clear knowledge of who Christ is and the Spirit working through him, remember the Pharisees had studied the scriptures for years, he also willfully rejects the truth that he knows to be true and goes one step further by slanderously attributing the work of Holy Spirit as the work of Satan. It is unpardonable, not because it is far more powerful than Christ’s death, but because the culprit has tasted the glory of God and of forgiveness and yet chooses to ignore it, reject it and so, reject the work of the Holy Spirit, of Christ and the one who sent them.
What is sin? Forgetting God and what he has done for us and in so doing, open our lives to all the different types of sin that serve only to push us even further from God.
Where did sin come from – why do we still sin?
I had a conversation with a friend a couple years ago and he asked me, “Where did sin come from? I mean, if God created everything perfect and good, why is there sin?”
My friend was under the impression that the creator of the universe and everything in it was the creator of sin as well, let’s take a look at that.
Deut 32:4 tells us that we have a faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. Again in James 1:13 it says, For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.
It is clear just from these two verses that God is NOT the source of sin!
Was it found in the original blueprints of creation?
Genesis Chapter 1
V9-10 – God saw the dry land and the seas as good.
V12 – trees and fruit with seeds was good
V18 – lights, day and night was seen as good
V21 – animals of the seas and the birds of the air were good
V25 – animals on land were seen as good
V31 – all creation was seen as good
If God is not the source and it wasn’t in his original creation – where did it come from and why do we still sin?
The answer can be found in Genesis chapter 3:1. The serpent, the ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He twisted the Word of God in v2 and 4 which tempted the woman and the man into sin. Their human nature originally created in a state of innocence by God was now corrupted by Satan and became sinful.
As a result, their lives were changed forever. But not just theirs, all mankind now bare the corrupt nature. Human nature, itself is not evil or sinful. Christ was wholly man, yet was without sin. But we have a corrupted nature that allows us to break the moral laws set out in the 10 commandments. It is our moral responsibility to obey them, but we choose not to when we forget God and what he has done for us.
How does sin affect us and God?
It is clear that sin breeds sin. A simple white lie, as innocent as you think it is telling it, can cause untold misery and heartache to those around you! We see that in Genesis 3, the lie of the serpent caused the woman and man to sin. Sin breeds sin.
Sin changes us. Genesis 3:10 shows us how we change. We take our focus off God and become inwardly facing. We think only of ourselves. We know we have done wrong, but we hide from it through embarrassment or fear. Even when we are caught out, our first response is to blame others, do you see that in vv12 and 13? Both the man and the woman blame someone else and don’t take responsibility for their own actions and decisions. Sin changes us for the worst whether we are a believer or not!
Reading on in chapter 3, God changes the life of the woman and the man. They are cursed as a result of rebelling against his Word and ultimately given a death sentence in v19 and banished from Eden forever. Their life becomes a misery. Is this not the state of the world we live in? Sin definitely changes us.
It is clear that sin offends God. Remember Proverbs 6:16 – six things God hates, seven things are detestable to him?
In Isaiah 59, vv15b-16a
God was appalled at the sin and corruption he saw in man. His holy justice was offended. He alone is righteous. He alone preserves true justice and is completely separated from evil and corruption. His holy majesty is fierce and his wrath is an expression of his justice. His holy justice cannot go unpunished, to do so would mean God is not righteous and just.
God hated all the evil that had corrupted his perfect, innocent world. He hated all the sin, in all it shapes and flavours. He saw no one able to intervene, no one who could make amends for the injustice – Romans 3:23 states quite clearly, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. No one was good enough to take the punishment for all mankind’s evil sin, so his own arm achieved salvation (v16), his own righteousness sustained him. And John 3:16, his love for us was so deep that he sent his only begotten son into the world so that whoever believed in him will have their sins forgiven and be given eternal life.
He is judge, jury and executioner, and it is right and just that he should be. Which is why 2000 years ago, the creator of the universe paid the ultimate price for our rebellious and wicked sin. Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient to cover every sin. Even ours today if we only remember the Lord our God and what he has done for us.
Why is sin bad? It is pure and simply rebellion against God, it is injustice to God’s justice. Just as the Israelites kept turning from God in the wilderness, we too will continually turn from God in our wilderness. But, through the blood of Christ Jesus shed at Calvary, our sins are already forgiven, so long as we repent.
To those who choose not to, Paul has this to say…
1 Corinthians 1:18, ‘The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’
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