HUMANKIND AND SIN
Through a special creative act God made man (Adam) from the dust of the earth. (Genesis 2:7) Man was a separate creation from the animal creation, though physical similarities and the breath of life were shared by both. (Genesis 1:7, 7:15, 22) Man was the highest of God's creation. Women (Eve) was later created from man's side. Adam and Eve constituted the first human beings from whom the rest of the human family would be descended. (Genesis 3:20; Acts 17:26)
A. Made in God's Image
The Bible often uses the term man to refer to mankind or humankind including both male and female. Though Adam was created directly from the dust of the ground and Eve was created from man, both have the distinct privilege of being made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:26) Together they constituted the beginning of the human race. Their children and descendants would continue the distinction of being image bearers of God.
When the Bible says man is made in the image and likeness of God, it does not mean a physical image. Keep in mind that God is spirit and does not have a physical body or form. Rather, being made in God's image refers to man's special nature that has qualities or characteristics which reflect the nature of the Creator. First, the image includes a mental likeness. God made man with great intellectual ability. (Genesis 2:15, 19) Man can think, reason, solve problems, plan ahead, and be creative. Think of all the amazing things that man has been able to build, and invent, and do. God made him to have dominion over the earth and all the rest of creation. (Genesis 1:28) All the intellectual and creative genius of man reflects the mental likeness of an all-knowing, all-powerful God.
Second, the image of God in man is a moral likeness. Man was created with a conscience. He has a sense of right and wrong, good and evil. He also has a love for beauty and order. Man is concerned not only about what he does, but the effects of what he does. Sympathy, sorrow, regret, satisfaction, joy, and evaluation are all aspects of man's experience of moral responsibility. Man's moral nature was created to reflect the justice, goodness, and holiness of God.
Third, the image of God in man involves a spiritual nature. Man was made to enjoy friendship with God, to love and worship him. (Genesis 3:8) Friendship with God is different than our relationship with material things. Man's human spirit is restless until it is i right relationship with its creator. The spiritual image reflects God's own spiritual nature.
Man's Nature
God's nature is spirit only. Man's nature is more complex. Man has both a material nature and an immaterial nature. Man's material nature is the human body, wonderfully designed with complex systems. (e.g. circulatory, respiratory, excretory, etc.) It enables us to act and interact with the world around us. Our bodies enable us to render service for God. (Romans 6:12, 13) The Bible even describes the human body as a temple in which God's Spirit dwells. (I Corinthians 6:19) Though the physical body may die, that is not the final state. The Bible teaches the resurrection of the body at the end time. (I Corinthians 15:51-54)
However, what you are able to see, the body, is not all there is to man. The immaterial aspect of man's nature is referred to as man's soul or spirit. Some scriptures seems to use the terms soul and spirit interchangeably. (Genesis 41:8; Psalms 42:6; John 13:21) Others seem to make a distinction between the two. (Hebrews 4:12; I Thessalonians 5:23) Some suggest that the soul is basically the life principle (animation) including imagination, understanding, and memory. To the spirit might belong the powers of reason, conscience, and freewill. The immaterial continues even after the death of the body. (II Corinthians 5:8) The important thing is to recognize that man has both material and immaterial aspects to his nature. Rather, than putting an emphasis of separating the two, it is also important to view man as a unity. The material and immaterial are not some kind of human dualism, but coordinating aspects of the same person. We are not interested in "saving souls" only, but saving persons. Man's whole being is to live in devotion and service to God. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)
Man's Privileged Position
Man was God's prized creation. He had privileged spiritual fellowship with his Creator. He has been given a special position of honour among the rest of creation. God placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden called Eden. In the cool of each evening God would visit them in the garden for special fellowship. (Genesis 3:8) Seemingly they had everything that one could possible need or want.
When God placed man above the rest of creation, Adam and Eve were given the responsibility to care for it and preserve it. (Genesis 1:28; Psalms 8:6) In their actions they were to reflect the greatness and goodness of God to the rest of the world. Everything was Adam and Eve's to enjoy except one tree that God told them was off limits. Even though man had been treated so special by God, he must not think of himself as being independent from God. God was the Creator; man was only the creation. Man still needed God and was to obey Him.
Adam and Eve were created morally innocent. Their favourable environment and privileged relationship with God should have made obedience to God easy. God was so kind and gracious to them. Yet, in creating man, God had not made him as a robot or puppet. He had endowed him with freedom of choice. Man, in many different ways, was encouraged to love and obey God. However, he was also free to rebel and disobey.
B. The Fall of Man
God designed a test for Adam that seemed so easy for them to pass.
"And the LORD God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16,17)
"The test was so straight forward. Do not eat the fruit from a certain tree in the garden or you will die. Fruit from all the other trees could be eaten. Putting a "No-Trespassing" sign up at one of the trees was God's way of testing whether man would freely choose obedience or disobedience.
Satan (the Devil) had already rebelled against God and had fallen from his place of prominence among the angels of heaven. In hatred of God, he decided to attempt to get Adam and Eve to also rebel and disobey God. In the form of a serpent, Satan approached Eve with lies about God. (Genesis 3:1) He told her that God was jealous of them and that they would not die if they ate the forbidden fruit; instead they would become as God. Foolishly and selfishly, Eve listened to Satan rather than God. She ate of the fruit herself and convinced Adam to eat also. Immediately they realized they had done a terrible wrong. (Genesis 3:7) But it was too late - they and consequently the human race had fallen.
Immediate Consequences of the Fall
Fellowship with God was broken. No longer did they feel comfortable in his presence; and a holy God could not condone sinful disobedience. Sin always separates man from God. Now the moral nature of Adam and Eve were corrupted. They were no longer innocent and biased toward God. The pollution of their natures made them enemies of God. Also, as God had warned, their bodies began to die. Sickness, disease, and death now became part of man's experience. (Romans 5:12) Their environment turned hostile. Eden was no longer their garden paradise, but Adam needed to earn their living by sweat of his brow.
These consequences may seem harsh when their disobedience seemed so slight. However, it is important to consider the implications of their sin:
- Adam and Eve were warned of the seriousness of their action. It was a matter of life and death. (Genesis 2:17)
- Forbidding one tree was not depriving them. All else was available to them. (Genesis 1:28)
- They had the power of choice to say "no" to the temptation. They were not forced to disobey. (Genesis 3:11)
- Their disobedience was a challenge to God's authority. God was not concerned about a piece of fruit, he had made all the trees in the garden! He was concerned about their love and loyalty.
- A great act is not required to prove or disprove one's character. To rebel in this small command was no different than rebelling against God in any area.
The outward act of eating only revealed what was in their hearts. They had drifted from love of God and were filled with ingratitude and selfish ambition. In spite of all God had done for them, they distrusted his goodness and his word, believed the lie of Satan, and followed their selfish desires.
Sin is Universal
The Bible teaches us that every person has committed sin. (I Kings 8:46; Psalms 143:2; Ecclesiastes 7:20; James 3:2; I John 1:8) "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) This universal sinfulness is not limited to acts of sin, but to a nature that has a tendency toward sin. The reality of man's universal sinfulness is likely to have a universal cause. The Bible tells us that the universal cause of man's universal sinfulness is the rebellious act of Adam. "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man...in this way death comes to all men, because all sinned...through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners." (Romans 5:12,19)
Several views try to explain the connection between Adam's sin and our sin. Without going into detail, four of the most common are as follows:
- All sin after the bad example of Adam. Some may choose to follow his example, but surely not seven billion people would be so foolish, especially after seeing the terrible consequences of sin.
- Adam served as our representative. Often people are chosen to be our government representative. Their choices are binding on us. If they make good decisions we benefit; if they make bad decisions, we suffer. As our representative, the choice he made was not just a personal choice, but a choice for the whole human race. Had Adam chose to obey God the whole human family would have been blessed. Because he made the choice to disobey, the whole human family has suffered the consequences. One may object that we did not choose Adam and Eve to be our representatives. However, at the time, they were the only representatives available.
- Adam served as the biological head of the human race. All later human beings biologically were contained in the first human pair. Adam and Eve were the "first parents" of us all. When they sinned, the whole human race (actual and potential) sinned. We all sinned in Adam.
- In some way we have "inherited" Adam's sinfulness. As we inherit different physical characteristics from our parents, similarly we inherit a sinful human nature from our original parents. We have inherited a tendency toward sin and follow that tendency with sinful acts. Sinful is what we are; sinful acts are what we do. The former produces the latter.
Whatever the explanation of the connection between Adam's sin and our own, we cannot escape its reality. We all like Adam have failed God and have become sinful. It does no good to blame Adam or to try to excuse ourselves. We all have joined in the rebellion against God and must therefore face his judgment. Like Adam we have chosen our own way rather than following God's way. The source of all of our sin is selfishness, putting self and self's desires ahead of God and his desires. Mankind made in the glorious image of God, has fallen.
C. The Nature of Sin
We all know what sin is, for we experience it and its consequences every day. However, it is important that we understand what the Bible tells us about the nature of sin. Several different Hebrew and Greek words are used in the Scriptures which are translated "sin" or give insight to what sin in. Some of the words mean "missing the mark, debt, lawlessness, disobedience, transgression, error, unbelief, crossing a line". Usually sin is related to the law of God; his law written in the Scripture or on the human heart. (Romans 2:15) Essentially sin is failing to conform to God's law, or transgressing God's law given as a rule to the morally rational being. Simply put, sin is either not doing what God says to do, or doing what God says not to do.
Sin is not some natural calamity such as a cyclone, or earthquake, or flood. Sin is a moral evil, when our thoughts, attitudes, and actions do not line up with what God says is right and good. These arise out of a sinful nature. As we continue to sin we soon discover that sin enslaves; we become servants of sin. (Romans 6:15-20) What may start out as the "pleasures of sin" leaves us broken, hurting, and degraded. We discover that the way of the transgressor is indeed hard. (Proverbs 13:15)
Extended Consequences of Sin
Adam and Eve experienced the immediate results of their sin. Today, we are faced with two major extended consequences of their sin and ours.
First, is the depravity of humankind. We are no longer pure and innocent as God first created man. Our moral nature has been so corrupted by sin that we are totally depraved. This does not mean that every person is as wicked as possible, that he commits every kind of evil, and has no pleasing qualities. However, it does not mean that our whole person has been adversely affected by sin. Our thinking, our attitudes, our feelings, our desires, and our deeds have all been negatively influenced by our sin. For this reason we feel uncomfortable in God's presence and cannot truly love and worship him. Sin takes on a downward spiral away from God. With our best efforts and intentions we are not able to reverse course by our own will and strength. We need a Saviour, someone who can set us "free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:3)
Second, is the guilt and punishment sin brings. After Adam and Eve had sinned, they tried to hide from God. They instinctively knew they had done wrong. For the first time ever they had experienced guilt. Guilt is the deserving of punishment. From the days of Adam till now people have thought that they could sin and get away with it. Each foolishly thinks he is clever enough to disobey God, but avoid sin's consequences. However, there is always a penalty to be paid for sin. God had told Adam that disobedience would reap the penalty of death. The Bible recognizes different temporal degrees of guilt and punishment for various sins. (Leviticus 4-7; Luke 12:47,48; John 19:11; Romans 2:6; Hebrews 2:2,3) But ultimately the penalty for all sin is death.
Sin results in the following three aspects of death:
D. Fallen but Not Forgotten
Humankind, made in the glorious image of God the Creator, has fallen. But we are still human; we still bear the image of God. It has been greatly marred, distorted, tainted by sin. Yet, God has not forgotten or abandon us. Still, God loves us, even in our sin. (Romans 5:8) He has regarded us all as sinners, not to punish us all, but that he might have mercy on us all, offering forgiveness and restoration through his Son. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)