Week 8 – Sin

Q13. Did our first parents remain as they were created Q13. Did our first parents remain as they were created? Left to the freedom of their own wills, our first parents sinned against God and fell from their original condition. Q14. What is sin? Sin is disobeying or not conforming to God's law in any way. Q15. By what sin did our first parents fall from their original condition? Our first parents' sin was eating the forbidden fruit. Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English

Q16. What is sin? Sin is rejecting or ignoring God in the world he created, rebelling against him by living without reference to him, not being or doing what he requires in his law—resulting in our death and the disintegration of all creation. The New City Catechism

What Scriptures talk about sin as: 1) disobeying or transgressing God’s law (sins of commission), 2) not conforming to God’s law (sins of omission), 3) rejecting or ignoring God, 4) rebelling against him, 5) resulting in our death 6) and the disintegration of all creation?

Leviticus 5:17 NIV. If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible.

1 John 3:4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

Galatians 3:10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Romans 1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.

Psalm 78:17 Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Genesis 3:17-19 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…. till you return to the ground.

Liberty and Ability What were the two alternatives set before Adam? The path of perfect obedience leading to everlasting life and the path of disobedience leading to death.

Liberty and Ability They had liberty because there was no one forcing them to go on either the one path or the other. “…Satan could not force them to do what he wanted them to do. He could only tempt them. He could only seek to persuade them to do what he wanted them to do, out of their own desire.” – G.I. Williamson

Augustine’s Fourfold View of the Will Pre-Fall Man Post-Fall Man Reborn Man Glorified Man able to sin able not to sin not able not to sin able not to sin (but not perfectly) not able to sin

Freedom of the Will “It must be noted that in all four states, man is free to choose what to do or not to do according to his will. His will is free because it is not forced or compelled from without. However, his will is determined by his own moral inclinations. This means that while the glorified man will always choose to do good because his heart’s inclination is always to glorify God; the natural fallen man will always do what is evil (in God’s eyes), because his motives are never pure, and never to glorify God.” Source: https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/four- fold.html

Liberty and Ability “After the first sin, Adam and all other people descending from him remain at liberty to do either good or evil, but they do not have the power [or ability] to do anything good.” – G.I. Williamson

Do you agree with Augustine and Williamson that we no longer have the power or ability to do anything good? What Scriptures support this view? Discuss with your neighbor/s.

Romans 3:10-12 None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

Romans 8:7 NIV. The sinful mind is hostile to God Romans 8:7 NIV. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Ephesians 2:3 …we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

How do people reject and ignore God? Discuss with your neighbor/s.

Rejecting or Ignoring God “I have never troubled God for anything during my life, and I hope if God exists and there is life after death, he will reciprocate.” – the Agnostic “Sin is living without reference to God, not viewing him to be the defining reality of our lives around which our entire lives need to be centered.” – John Lin, The New City Catechism Devotional

Rejecting or Ignoring God “Because [people] do not swear, or steal, or murder, they imagine that they are not great sinners. And yet, they may be great sinners because they do not worship God, and because they do not keep the Sabbath holy, etc.” – G.I. Williamson “Those who assure [others] of their belief in God’s existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgment no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers’ sweet fog of flattery and lies.” – David Wells, God in the Wasteland

Rejecting or Ignoring God “For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:20-21

Why do we rebel against God Why do we rebel against God? Did Adam and Eve’s rebellion affect only themselves? Discuss with your neighbor/s.

Rebelling Against Him “Adam and Eve thought that it was they who were determining the course they would follow, that they were only exercising their autonomous right to determine for themselves the true, the good, and the beautiful. They became, in their understanding, their own authority, and their fallen descendants ever since that time have claimed a similar autonomy from God…. it was at its core the creature’s deliberate rejection of God’s authority and an act of willful rebellion against the Creator.” – Robert Reymond

Resulting in the Disintegration of All Creation “God created Adam and Eve to be the centerpiece and the pinnacle of creation. When they sinned, their disobedience of God’s loving law not only had implications on their lives, it also had implications on the entire cosmos.” – John Lin “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Romans 8:20-22

What do you think was the reason for God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Discuss with your neighbor/s.

Alternative Definitions to Sin “Satan’s suggestion to Adam was that sin [or evil] should be defined as ‘anything that proves to be harmful to men’…. with [this] false definition of sin, we never really discover how great our sin is.” – G.I. Williamson