“Now the serpent was more cunning
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the
woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
And the woman said to the
serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat
it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will
not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one
wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and
he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were
naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
And they heard the sound of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to Adam
and said to him, “Where are you?”
So he said, “I heard Your voice
in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
And He said, “Who told you that
you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you
should not eat?”
Then the man said, “The woman
whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
And the Lord God said to the
woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent
deceived me, and I ate.”
Friends,
I want to tell you that THAT single occurrence, which most of us treat as a simple
little Bible story, has been the cause of more death and destruction than
anything this world has ever known. It has killed more people than the atomic
bomb…and it has been the cause of more conflict, broken homes, broken hearts
and murders than any other cause. For that simple act of disobedience brought
SIN into the world, and every human being who has ever been born in the world
from that time until today was born in sin…with only ONE exception…and His Name
is Jesus Christ!
So
let’s talk about sin for a few minutes and how that sin has affected our lives and
our relationships and then we’ll talk about what we can do about it.
Remember
that God had told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the forbidden fruit, in that
day they would die? Immediately, their spirits died that day…immediately they
lost the hope of eternal life and the fellowship they once knew with God when
He would walk with them in the cool of the day was utterly destroyed.
Immediately, they went from life unto death, all in one day.
Romans
5:12 says:
“Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned”
And
Isaiah 59:2
“But
your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And
your sins have hidden His face from you,
So
that He will not hear.”
So
the spirit of mankind died that day, and our separation with God began….
Do
you realize that before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit that day, they had
absolutely no knowledge of sin? They had never seen it, they had never heard of
it…they did not know that sin even existed, until they were deceived and they chose
to disobey God. Remember…there were 2 trees in the middle of that garden…one
was the “Tree of Knowledge” which brought death and the other was the “Tree of
Life” which would have brought eternal life. They had a choice…just as you and
I have a choice today. We can choose life, or we can choose death…but they
chose sin and death over trusting God’s Word and receiving eternal life. They
chose disobedience over obedience to God, and because of that “one tiny
sin”…they passed down the legacy of death to every human being from that time
until this. Therefore…Death is the penalty for sin…it was then and it still is
today.
But
Friends, I want you to know, that God was not pleased with that verdict, for
you see, He loved mankind. And even though the penalty of death had been passed
down for all generations because of Adam’s disobedience, God desired a way to
redeem mankind back to Himself, or to purchase us back for His own. You see in
the Genesis account that right away, He began covering the sinfulness of man,
when He made “coverings” from the skins of animals so that they could hide
their nakedness. And very soon after that we see that people began sacrificing
animals to cover their sins as a substitutionary death on their behalf. It was
a crude way of temporarily repenting of their sins so they could be pleasing
once again to God. But the problem was, it was a “temporary” fix…and they had
to go back year after year and do it all over again…but no amount of blood shed
by those sacrificial animals could ever do away with sin once and for all. In
order for that to happen, it would take a person, one who had never sinned, and
one who was willing to die as the payment for the sins of all mankind. And there
was only ONE MAN who was qualified to do that…it was God’s own Son…Jesus Christ!
There
is a beloved passage of scripture found in John 3:16 that says, “For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The only possible way
that man could ever be redeemed back to the Father is through Jesus Christ! He
was the only one who was capable…He was the only one who was not born in sin because
He was born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit. He came to the earth in the same
way that man does by natural birth, and then He grew and lived a perfect life
in total obedience to God the Father. What Adam was not able to do, Jesus
did…He lived in total obedience to God, and He died a painful death that He did
not deserve so that we…you and I…could become once again, sons and daughters of
the Living God! He died the death that we could not die…and He paid the price
that we could not pay… and then…on the third day, He arose again, guaranteeing
our access to receive eternal life. Glory to God!
But
Jesus didn’t die so that everyone could automatically go to Heaven…He died to
give us a choice, just like Adam and Eve had a choice in the Garden of Eden. Since
we were all born in sin, our default destination was hell, because again…the
wages or penalty of sin is death. But by repenting of our sins…that means that
we agree with God’s accounting of sin…and we choose not to live that way
anymore, but instead we place our trust in the sacrifice that Jesus made for
our sins, then we can receive eternal life.
Isaiah
1:18 tells us:
“Come
now, and let us reason together,”
Says
the Lord,
“Though
your sins are like scarlet,
They
shall be as white as snow;
Though
they are red like crimson,
They
shall be as wool.”
And
the Psalmist said in Psalm 103:12:
“As
far as the east is from the west,
So
far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
And
in Acts 2:38 scripture tells us:
“Then Peter said to them,
“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus
came to destroy the works of the Devil, to give back to us everything that Adam
and Eve lost in the Garden of Eden. He came to tear down that wall that
separates us from God and to restore once again our relationship with Him. All
we need to do is to turn from our old ways, repent of our sins and receive the
forgiveness that Jesus has provided so that we can not only live forever with
Him, but He has also given us the promise of Abundant Life here and now….a life
of peace…a life of joy…a life of fulfillment in our souls.
John
wrote in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
And
the Apostle Paul, in writing to the Church at Ephesus (Ephesians 2:14) wrote:
“For He Himself is our peace, who
has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation”
Jesus wants us to have not
only eternal life, but abundant life now…and He has made a way for us to have
that. He came to undo what Satan has done to us…destroying our lives and our
relationship with God. He paid the price to redeem us back to God…but He requires
a repentant heart…He requires that we turn from our old life and receive the
new life of freedom that He so freely offers. Let me ask you…if you have never
received Christ as your Savior and Lord, isn’t it time that you did that right
now.
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