SUNDAY, July 26, 2009                                                       READ: Genesis 3: 6, 17; Romans 5: 12-21                                                                                                        

SIN

MEMORIZE: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned...."         Romans 5: 12

Sin is a real issue. It is not a figment of our imagination. It is amazing how quickly we become engaged and ready to talk about skin, but become highly offended the very moment we even think to talk about sin. But sin is a real and important issue. We need to attempt tolook at it.

There are some things which we can learn about sin from our text for today's reading, Genesis 3: 16, 17; Romans 5: 12 - 15. Even before God created the woman whom He intended to serve as an adequate helper for Adam, He had commanded Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is every indication that the man, Adam, understood what God had said to him. He passed on that information to his wife and she knew what God had commanded concerning the fruit. In Genesis 3: 6, 17, we have enough information to let us know that Adam was not deceived when he decided to take the fruit from his wife and eat of it. He made the choice to listen to his wife's insistence over God's command. He ate the fruit, disobeying God's command to him. He knew that there was an adverse consequence for choosing to eat of the fruit. He chose to eat and he was charged with having sinned against God. Sin is ultimately a challenge of God's authority and right of rule (cf. Psalm 51: 4). Adam's action was rebellion against God ( cf. 1 Samuel 15: 22, 23). Adam asserted his will over God's will and chose to execute his will. According to Romans 5: 15, Adam's act of disobedience was classified as the offense, by which sin entered the world, and death through sin. The word used to refer to his sin conveys the basic idea of "the tendency, bent to act contrary to what God requires and what pleases Him. Someone will complain that it is not fair for God to have consigned all of us as sinners, based on what Adam did. But if Adam was sinless, and when the opportunity was presented to him, he sinned, what would prevent us, having already inherited the bent to sin, the tendency to act contrary to what God requies and what pleases Him, from sinning like Adam did? God gave up His Son to be the Lamb slain in our place to pay the price of our redemption from sin (cf. 1 Peter 1: 18-20; Revelation 13: 8; Genesis 22: 8; John 1: 29). So, in Romans 5: 17-19, we are able to see that, as God assigned Adam's sin to each of his descendants, making each a sinner, so, by the obedience of God's Son unto death, He has accepted our penalty as His and paid the price in full. In 5: 10, we see how we are reconciled by the death of God's Son, and are saved by His life (cf. Romans 10: 9, 10). He does not have to die again. He died once and put our sins - past, present and future, away (cf. Hebrews 9: 25-28).

The Gospel that we preach affirms that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures." We affirm that God has done everything that was necessary to ransom us. Now, we are required to express our confidence in Him for personal salvation from sin. Have you?

PRAY: LORD, God Almighty, I praise You and bless Your holy name. Thank You for providing salvation from sin for Adam's descendants. I thank You for thinking of me and providing salvation for me. I am opening my life up to You. Have Your own way with me, for I believe You, LORD. Amen.