A question for you. Do you really believe this story, the story in the bible about sin? Was there really an Adam and Eve?? Is this how sin really came about? Or was the Adam and Eve story really just a metaphor for bad things and bad conscious? Well, what do you reckon? Myth, truth, metaphor, analogy?
How we view this passage has consequences. If we take it literally, original sin happened, if we take it metaphorically it may not have, if it is myth, it maybe doesn’t matter.
I looked this week at it from this perspective. If this isn’t real then what about what Jesus and Paul said about sin- is it real? How serious can I take this verseRO 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
Then how seriously can I take the verses that follow 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
What about this: RO 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Can I claim to be alive to Christ if sin, which He came to deal with, wasn’t real.
But hang on a minute, Jesus is a bit easier to comprehend than a talking serpent.Right, a man who comes back from the dead is easy to understand!!!! Let’s leave those thoughts there for a minute. Sin came into the world somehow, and this is the story given to us by God to explain it.
This is sins first mention. But it is a theme throughout the bible.In fact, it was and is Jesus mission to deal with the sin issue. So sin does fit into mission month. Yep. Part of our mission is to put the Jesus message before sinners so they can have Jesus deal with their sin. That includes little kids from
Uganda.
A missiologist named Kraft said that we need to keep people alive and healthy long enough for them to hear the gospel, respond to Jesus and participate in the
Kingdom of
God.
That is what mission month is about. Not just raising some money for Watoto or maybe some ABMS project but letting those Kids in
Uganda hear about Jesus. Letting people in Kazakstan hear about Jesus then, discipling them, then giving them a role in God’s kingdom. It’s not just getting them into the
Kingdom of
God but allowing them to participate in the Kingdom.
Mission is about dealing with sin and how you view Genesis 3 impacts your view of mission. If sin isn’t an issue then probably neither is mission. It’s called consequential theology.
Now let’s go back. And let me say I believe in a real Adam and Eve and a real original sin. Why? Because I cant justify my beliefs about Jesus dealing with sin if sin wasn’t real. Now you may disagree with me, that’s ok, but I do want you to think about what it is you believe about sin.
Now, the first book of the OT reveals how human beings were created by God without sin but chose to act contrary to his revealed will and thereby caused sin to become a permanent feature of human existence Let’s define sin a bit. (I’ll quote a scholar for this one)“Sin is revolt against the holiness and sovereign will of God. Therefore, it is both a condition of the heart/mind/will/affections and the practical outworking of that condition in thoughts, words, and deeds that offend God and transgress his holy law.” Stuff against God. For
Israel, sin was a failure to keep the conditions of the covenant that the Lord graciously made at Sinai, you know, the 10 commandments and the rest of the commandments. All 613 of them. (No I didn’t count them during the week, I read it in a book!!)
Hey, what is sin for us?? Well, sin is the stuff that’s outside God’s will for us. Individually and corporately. The reality of sin and the need for atonement hey atonement is a weird word, and is a bit vague. It means according to another scholarly type person: The divine act of grace in which God accepts an offering as a substitute for the punishment for sin. So to atone for something is to pay the price for something done wrong. I was at a preaching conference last week and there was a forum on Wednesday night to hear about the debate raging in
England at the moment that is focused on this issue. Some say that Jesus being our substitute and being the avenue of atonement can be likened to a Cosmic child abuse. But hey God has chosen a way for us to be right with him to deal with the sin and postmodern word games do not change the need for us to be fixed up with God nor do they take into account the process. Jesus mission was our atonement. He took what we deserved. He paid for our sin. If you want to talk about the issues in that debate catch up with me during the week, it is hugely interesting.
Jesus became the sacrifice to deal with sin permanently. So one way of looking at sin is: not allowing Jesus to be who He is in our lives.
Now what do we do with this???? Well, first off, investigate it. Let Jesus deal with it. Then find out where we fit into this mission of Jesus. We can effectively be part of Jesus mission only when we have let him deal with the sin issue.
Now back to Genesis 3. How you view sin affects whether you feel the need to allow Jesus to do his mission in your life. Is sin real to you? Is sin an issue for You? Is it myth or story, or a real thing? Did the serpent speak? (more of that next week) here we have to make a decision of what we do with the bible. Believe it or not? So read it this week – Genesis 3. While you are reading it, think about your sin, and thank God there is a way to deal with it.
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Sermons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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