Tag Archives: the Fall

Born in Sin

Genesis 1-3

I have to confess that I have always had a bit of trouble understanding the whole “born in sin” thing. I wasn’t able to get past the fact that a newborn hasn’t had time to sin, yet is condemned because someone did sin thousands of years ago. I mean, I accepted that fact by faith. But I couldn’t understand it. (which is what faith is, right?)

I’ve started a new study recently, “Seamless,” by Angie Smith (Lifeway Press, 2018). She said something that turned on a lightbulb for me. She reminded me God created humans with a chance to obey Him, or not. They chose not. So Holy God had to separate Himself from disobedient them.

Since they could no longer live in fellowship with God, their children would be born out of fellowship with Him, they would be separated from Him because their parents were separated from God when they were born.

You can’t claim to be a natural born American if your parents were citizens of another country and you were born in that country.

“Born in sin” means to be born separated from God. Being separate from God is where sin is. Even a newborn’s heart is separated from God’s because Adam and Eve’s hearts were separated from God when they received the punishment for their sin in the Garden. No one, except Jesus, could ever be born in fellowship with God again.

But we don’t have to live out of fellowship! Our beautiful Savior gave His life so the gap can be bridged, the separation obliterated. Through Jesus’ work on the cross, and because of God’s love, mercy, and grace, we can have God Himself living within us!

But that fellowship doesn’t come with being born. It comes with being born again. We are “born in sin” but we don’t have to live there.

A Sure Foundation

Genesis 1-11; Matthew 7:21-27

I finished Warren Wiersbe’s BE BASIC study today. (Be Basic; David C Cook Publisher; 2010). The first eleven chapters of Genesis are foundational to the Christian faith.

What do I believe about Creation, the sanctity of life, sin, the consequences for sin? What do I believe about God? Were Adam and Eve real people who lived in a real garden, walked with God, and spoke to a serpent? Did the flood really cover the whole earth? Did the different nationalities and languages start at Babel? And was Abraham a real man chosen by God to be the instrument by which we can know God and be saved from the consequences of our sin?

The answer to these questions are foundational to our faith. If we don’t believe what we read in Genesis, we make God out to be a liar. Who wants to put their faith in a liar?

You might say you believe in God while rejecting the God-breathed creation account. You might teach Sunday School or sing in the choir, yet doubt the flood really happened. You might say you have faith in God, but unless your faith is built on the God of Genesis 1-11, you might stand before Him one day and hear the words, “I never knew you.”

I would challenge you to read Genesis 1-11 and take an inventory of what you really believe about it. To build your faith on the absolute truth of these chapters is to build your faith on the Rock of the one true God. To believe anything else is a faith built on sand, and it won’t stand at the final judgment.

I agree with Wiersbe. It might be time to get back to basics.

Would It Be Better?

Genesis 3

I know there are many people who deny the existence of God or question the goodness of God, or simply don’t know if there is a God or gods or a higher power somewhere out there. But I want to ask you a question:

Would the world be better if we all just rejected God altogether? If there were no more Christians, and the Holy Spirit took a step back, would people be kinder? Would our streets be more safe? Would wars cease and everyone be treated fairly?

If everyone did what Adam and Eve did, or didn’t repent, or if they had their own morality and made their own individual rules, if there were no absolutes, would you want to step outside the safety of your home?

If there is good in this world, if there is peace and love it is only because of the grace of God. God uses the result of our disobedience, the natural consequences for sin, to reveal our dependence on Him, on His power, HIs strength, and our inner longing for that which He alone provides – love, and cleansing, and hope, and joy, and fellowship with a loving Heavenly Father.

No. The world would not be better without God. That would be hell.

Genesis 3 – And We All Fall Down

2 Replies

First let me say that I believe Adam and Eve were real people, created not born. I believe they walked with God in a beautiful garden, loved and were loved. I believe a snake spoke to Eve, and I believe Adam and Eve chose sin.

Sin didn’t just happen to them. God wanted them to trust Him, to believe Him. But they willingly disobeyed. Rather than believe God, they believed Satan’s lie that they could be like God.

The couple knew they had changed the moment that fruit hit their stomachs. God knew they had changed, too (No, it wasn’t a surprise). And He immediately set His plan of redemption in motion. There are so many beautiful aspects to God’s response to Adam and Eve after they sinned.

But I love – LOVE – the fact that God went looking for them. Not because He didn’t know where they were. But because they didn’t know where He was! God didn’t wait for them to come to Him. He sought them out!

Luke 19:10 says Jesus came to “seek and to save that which was lost.” What was true in the garden is true yet today. God goes after the lost lamb, turns the house inside out looking for that lost penny, goes into Zacchaeus’ house, and eats at the table with publicans and sinners.

God, who is not willing that anyone die without Him, stops at nothing to win a soul for eternity while that soul is still inhabiting a body in this lifetime. He’s not up there somewhere sitting in a recliner with remote in hand, checking this person, then switching to someone else. He is actively seeking every person. He’s actively seeking you and me.

We all sin. We’ve all taken the same fall Adam and Eve took so long ago. And the same God who came looking for them, is doing the same for us. When I read this chapter in Genesis I don’t just see God’s condemnation for sin, or His curse on creation.

I see God’s love, the provision of forgiveness through the blood of His Son. I see grace and mercy. I see Someone who WANTS me with Him, who is right here right now trying to get my attention. I see God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And I love Him.