Day 3 – The Effects of Sin

When we read about the fall of man in Gen 3, we need to look beyond the story. It’s about far more than eating a piece of fruit. It’s about the deadly consequences of disobeying God.

In our culture today, obedience isn’t something that is always celebrated. We tend to cheer for the girl who makes up her own mind or the guy who won’t let anyone else tell him what to do – he’s going to live his own life. In short, we celebrate independence. And while there is a place for personal independence, if we try to apply that in our relationship with God it only leads to devastation. And this is what Adam and Eve found out.

In our last lesson we saw that God had told Adam not to eat of the tree. He said, “If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die” (Gen 2:16-17). You see, God is the source of all life – Heis life! And if we ever turn away from him, we are turning to death. And whenever we make a decision that is against God’s will, we’re turning away from Him. This is called sin.

Rom 6:23asays: “For the wages of sin is death…” Sin has its consequences. So when Adam and Eve sinned, these consequences started to show up on the earth. While they continued to live physically, they had died spiritually. Things like sickness, disease, natural disasters, war and hatred are all a result of this spiritual death. They are physical and emotional things, but are all expressions of spiritual death.

Sin brought with it fear, shame and blame. Gen 3:7-13 shows that Adam and his wife were afraid to see God. They had never been afraid of God before. They never thought they needed to cover their nudity before. They had never blamed others for their own problems before. These were all the result of death. No, they had not died physically, but they had died spiritually – they had lost their spiritual connection with God.

They were separated from God, and that is the worst kind of death. Not only that, but everyone born after them – the whole human race – was separated from God and spiritually dead.

The saddest part is that if a person physically dies while separated from God, that separation is eternal – it is hell. God went to great lengths to make provision for this because He wants us with Him in heaven.

Consider:

What is your attitude toward personal independence?

Even before you were a Christian, did you consider that there must be some kind of evil working in the world? Did you ever wonder where it came from?