The Fall of Man (6); The Transmission of the Sin Nature

We are looking again tonight for the sixth week at the effects of man's sin, the results of the sin of Adam and the race as we continue in our study of what the Bible teaches about man and sin. We have seen that Genesis chapter 3 is a pivotal foundational book or chapter in the Bible because it describes how Adam fell into sin and dragged the whole human race with him practically literally. We have seen the consequences of that are very drastic. We have looked at several of the results and condemnation and judgments because of our sin that just remind ourselves of those. You can see them on the screen, the judgment upon the snake, the judgment upon Satan himself, the judgment upon Eve and women, upon nature and men, increased mental and physical toil, a changed diet, physical death and then being excluded from the garden. All those eight things we saw before last week, we looked at the ninth result of the fall of man and that is a changed relationship with God. That one is pretty comprehensive in and of itself and so we got through part of that one and didn't make it all the way through. We talked last week about the fact that part of that changed relationship with God means spiritual death and spiritual death means a couple of things, separation from God and depravity. We spent a good bit of time last week talking about what depravity is, a perversity of our nature, a twisting of our nature which is total in the sense that it includes and involves every part of us, every part of what we are and who we are is involved in our sinfulness. So we talked about what it doesn't mean what it does mean that's where we were last week. So tonight let's begin with a second aspect of our changed relationship with God and that is guilt. Guilt has to do with being morally responsible and thus because of sin being condemned because of sin. Guilt really, theologically as far as our relationship with God is concerned, means that we deserve the judgment of God. We merit His wrath and His judgment. A couple of verses that really explained that and mentioned that clearly or John chapter 3 verses 17 and 18 for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him, the Son is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. Now notice the wording there if you believe in Christ as your Savior you are not condemned before God. You will not suffer and condemned is the strongest word for judgment in the New Testament. The word for judgment is a Greek word, crema. And this word is kata crema which kata is a preposition which makes it very intense, very strong. So condemnation is the ultimate judgment. It is the eternal judgment. It is separation from God forever throughout eternity in the lake of fire. The Bible says if you believe in Christ you don't suffer that. You don't suffer condemnation. But notice this, here's the interesting wording. If you do not believe you stand condemned already. It's not as though you will be condemned at some point in the future. It's uncertain whether or not you will be. If you don't believe in Christ you are already condemned. You are already under the wrath of God. That's what guilt means that we deserve the judgment of God. Now there is a third part of our change relationship with God and that is shame. Now shame is tied to guilt. Guilt means we merit God's judgment. We are guilty before him, before his court. Shame is the subjective awareness of guilt. Shame is on the inside. We recognize that we have sinned. We recognize that we are wrong. We recognize that we deserve God's judgment and God's wrath. And that is seen very clearly in Genesis 3 with the first sin and the first sinners. Genesis 3 verses 7 and 8. Verse 7 says after they sinned and the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. We looked at that earlier. Verse 8, then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So this subjective awareness, this inner awareness of their guilt before God that their relationship had changed. They had done wrong. They had sinned and the shame that comes over them is seen in first of all recognizing they were naked. They had lost that at least something, theologians believe, a protective covering that may have been reflective of the very glory of God. They lost that, realized they are naked, tried to cover that up and then they hide from God. And we saw earlier that covering our sin, trying to cover our sin and hiding from God are a part of the result of the fall. That's the shame that comes upon us because of sin. One other, then I'll pause for a moment, give you an opportunity to ask questions or make comments. Another part of our relationship change with God is active enmity. And by that I mean that we literally become the enemy of God not just passively but actively we oppose everything God stands for. That is a result of the fall. Our relationship has now changed where Adam and Eve were in perfect relationship with God. They walked with him in the cool of the garden every day, perfect relationship with him. Now once sin enters into the human experience there is this enmity, this hostility, this being the enemy of God and not only passively but actively opposing God. Everything that God is and everything he stands for. Now let's look at a couple of verses on that. First is Romans chapter 8 verses 5 through 8. These are on the screen for you. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. Now if you read through this whole passage in Romans 8 you would recognize that what he's talking about here is two different realms, two different mindsets, two different groups of people. And those who are living according to the flesh he's not talking here about believers who are just living worldly lives. He's talking about a group of people who do not have the Holy Spirit, they're unsaved and so the only equipment they have inwardly to respond to life is the flesh. They're nature, they're human nature is corrupted by sin. That's one group of people, the other group of people who are living in the spirit that believers in this context. So those two groups of people. He goes on to say the mind governed by the flesh is death. But the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. Now notice what he says next the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. That's an active term. It's not like I'm just going to sit back here and not like you, but I'm going to oppose everything you are and everything you stand for. Does that ring a bell as you look at our culture today? Do we see any active hostility toward God and the values and teachings of his word? Of course we do. Should we expect that from unbelievers? Of course. That's exactly where this passage is coming from. So the mind governed by the flesh which doesn't have the input of the Holy Spirit, not a believer is hostile to God. It does not submit the God's law. Wow. Does not submit nor can it do so. The spiritual inability there. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. So there is no sense of merit or right standing before God on the part of those who are unbelievers. There is only active hostility toward everything that God is and everything he does. One of the verse to substantiate this and show this and then I'll pause for a moment. Colossians one. Once Paul says again speaking of before you were saved once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds. Now that's where it starts. This open hostility toward God begins in the fault processes. Remember the mind is part of our nature that has been corrupted by sin. It's part of being totally depraved. So it starts in the mind where enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemishing free from accusation. So the difference there before you were saved you were actually an enemy of God hostile toward him begins in your mind. It's because of your evil behavior because you've turned away from him and into to sin spoken generally of the human race but also of us individually. But now we're reconciled by Christ's death. So when man sinned his relationship with God changed when Adam sinned his relationship changed he died spiritually which means he became separated from God and he became depraved his whole nature and everything about him became corrupted and poisoned by sin. He became guilty before God he felt that sense of shame because of that guilt and he now is in active open hostility toward God. Now that describes the unbelieving mindset. Okay that's what happens in our relationship with God because of sin. Okay questions, comments there? Kishti? Yeah. That's a good question. How do you reconcile what we've just said with unbelievers who are moral people and don't seem to have a sense of guilt or shame. Obviously the guilt, the shame, the act of enmity and so forth is in general terms of the whole human race. There are various levels of that according to different people and Adam of course felt shame because he had just sinned obviously rebel against God. So I would say that a good moral person may sense that shame when they sin they may not always sense that or always feel guilty but the very fact that they do not that they think they're okay is an open hostility against God isn't it because God has declared they're not okay. They're sinful and they need him and instead of submitting to what God says about them they are saying no I'm okay. I'm a good person. Well that in itself is kind of can we call it passive aggressive hostility toward God. It's not shaking your fist in the face of God but in a sense it's saying I don't need you. I can do this on my own so it is hostility still toward God even though it is cloaked in a veneer of morality and goodness and I think that's at least how I think I would begin to see those kind of fitting together. Other thoughts along those lines because that's a great observation. Right. Yes and let's not get too hung up on the word open hostility and that may have been a little bit of an overkill word on my part because when we think of open hostility we're thinking of someone who's kind of a raging lunatic mad at somebody you know well. This is open hostility from God's perspective and from God's perspective a self righteous moral person who says I don't need you and I can get to heaven on my own is in open hostility toward God from God's perspective now from our perspective it may be very good moral decent law biting kind person and would not characterize themselves nor would we necessarily characterize them as being angry at God or openly hostile toward God but from God's perspective they are because they are living in direct rebellion against what God says is the only way to be right with him. So I think maybe we need to make that distinction with the open hostility idea. Mike a person who is who is a good moral person how do you direct them toward God. Yes I think one of the ways you do it is like Jesus did it talk with them long enough and they will begin to see the inconsistency and inadequacy of their behavior which is exactly what Jesus did with the Pharisees. Jesus pointed out the inconsistencies in self righteousness and legalism and any time a person is self righteous they're going to be lapses and and Jesus that's how he dealt with the Pharisees I think that's one way at least that a person who is a good moral person may be convinced of his or her sinfulness another way and I think this is this is even better. I'm just thinking on my feet here so this should come to my mind first. A good moral person needs to see that the standard against which we are measured is not the behavior of other human beings but it is the excellence in glory of God. We have all sent in fall short of what the glory of God and so no matter how good we are the standard that we're measured against is so infinitely higher than our best goodness we can't possibly hope to reach that and I think maybe I would back up and say that would be the first approach that that we ought to make sure a good moral person realizes our entrance into heaven is not based on how we measure up. And measuring up against other people that person may be a very good moral person indeed but would they be willing to say that their goodness is as good as God's would they be willing to say that I'm as holy as God is and then I would take them to Romans three that's the standard and the simple little illustration that I've often used is that of the pole vault if you've been here six years ago. If you've been here six months you probably heard me use that illustration of the pole vaulting event in track and field the bar is set at 20 feet for the best in the world. Fest in the world can probably get 20 feet. Let's say the bar is set at 100 feet. Nobody is going to make that that bar that standard. Some might look a little better than others. You know some might get off the ground and get up to about 20 feet but they're woefully short. I wouldn't get off the ground. In fact I probably stumble running down to where you put the you know pole in the pit and so some people will look better than others but nobody will reach the standard. I think that's that's maybe the best answer for a good moral person. You are a good moral person as compared to your fellow human beings but the standard is set a whole lot higher. Many other comments from your experience in dealing with good moral people what would you suggest definition of a good moral person. I don't know if I can give you a formal definition. I think it would be kind of the way Paul describes a good moral gentile in Romans 2 is a person who does what the law that is written on his heart does. He follows his conscience in trying to do the right thing. Can an atheist be a good moral person in the sense of doing good things morally being kind. Yes. Yes. But again we have to remember that goodness is not we're not defining goodness in terms of right standing before God right. We're not we're not defining goodness that way we're defining goodness as compared to human standards and human law. You are doing the right thing. Okay. Bob I think you had your hand up. That's interesting. That's a great insight. I hope all of you heard that. Bob was talking about when he worked in the coal mines. Pretty rough group of guys. It was not easy. It was not hard to convince them. They were lost. They were centers. They would readily recognize that. Probably laugh about it. But when he changed occupations and was dealing with more white collar people professional people it was more difficult for them to see their need of a savior. And when you tried to point it out at that point they lost that that open kindness and became aggressive and hostile and no I don't need that and that kind of thing. And that is exactly what I was talking about earlier that shows the open hostility of their hearts toward God and that I don't need him. Yeah. That's a very good insight. Okay. Yes, Bill. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Good point. You do have to get people lost before you get them saved. And for a good moral person. That's the harder part of the battle for them to realize their lost. And once they do they will more easily come to the savior. Okay. Anything else. Okay. Very good. We actually made it through that point. Somebody asked me tonight if we would make it. We got two more to go though. Two more. Let's do it. Let's do it tonight. Okay. Number 10. Again, results, judgments that have come because of the fall. This one is is a very, very critical consequence of the fall. And that is the second death. The second death. I don't have these verses on the screen for you. So would if you would please turn to Revelation, Revelation chapter 21. I will look at a couple of verses in chapter 21st. Revelation 20. Three verses here that talk about the second death. Revelation 20 verse six is the first one. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Let me stop right there. He's just described the resurrection of people who have died during the tribulation time who were believers did not take the mark of the beast. They did not worship the beast and so forth. They antichrist. And when Jesus comes back to set up his kingdom, which will be a thousand years on this earth and then delivered up to the father 1 Corinthians 15 to be an eternal kingdom. When that happens, when Jesus comes to set up his kingdom, these people who died during the tribulation will be resurrected. That's called the first resurrection. Now the first resurrection basically includes all believers. If you read Romans 15 or excuse me, 1 Corinthians 15, it talks about all those who are resurrected in Christ each in their order. And there are various times when people will be resurrected. The rapture at the second coming, Old Testament saints at the end of the millennium, Millennial saints. All of those together are the first resurrection because they're resurrected to life. But notice he says in the middle of verse six, the second death has no power over them. But they will be priests of God in Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. Now look down at verse 14. This is the description of the great white throne judgment. The great white throne judgment is a judgment that takes place after the millennium for all unbelievers that have ever lived from all ages, all unbelievers will stand before the great white throne judgment. And verse 14 says, then death and hateys were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Now let's get down to chapter 21 verse 8. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur or the lake of fire. This is the second death. So the Bible tells us very plainly what the second death is. It is sometimes called eternal death or eternal separation from God in the lake of fire. It's where unsaved people will spend eternity in the lake of fire forever and ever. It really is a final realization of spiritual death. Now remember we talked about death really means separation, physical death. The soul is separated from the body. That's what happens at physical death. Spiritual death means a person is separated from God. The second death is the final realization of spiritual death. You will now be separated from God forever and it's irreversible. Now spiritual death is reversible. Spiritual death can be undone by what? Repentance, faith, conversion, the new birth. Spiritual death can be reversed by salvation. But this is why this is called the second death. It is the second form of spiritual death which is irreversible. It cannot be changed or reversed. It will be the eternal punishment of all who are lost. It is a consequence of the fall. It's the ultimate result of the fall. The only people delivered from it are those who are saved by God's grace who thus have a part in the first resurrection. The second death can't touch those of us who are saved. So it is a consequence of the fall but we are delivered from it if we come to know Christ as our Savior. Questions or comments about that one? Tommy? That seems to be what the Scriptures portray that the torment of hell is eternal in the sense that people are not burned up in hell. They suffer in flames forever. That's a horrible thing to think about but it is the reality I believe of the lake of fire. There's one other thing that we have to point out before we leave Genesis 3 and we'll go back to Genesis 3, the other end of your Bible. That is after all of this description of man's fallen to sin and all of these drastic far reaching consequences and judgments of God because of sin at the end of the chapter there is a picture of atonement. There is a little glimpse of how all of this can be made right and it's in verse 21. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Remember their feeble attempts to cover themselves with fig leaves was inadequate. It did not do the job. It was not a sufficient covering. So what God does is he steps in and provides a covering for them and there are two beautiful pictures here. First of all this is a covering that God provides. God does this. And it's a beautiful picture of salvation because man's efforts to cover up his own sin or to cover up his unrighteousness and present himself as acceptable to God. Man's efforts to do that are inadequate and can never be sufficient. God must do this. And the second beautiful part of the picture is that when God covers us and clothes us it requires the sacrifice of an innocent substitute. When the Bible says he clothed them with garments of skin that means that those garments were taking from an animal. That animal and many would believe it would be a lamb. That animal is an innocent substitute. The animal hasn't done anything wrong. Let's just assume it was a lamb. The lamb didn't do anything. The lamb didn't sin. But the lamb must give its life so that its skin will can cover the one who is guilty. And so the lamb is innocent but it becomes a substitute for the one who is guilty. What a beautiful picture of salvation. The lamb of God, innocent, holy, blameless, separate from sin as Hebrews 7.25 says, It becomes our substitute. It takes our place, gives his life so that his blood can cover us and wash away our sins. And we can be right with God, dressed in his righteousness. It's a beautiful picture of atonement, of how Christ through the plan of God atoned for our sins. And I just think that's the best way to end this whole section on the terrible consequences of sin because all of those terrible consequences of sin are taken care of in the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. What a beautiful way to end Genesis 3. Okay, questions or comments there about that picture. We don't, I mean in the sense that we don't know what animal it was because it's not mentioned. Some tie this to chapter 4 where able is bringing sacrifices to God from his flock and God accepts those. And Cain is bringing the fruit of his own hands that he's grown and God doesn't accept those. I think there may, and because of that, there's some who say Adam and Eve taught their sons to bring an innocent sacrifice a lamb to sacrifice to God. I think there may be something there, although that's an assumption on our part. We don't, we don't know what animal it was in Genesis 3 and we don't know what Adam and Eve taught their, their sons, the assumption. Probably the first, unless an elephant did step on an ant. I'm sorry, sorry. That was a previous discussion we had a few weeks ago. But yeah, probably the first, the first death of any living creature. Because there was no death before sin. So the first death would have been this animal. I think we could say that. By the way, let me just make one more comment on Genesis 4. The reason I said that some make that direct connection. It stands the reason that that could be that it was a lamb because Abel brings a lamb. But when you, when you study Genesis 4 carefully, it is not, it is not just the offerings that were brought. You can make a big deal with the fact that well, Abel grew his own crops. Yeah, he did, but I mean, Cain did, but Abel also raised that lamb. I mean, each of them had some input. That's not the sole issue here. The Bible says that God had regard to Abel and his offering and not to Cain his offering. And probably the real problem was the spirit in which they brought their offerings. In other words, their heart relationship with God, their heart attitude toward God was really the issue in, in how God accepted or did not accept their offerings. Because, by the way, when God would later give the sacrificial system to Moses, there were, there was one whole group of sacrifices that were composed of grain offerings. The piece or fellowship offering, for instance, was totally of grain. It was not an animal at all. And then there were other offerings where grain or wine were used as a part of the offering. So the issue is not necessarily, okay, here's a lamb, but here's something I grew on my own. That's not really the issue in Genesis 4. So I didn't want to leave that hanging. The issue in Genesis 4 is the heart attitude toward God. What was their heart positioning before God when they brought their sacrifices? And that's always the issue in Old Testament sacrifices. Pardon me? Blood was involved in the death of the lamb. Yes. Yes. Or whatever animal it was, blood would have been involved for sure, because this animal would have had to be skinned. Okay. All right. I want to at least introduce our next topic in what the Bible teaches about sin. And that is the transmission of the sin nature. That does not mean something that changes gears. You know, sin nature gets to a second gear and a third gear. This is how the sin nature is transmitted to us. In other words, how did we get it? How did it become a part of us? I mean, Adam Sand, we know that we're sinners. What's the connection between the two? I want us to tonight just read Romans 5 and we'll probably pick up with that again next Wednesday. Romans 5, if you'll look there in your Bible, verse 12. Here's the question we're considering. How does Adam's sin affect the whole human race? How does Adam's sin affect the human race? Adam's sin, we know we're all sinners. What's the connection between the two? How does Adam's sin affect us? This is really the question we're going to be talking about. And I just want to introduce it by reading Romans 5, where it is clear that Adam's sin did affect all of us. And we'll see how it did when we get into this a little bit more. But as I read this, just note, just please notice how many connections there are. There's a connection between how Adam's sin affected us and how Christ's death affects us. And there's this beautiful parallel between those two that Paul develops in this passage. He says in verse 12, therefore just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin. And in this way, death came to all people because all sin. Now you see it right there in that first verse. Okay, sin came through one man. That introduced death through that same man. And in this way, and we'll see, as we get into this, what way he's talking about, death actually comes to all people. Verse 13, to be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone's account where there is no law. In other words, because the law condemns sin before God gave the law to Moses, there was no condemnation, but there was still death. So there must have still been sin. That's his point here, verse 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass, for if the many died by the trespass of the one man, all right, you see, Adam sin had an effect on us. Okay, many died by the trespass of one man. How much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflow to the many? Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of the one man's sin, the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation. But the gift, again, comparing Christ's work for us, the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification for if by the trespass of the one man, okay, back to Adam, if by the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man. How much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ? Consequently, just as one trespass, notice the connection here, just as one trespass, that's Adam, resulted in condemnation for all people. So Adam sin affected us all, okay, just as that happens. So also one righteous act resulted in the justification in life for all people. In verse 19, for just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners. That is a key phrase. The many were made sinners through Adam's disobedience. So also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. Okay, I think you can see in a number of different ways in these verses, he connects Adam sin with us. It did affect us in lots of different ways as described there. Making that observation next week, we're going to get into various views as to what is our relationship with Adam sin. There are a couple of views that still have a lot of traction in certain groups today that say there is no connection between us and Adam sin. Adam sin didn't affect us at all, and then there are two views that in different ways describe how Adam sin did affect us. So we'll start looking at those next week. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word and for the recognition that because of Adam sin, we are all condemned, we're all made sinners. And thus we are all in need of that gift of righteousness which justifies us before you as we receive it by faith as we've just read in Romans 5. Thank you for the gift that you've given us that counters everything that has come to us through Adam sin. We are grateful that although we are guilty, condemned sinners before Holy God, you have made provision for us to be covered and cleansed and purified through the blood of Christ. Thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen.