A2 – How sin entered the world
In our past lesson, we considered what Heaven is like and what a wonderful place it is. In this lesson, we are going to see that our sins can prevent us from going into that wonderful place called Heaven. But first, let us consider how sin entered into the world.
Sin is anything we think and do against the will of God.
The Bible describes it as “transgression against the law of God”. It tells us that sin came into the world because Adam and Eve transgressed (disobeyed) against God.
God had established a garden that Adam and Eve (the first man and the first woman) could live in. The garden was called Eden.
God then told Adam and Eve that they could eat any fruit from all the trees of the garden of Eden except from one tree which was called the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
He told them specifically,
“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2 vs. 17
Adam and Eve were happy and comfortable in the Garden of Eden until one day when the enemy called the devil or Satan came to deceive them.
But you may ask, where did Satan come from?
Satan or the devil was once an angel of God. He used to be called Lucifer. He was a beautiful angel with high authority. However, one day, Lucifer tried to undermine God’s authority and was determined to overthrow God from the Heavenly throne so that he could make himself God instead.
That ultimately led to him being put out of heaven because there can only be one God and Jehovah alone is God. Lucifer’s name was therefore changed to Satan which means “enemy”.
Satan came into the garden of Eden one day and encouraged Adam and Eve to disobey God. He approached Eve and said to her,
“Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree in the garden?”
Eve responded saying,
”God told us not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He told us if we do so we are going to die.”
Satan then lied to Eve. He told her,
“No, you are not really going to die. If you eat the fruit of that tree it will make you wise. You are going to be as God is.
The devil is a liar! He loves deceiving people with his lies.
Unfortunately, Eve believed Satan’s words when she shouldn’t have. She took the fruit and ate it. Later she gave it to Adam who also ate it. In that way Adam and Eve disobeyed God and became sinners instantly. They were separated with God. In other words, they died spiritually. God was right. Many years later Adam and Eve faced physical death as we know it today.
After eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve tried to hide from God. God knew why they were hiding from Him. They had sinned and therefore knew that what they did was wrong. They felt guilty.
God had no option but to throw them out of Eden because they had sinned.
Sin is a very serious matter!
Adam and Eve could no longer have fellowship or a union with God. After throwing them out of Eden, God blocked the way to the garden with an angel called a cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
Adam and Eve now had a sinful nature in their hearts.
It was this nature that made them disobey God and want to please themselves. Doing what we want instead of what God wants is sin. God made every creature to be in the form of its parents. For that reason, when Adam and Eve had children the very nature of sin was passed on to their children. Since all the human race is descended from Adam and Eve, their sinful nature was passed on to us from generation to generation.
Every one of us is born with a sinful nature in our hearts.
Regardless of who we are, I am a sinner, you also are a sinner.
As we saw earlier, now that Adam and Eve were sinners, they not only died spiritually but they also were sentenced or destined to die. The Bible says, “The soul who sins shall die.” Ezekiel 18 vs.4. Satan must have been so happy to see that sin had entered the world. It was what he had always wanted. On the other hand, Adam and Eve were very sad. God was even more saddened by what had happened.
Despite their sin, God still loved Adam and Eve. In that day he made them a promise that one day He will send them and us a Saviour who would die for their sins. That promised Saviour was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
The name “Jesus” means “Saviour”. The Bible says, “You shall call his name JESUS: for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1 vs. 21.
Before Jesus could come into the world, God commanded people to offer a lamb as a sacrifice for their sins. Do you know what a lamb is? It’s a young sheep. Why was the lamb offered as a substitute for sin?
The Bible tells us the reason,
“without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.” Hebrews 9 vs.22.
Everyone therefore, had to offer a sacrifice of a lamb for their sins. As a substitute, the lamb would die for the sins of that person.
We need to understand that when the lamb was offered as a sacrifice for people’s sins, this act was merely a “picture” or type to tell the world that one day Jesus would die for our sins. It is of great importance for us to remember that something or someone has to die for our sins.
IMPORTANT POINTS OF NOTE:
– Sin entered into the world because Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
– All of us are sinners, our sin separates us from God
– Jesus Christ died for our sins, if we repent of them and put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, our sins will be forgiven, and be taken to Heaven one day for all eternity
In our next lesson we are going to explore the topic: “Jesus died for our sins”.
Next Steps
Now, once you have finished reading this lesson and you are sure to have understood it, click on the link below and answer the quiz questions. Your answers will be graded automatically and you will receive feedback on which answers you got right and which answers you answered incorrectly.
Lessons and quizzes can be completed without registering, but if you wish to track your progress and receive a Certificate of Completion, you must firstly Register and Log In. Use of BibleLessons.Online is completely free.