The Origin of Sin

A common question that many have asked is, “How did sin or evil originate in a world that a loving and all-powerful God created and is sovereign over?” The initial state of this world was labeled as “good” (Genesis 1:31). Seeing that God is all-powerful, yet evil does exist, the necessary inference to be drawn must be that God did not prevent man from sinning, because it was His plan for His creatures to possess the freedom of will, an ability to choose, otherwise, their worship, love and obedience would all be meaningless.

The angels that sinned

“If God did not spare angels when they sinned” (2 Peter 2:4). Most place this event sometime prior to the creation of this world. In fact, Peter places it chronologically prior to the flood (2:5). We first should note that angels, who are created beings, also have free will, and temptation and sin existed in the spiritual realm before they existed in the physical universe. Jude further describes their sin as being, “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode” (Jude 6). “It would seem that these angels were not satisfied with the place where God had put them, but desired a position of higher authority” (Created in God’s Image, Hoekema, p. 122). Equally, we could say that they were not satisfied with the role that God had given them, and rebelled against the created order. Verse 7 is another example of created beings abandoning their proper role. “If even angels are subject to God’s judgment, despite their most strenuous attempts to rebel, what chance do human rebels have?” (Stott p. 185). When it comes to Satan, the Bible does not really give us much information concerning the beginning of His career as a rebel against God, yet one passage may offer some insight. “And not a new convert, lest he become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6). This text may be teaching that the sin that ensnared the devil was conceit or pride. If this is the case, then the same fundamental temptations that ensnared beings in the spiritual realm are the same type of temptations that trap men and women (Proverbs 16:18).

Adam

Though some have tried to deny that Adam and Eve were real historical persons, the Bible teaches the opposite. The genealogy in the first chapter of 1 Chronicles begins with Adam (v. 1), in like manner, the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3 ends with Adam (3:38), who is viewed as a real person just like everyone else in that list. When Jesus was questioned about divorce, He appealed to the early chapters of Genesis which clearly state that God created a male and female (Genesis 1:27), and this pair was united in marriage (Genesis 2:24) (Matthew 19:4-6). “Jesus’ appeal to the beginning of things as recorded in Genesis would have no relevance for the situation in His day if the man and woman described in these verses were mere symbols. Jesus’ words assume the existence of an actual human pair” (Hoekema p. 113). Speaking by inspiration, Paul also treats Adam and Eve as real historical persons (1 Timothy 2:13), and clearly mentions the fact that Adam was created first (2:13), and was the very first man (1 Corinthians 15:45).

The speaking serpent

The New Testament makes it clear that the talking serpent and the temptation were real historical events (2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14. The context of Genesis chapter 3 agrees, noting that not only are Adam and Eve punished, but so is the serpent (3:14). God’s punishment of the serpent is a punishment that indicates that an actual serpent was being described, not just a symbolic serpent. Yet the serpent was merely a tool used by Satan (John 8:44).

The Temptation

We are often warned that the devil is crafty (2 Corinthians 2:11), and that sin is very deceptive (Hebrews 3:13), and that if we are not careful, the devil can deceive us just like he deceived Eve (2 Corinthians 11:3 “I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity to devotion of Christ”). Consider the terms simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. What God has always expected of mankind is very clear and simple: Single-minded devotion, putting Him first, and obeying His commandments (Matthew 7:21; 1 Samuel 15:22-23; Micah 6:8; John 14:15). From the beginning, the devil has been trying to convince people that God will settle for something less than obedience. And the world is full of complicated arguments to achieve this end: “Relationships are more important than rules”, “Love is more important than doctrine”, “As long as you are sincere it does not matter what you believe”, “Acting like a Christian will make up for not being a Christian”, “God will save everyone”, “What’s in your heart is more important than what you do” and so on.

Genesis 3:1-6

Carefully consider the pattern that this temptation followed:

· Doubt: “Indeed, has God said” (Genesis 3:1). The devil sought to raise doubts concerning a command that was perfectly clear (2:16-17). Are there clear passages in Scripture that in our own times the devil is seeking to convince people that God could not possibly have said what those passages teach? If the devil could convince Eve that Genesis 2:17 did not say that they would die if they ate the forbidden fruit, then we cannot adopt the naïve belief that we only have to obey and believe those passages that men consider to be foundational or essential to the Christian faith.

· Resentment: “In the woman’s reply we note the beginning of resentment: ‘The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die’ (3:2-3). Actually, God had not said that Adam and Eve could not touch this tree; Eve’s mentioning this seems to suggest the beginning of resentment against what she now deemed to be an unfair restriction of their activities” (Hoekema p. 130).

· Unbelief: “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). Beware of allowing yourself to believe that God is going to accept something less than what He has commanded. If we really do not love God with all are heart are we fooling ourselves that in the end God will accept our partial devotion? How many people claim that in spite of what Paul said in Galatians 5:19-21 or 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, that people who practice such things will go to heaven? Deception cannot happen, unless we open up our minds to falsehood. All apostasy and unfaithfulness begins when a seed of error is sown in the mind, and the mind allows it to grow (Romans 1:21-22).

· Pride: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (3:5).

“Feeling that some greater height of God-likeness than she had previously attained had so far been denied her, and wanting in pride to reach that height, the woman was now ready for the final step. As she looked intently at the fruit of the tree, evil desire was aroused. There was an appeal to the appetite (‘the fruit of the tree was good for food’), to the eyes (‘it was pleasing to the eye’), and once again to her pride (‘the fruit was desirable for gaining wisdom’). The final step was outright disobedience” (p. 130). “The weapon of all false teachers is subtlety (not open or direct, crafty, sly, working insidiously). And the sphere in which this weapon does its deadly work is the human imagination. From Eve onwards, the human heart has been deceived by those who, appearing to have wisdom, insinuate by plausible suggestions and arguments the most destructive of all lies that men and women are not under an imperative duty to recognize and obey their sovereign Creator, but that they have it in their power to break their restrictive fetters, and give free expression to their instincts unbound by any revealed moral law. So the serpent suggested to Eve that by disobeying the divine command she might become ‘as God’. The explanation of the permanent predicament in which man finds himself, always resenting his position as a creature” (2 Corinthians, Tasker pp. 146-147).

Why?

We know that Adam and Eve were created with the potential to sin, seeing that they were given the power of choice, yet why they sinned is another matter. God had placed this pair in a perfect environment with everything they needed with only one restriction. They had been given such wonderful blessings that they should have been able to resist the devil’s temptation. All of this simply reveals that sin is senseless, that is, from a rational point of view; it does not make any sense to rebel against such a loving Creator. Sin will not so much remain a riddle, but rather it will always remain absolute foolishness (Luke 15:17).

The great disappointment

The results from the first act of rebellion were disappointing indeed. Instead of feeling that they were like God or actually were God, they were overwhelmed by a deep sense of shame (Genesis 3:7; 2:25; Romans 6:21). The next result was fear (Genesis 3:10). Please note that people who feel that the God of the Bible is overbearing or harsh are trying to hide something (Matthew 25:24). Along with the fear came evasion of responsibility. Adam initially confessed that he was afraid because he was naked (3:10), but this is not the real reason. He was afraid because he knew that he had disobeyed God. Adam continued this evasion by blaming Eve (3:12), who in turn blamed the serpent (3:13). Neither were willing to own up to their own personal responsibility—sound familiar? Notice that God punished everyone who was involved (3:14ff). 3:16 For women, besides sharing in Adam’s toil and frustration (3:17), the pain in childbirth is greatly multiplied, yet in spite of such pain, she would continue to desire a relationship with her husband. “Yet he shall rule over you”: Male headship is not a punishment, for Adam is the head of his home before sin enters the world (Genesis 2:18). This verse could mean either that in spite of her attempt to exercise headship, women will never be able to reverse God’s order, or because of sin many marriages will not be pleasant for women. Because of sin, many men will become tyrannical and domineering, yet this consequence can be escaped by two Christians who are married to each other (Ephesians 5:22ff; 1 Peter 3:7). Yet this verse does explain why so many marriages are anything but pleasant and rather just plain weird. 3:17-18 From other passages we learn that God would not withdraw all His blessings (Acts 14:16-17). The earth will still yield, but life will not be easy as it was in the garden. The harvest will come, but only with hard toil. “Undesirable types of plants will not begin to spring up, and weeds will multiply, making the task of tilling the soil much more difficult than before. We note that only such aspects of the curse as apply to agriculture, but surely other types of results must be included, such as natural disasters, floods, earthquakes, and disease, germs, and viruses” (Hoekema p. 137). 3:19 Physical death, including the aging process and disease. The couple would begin to age, but both had already died spiritually that very day, because in the Bible the deepest meaning of life is fellowship with God, and the deepest meaning of death is disruption of that fellowship. 3:22 Man knew good and evil, but he had come to know it in the wrong way. God knows all about evil by abstaining from it, sadly Adam and Eve know about evil by committing it. The couple also had made the mistake of assuming they could know all about reality by acting contrary to God’s command. The couple had taken it upon themselves to determine what was good, thus they were acting like they were gods, and thus became like God in the wrong way, by exercising a reckless independence.