Fundamental 5.
Man and Sin
God created man in His own image – the Bible
Man created God in his own image – Voltaire (a French Historian and Philosopher)
What is man? David asked this question centuries ago.
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man, that you care for him?’ Psalms 8:3-4
Are we merely glorified animals? Are we only the sum total of all our chemicals and their reactions? Or are we more than this?
God, the Creator of the universe, specially designed and crafted mankind. He created us with His imprint on each of us. And He designed us with a purpose.
But “Who are we? Christians care a lot about this question because we measure our worth by how God sees us.
When David asked the question he wasn’t being critical of human beings, he was just being realistic. David saw man’s insignificance in comparison to God and His handiwork.
The question of our identity underlies all we do and all we become. Does it matter what course our lives take?
The answer to the question of identity has enormous influence upon our view of us, our choices, our goals; our world view.
So the first question to be answered is that of origin. Where did we come from?
Why did God create man?
Why does God seem to care so much about us?
Why are we here?
When we read the description in Genesis 1 of how God set man on this earth, we get a clear sense that man mattered immensely to God:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis. 1:26-27
This verse also contains an example of the three Persons of the Godhead—the Trinity—working together on a single project: man. We know that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were one with God at all points of Creation, but the emphasis in these verses gives this process special meaning.
Genesis describes how God made the first man, Adam:
The Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis. 2:7
God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden – the most beautiful, perfect place ever on earth. God wanted Adam to “work it and take care of it.”
He then told Adam that there was something very important he needed to know about the Garden. In the middle of the Garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God commanded Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
God gave Adam a very specific command: Don’t touch the tree. He also was very clear about the consequences.
Then God did something very wonderful for Adam. He created woman.
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. Genesis 2:18, 21-22.
The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man”. Genesis 2:23
So God had created a perfect world and put Adam and Eve into the middle of paradise. So what went wrong?
Many people who refuse to acknowledge God as Creator will acknowledge that it requires more faith to believe man evolved from primates than it does to believe he is a created being.
Understanding that God created man in His image is critical. That we are made in God’s image explains why every person who has ever lived has thought about God. God’s image – His imprint – is there. It is this divine imprint that ultimately gives us our value.
And even after man disobeyed God, His imprint remained. As God told Noah years later:
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. Genesis 9:6
Does this statement imply any physical likeness to God? Scripture teaches that God is a spirit and does not have physical parts like a man (John 4:24).
The strong prohibition against man’s representing God by graven images was given because no one had ever seen God; therefore, no one could know what He looks like. Nothing on earth cold represent His Spirit (Deuteronomy 4:15 – 23).
Study shows that the image of God in man has to do with personality.
The human qualities of feeling, caring, and communicating come from God. Even joy, sorrow, and desiring relationship are part of His personality.
From this truth come some extremely important beliefs for Christians.
All human beings have dignity because of God’s divine imprint. Human life is to be respected and preserved, whether it is very young or very old, strong or weak. “And from each man,” God said in Genesis 9:5, “I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.”
Man is the only living thing personally and lovingly crafted by the Creator. (Genesis 2:7, 21-22) God made everything else by calling it into existence.
Perhaps this is why man has some unique and important qualities. Qualities that elevate humankind above other living things:
- Man alone can communicate with God
- Man alone has been given the right and responsibility to manage the earth’s resources and to rule over all living things (Genesis 1:26, 28-30.
- Man alone is morally responsible to obey God. We have an awareness, a sense of right and wrong. (Genesis 3). This “knowing” from God means that God’s people love love and hate evil and differentiate between the options.
- Man alone has both a physical and a spiritual dimension. In addition to this physical body, man has a heart, soul, mind, and will.
One of Gardner C. Taylor, an American preacher and known as the Dean of American preaching’s, many quotes is: “God is not something like us, only better. Rather, we are something like God, only infinitely less. With Jesus Christ as the central evidence and supreme manifestation of that “something like”, this likeness is the most wonderful truth in the entire universe.
- The heart of Man: In everyday speech, we use the word heart in a variety of ways, usually having nothing to do with the actual organ that pumps blood through our bodies.
The Bible talks about the heart of man in these nonphysical ways:
- The heart has emotion –Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4)
- The heart has a will – …., and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said. (Exodus 7:22)
- The heart has thoughts – For out of the heart come evil thoughts-murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. (Matthew 15:19)
In a very real sense, the heart is the human control center for emotions and deepest desires. In Proverbs, Solomon tells his son, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23)
- The soul of Man– the soul, which is sometimes referred to as the spirit, is the eternal essence of a person, the part that never dies.
- We are commanded to love God with all our soul – Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37)
- King David loved to praise the Lord with his soul – Praise the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, praise his holy name. (Psalms 103:1)
- Jesus told His disciples not to fear those who “kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28)
Because the soul is eternal, it is often said that our soul is the real us.
The soul is also something that can be lost in the spiritual sense. Jesus talked about forfeiting the eternal soul in exchange for what this temporal world has to offer.
“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
The implication is clear. A soul can be “lost” eternally if a person does not entrust his or her soul to God. On the other hand, the soul cannot exist without the power of God (Acts 17:28).
- The mind of Man – The mind, or thinking ability, of a person is capable of many positive things:
- Loving God – Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)
- Understanding God’s will – Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Ephesians 5:17)
- Praising God – So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. (1 Corinthians 14:15)
- Being renewed – Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
But a human’s mind is also capable of many negative things:
- Depravity – Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:28)
- Futility – So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. (Ephesians 4:17)
- Darkness and Ignorance – They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (Ephesians 4:18)
- Being blinded by Satan – The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
- The will of Man – Another essential but intangible part of man is his will. The will of man, or his ability to choose and pursue desired goals, is an amazingly powerful drive.
In a spiritual sense, the will of man has played a major role since Adam and Eve. God could have created our first parents without the ability to choose, so that they would do only what He had determined they would do. But He didn’t. He gave them the power and the freedom to make their own decisions—including the decision that would change the human race forever.
So why did God create man, especially since He must have known how man would respond to His command to obey Him.
The “Why are we here?” question got its best-known answer in the Westminster Confession (a church creed from 1646):
The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
God loves His creation, especially those special creatures He made in His image. He desires nothing greater than to have us glorify Him in all we do, and to truly enjoy everything about Him.
Another wonderful statement is found in the Old Testament book of Micah, a prophet to Israel. Micah gives us some terrific insight into why we are here, and what it takes to please God:
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does
The LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
So looking at Man:
- God created woman and man in His image.
- Humans are set apart in Creation as both physical and spiritual beings.
- God created the Garden of Eden to show what He wanted for man—only the best.
- God gave man the ability to choose.
- All humans have dignity because of the divine imprint on our being.
- We are put on earth to respond to God in worship, obedience, and enjoyment.
We have been given a view of a perfect world. A place where a man and woman could enjoy perfect happiness in perfect freedom, including the freedom to choose—even to choose against God.
The Fall.
Someone once wrote, “Sin is man’s Declaration of Independence from God”.
– Anonymous,
God created humans in His image with an eternal soul. (Matthew 10:28).
Our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Yet the entire human race falls short of God’s perfect standard because of sin (Romans 3:23). Our sin leads to death, but God has given us a way out: Eternal life through Jesus Christ. (Romans 6:23).
A person who ignores the truth about sin is like someone who is very sick but won’t get help because he or she hates hospitals. Yet if the person is willing to go for treatment, a healthy future awaits.
Many different words in the original language of the Bible are used to describe sin. In Psalms 19:12-13, David uses many of them as he tells God of his desire to be free from wrong doing of any kind.
Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
What would a life look like without all these dark deeds? David’s closing words of devotion in Psalms 19 describe exactly that:
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Pleasing God is a good description of the opposite of sin. Pleasing God is what we were created for and originally intended to do.
Some of the language the Bible uses to describe rebellion/sin against God is:
- Transgression – conveys the idea of crossing over the boundary of what God finds acceptable – As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. (Ephesians 2:1)
- Unrighteousness – not hitting the target of what God finds acceptable – But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I speak in a human way)
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) - Lawlessness – breaking accepted rules of right and wrong – Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. (1John 3:4)
- Rebellion – going beyond a limit – So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. (1 Kings 12:19)
- Godlessness – no reverence for God – The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness. (Romans 1:18)
- Wickedness – evil deeds (Romans 1:18)
- Evil – If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him. (Matthew 7:11)
Sin is anything that is contrary to God’s holy nature. The Bible describes both our actions and our nature as sin when we rebel against God.
A correct view of sin is very important to both God and man:
- To God because it saddens Him, because sin brings His children consequences, and because it separates us form Him
- To humans because we are accountable to God for our actions, because sin brings us consequences, and because it separates us from Him.
See the common threads for both God and man? Wrong suffered, painful results, broken relationships. Sin isn’t just a theological concept. Sin is about breaking a relationship—the most important relationship of our life.
A clear understanding of sin depends upon a true view of God and humankind. God is holy, just, and righteous. Any sin – no matter how seemingly insignificant- violates His absolute standard of holiness. And, as His created beings, we are subject to His laws and plan.
We see evidence of sin reported in every daily newspaper and on cable news round the clock (murders, robberies, rapes, greed, cheating). We read about the destructive legacy of sin in the events of history (wars, racial hatred, oppression, injustice.) We observe the presence and influence of sin, if we’re honest, in the actions and thoughts of our own life and character (hatefulness, lies, pride, jealousy, selfishness — impulses we feel guilty about)
The unhappy truth about sin is that the seeds of evil in the world seem to be planted in everyone’s heart.
According to the Bible, sin has existed on earth since the first man disobeyed. Man and woman were created just the way God wanted them to be. They were intellectual, moral beings. They lived in the beautiful, bountiful Garden of Eden. They had committed no evil deed.
But remember God’s one rule. It appeared to be an easy and simple one:
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16
Genesis 3 tells us what happens next. Along comes Satan (having been earlier kicked out of heaven and allowed to roam around earth). Satan takes on the form of a serpent and talks to Eve. And even though she had never before heard a lie, she believed the snake/Satan and doubted God.
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
“The real problem is in the heart and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.” – Albert Einstein
The dialogue with Eve and Satan marked the beginning of Satan’s struggle for the ruin of humankind. By his deceptive questions and statements, he was attempting to get her to disobey God’s rules. And sadly, Adam and Eve would choose to believe Satan’s lies rather than to believe and obey God’s rules.
They bought into Satan’s rationalization. Eve took the fruit and ate it; then she offered it to Adam, and he ate it. The Bible says that they immediately realized they had violated God’s law.
This darkest day in the history of mankind has been known ever since as The Fall. It was the day on which the sin virus invaded the world and infected mankind with deadly consequences.
As soon as they sinned, Adam and Eve felt shame, embarrassment, and guilt. They actually tried to hide from God. When God confronted them, He issued the following consequences for their disobedience:
- For both Adam and Eve:
Physical and spiritual death (Genesis 2:17)
Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23)
- For Eve and all women who follow her:
Pain in childbirth (Genesis 3:16)
Submission to husband (Genesis 3:16)
- For Adam and all men who follow him:
A lifetime of “painful toil” to get food from the earth (Genesis 3:17-19)
- For the serpent:
Cursed to forever crawl on its belly and eat dust (Genesis 3:14)
- For Satan:
God declared that Satan would injure the heel of woman’s offspring but that her offspring would crush the head of Satan (Genesis 3:15). This is the first Bible reference to the future events when Satan’s evil influence over humankind would bring about the crucifixion of Jesus (thereby “injuring the heel” of woman’s offspring). But Jesus will eventually crush Satan when the devil is forever cast into a lake of fire.
Satan is still playing the same con game today. He wants us to rationalize away God’s rules and standards.
Satan knows that the key to right living is right thinking. We won’t be thinking right if we listen to Satan’s rationalizations.
Two simple truths we should remember from the disaster in the Garden: God wants what’s best for us, no matter what anyone says. And, obedience to Him leads to the best that life has to offer.
So why did God heap on the punishment of physical and spiritual death?
The fruit itself is relatively unimportant. Adam and Eve’s great offense was the act of deliberate disobedience.
In reality, whether it was disobedience in a small or large issue doesn’t matter. It was still a disobedient act. That means sin, and consequences of all sins are the same: Sin, in whatever form, violates God’s nature and separates us from Him.
The Bible clearly teaches that their sin, as with all sin, carries the penalties of:
- Natural death, or death of the physical body (Romans 5:12-14). If there had been no sin in the Garden of Eden, there would have been no death to Adam or Eve or the animals. The physical death we see everywhere in the world is the consequence of sin entering the world.
- Spiritual death. While the spirit part of man is still eternal, it dies in the sense that it is alienated from God. (Ephesians 2:12). Unless a person accepts Christ, the soul (or spirit) part of the person is condemned to spend eternity in hell separated from God.
The Bible is very clear about this point:
For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)
Remember there can be no little sin till we can find a little God.” – John Wesley
The consequences of Adam’s sin were not limited to him. The Bible says that Adam began a sub nature that contaminated all humans since Adam. Because of Adam’s sin, we are sinners in two critical ways:
- We inherit a sin nature. The sin nature is inherited at birth and passed from one generation to the next. The sin nature is so pervasive and corruptive that a parent (no matter how good) is incapable of giving birth to anything but a sinful child.
Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:5)
- We carry a sin debt. Sin is directly charged against us because Adam was a representative of mankind in the Garden. As our representative, when he sinned, we sinned. Theologians call this imputed sin. In other words, the blame of Adam’s sin carries forward to us.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)
The concept of inherited sin would seem unfair, except that God has provided a way for us to inherit the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Similarly, the concept of imputed sin would seem unfair, except that the righteousness of Jesus Christ can be imputed to us.
For in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22)
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)
In short, as humans, we get inherited and imputed sin automatically. Also, as humans we can receive inherited and imputed righteousness as a gift—but we have to ask for it.
We can’t simply blame Adam and Eve for our sin. We are guilty of sin all on our own—because of things we do, because of things we don’t do, and because of things we think.
Our sinful acts proceed from a corrupt heart and mind, deep inside of each of us. In other words, we are not sinners because we sin—we sin because we are sinners:
- Sinful acts. We sin when we commit acts that are contrary to God’s holy standard of righteousness. Stealing. Anger. Gossip. Theologians call these “sins of commission.”
- Sinful failures to act. We sin when we fail to do what we know is the right thing to do. Failing to speak the truth when we know it. Failing to help others when we know we should. Theologians call these “sins of omission.”
Anyone, then who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. (James 4:17)
- Sinful thoughts. We sin when we have unrighteous attitudes. Pride. Hate. Greed. These are referred to as “sins of the heart.” Jesus described such sins with this comment:
You have heard that it was said, “Do not commit adultery.” But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28)
- Sin is everywhere. It spreads wide. All humans have sinned.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
- Sin affects everyone. Its effects go deep. It infects every part of our being. It taints our mind, our emotions and actions. With respect to spiritual and moral issues:
- Our reasoning powers are dead (Roman 8:7)
- Our conscience is corrupted (Titus 1:15)
- Our will is stubborn, rebellious and defiant (Romans 1:32)
- Our desires are selfish and base (Colossians 3:5)
- Our thoughts are evil (Genesis 6:5)
In this regard, theologians refer to the “total depravity” of man as the result of sin.
- Sin makes us blind to God. It makes us feeble. It clouds our thinking and puts us at odds with God and His principles.
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Just as Satan wanted Eve to believe that there were no consequences to her disobedience, Satan wants us to believe that our sins have no consequences.
Satan would like for us to think that:
- God is so forgiving that He will overlook sin.
- God is a loving God who won’t really punish us.
- The sins we commit aren’t really that bad.
- The few sins we have committed are offset by the good things that we do.
All of these deceptions are the same rationalizations that trapped Eve. God is a loving God and a forgiving God. But He is also a holy and a just God.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge (Psalm 50:6)
- He judges sin according to the truth.
- He judges sin according to His holy standard of righteousness.
- He judges sin without exceptions.
- He judges sin without excuses.
God’s holiness is displayed by how He treats sin. At the same time, God’s goodness is displayed by the pardon He provides for sin.
“The wrath of God is simply the rule of the universe that a man will reap what he sows, and that no one ever escapes the consequences of his sin. The wrath of God and the moral order of the universe are one and the same thing.” – William Barclay (Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow)
To Recap:
- Sin is anything that goes against God’s holy nature.
- Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, sin affects the entire human race.
- We are just as responsible for sin as Adam and Eve.
- The main consequences of sin are spiritual and physical death and the threat of eternal separation from God.
- We are all born sinners by nature and can’t make up for our nature by good works.
- Our holy and just God judges sin.
- Our loving and forgiving God has made pardon and new life available for sinners.
