Sabbath: Death in a Sinful World
Image © Pacific Press
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 2:16-17; Genesis 3:1-7; Psalm 115:17; John 5:28-29; Romans 5:12; 2 Corinthians 5:21.
Memory Text: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12, NKJV).
Christ was the Divine Agent through whom God brought the universe and the world into existence (John 1:1-3, John 1:10; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2). But when God the Father conferred special honor on Christ and announced that They together would create this world, “Lucifer was envious and jealous of Jesus Christ” (Ellen G. White, The Story of Redemption, p. 14) and plotted against Him.
Having been cast out of heaven, Satan decided “to destroy the happiness of Adam and Eve” on earth and thereby “cause grief in heaven.” He imagined that “if he could in any way beguile them [Adam and Eve] to disobedience, God would make some provision whereby they might be pardoned, and then himself and all the fallen angels would be in a fair way to share with them of God’s mercy.” — Ellen G. White, The Story of Redemption, p. 27. Fully aware of Satan’s strategy, God warned Adam and Eve not to expose themselves to temptation (Genesis 2:16-17). This means that even when the world was still perfect and blameless, there were already clear restrictions for human beings to obey.
This week we will reflect on the fall of Adam and Eve, on how sin and death took over our world, and on how God planted a seed of hope for humanity even back in Eden.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 8.
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From a Seventh-day Adventist perspective the events that led to the fall are a done deal. We know what happened and who was involved. We are perhaps a little less confident about dealing with the consequences of sin in the present.
Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have said:
Most of us have managed to work out how to pay our taxes and those of us who cannot, hire a tax agent or accountant that will do it for us. Handling the inevitability of death, both for ourselves and others is much more challenging. When we have finished quoting scripture to one another and face the loneliness of your own thoughts, what then?
Hopefully in the coming weeks we will face some of these challenges in a meaningful and hope-filled way.
To quote Maurice: “When we have finished quoting scripture to one another and face the loneliness of your own thoughts, what then?” I consider that we, once we have believed, will never be lonely in our thoughts again. In God's Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have all the strenght to stand, helping us to stay on course. But if we indulge in ruminations about ‘finding or going another way’, we will start feeling unstable, restless, and lost.
Gen.3:4-5 tells me that when the serpent spoke to Eve the lie : “”You will not surely die,” he also included the promise that “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Those who doubt do not just doubt in their mind, they put their doubt into actions. Believing God’s Word means that we wholeheartedly believe and follow His Way. Once truly, unwaveringly decided, the temptations of the challenges to God’s Word loose their power/appeal.
I think that all humanity wants to know the Truth of God, but mankind is lead into error by being taught to find it using their own understanding of ‘good and evil’.
If they would just believe that only God knows what is right for man and that He will lead him into His Righteousness, man would be safe. Once in Jesus Christ, enfolded by our Maker’s hand, the believer will hear His voice clearly, empowered to refuse to listen to any other voice.
Going astray/disobedience is the consequence of unbelieve. It is the evidence that we do not seek the presence of our heavenly Father with all our heart, and desire to share His love with those around us.
Dear friend I am really blessed with the lessons of every Sabbath school lesson because when I was in Sunday church before I never enjoy the life of worship but now I am really blessed with all lessons of Sabbath school
First of all, God is love and has nothing to do with evil or sin. Sin entered the world through the devil!
All because of jealousy and envy, he was cast out of heaven with his angels and that’s how sin entered the world.