Sunday: The Sin Principle
Gen: 6:5
The divine opinion at the end of God’s creation was that all “was very good” (Gen: 1:31). Then sin entered, and the paradigm shifted. Things weren’t “very good” anymore. God’s orderly creation was marred by sin and all its loathsome results. Rebellion reached terrible proportions by Noah’s day; evil consumed the race. Though the Bible does not give us many details (see Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pages 90-92 for more), the transgressions and rebellion were clearly something that even a loving, patient, and forgiving God couldn’t tolerate.
Image © Rolf Jansson from GoodSalt.com
How could things get so bad so quickly? The answer is, perhaps, not that hard to find. How many people, today, looking at their own sins, have not asked the same thing: How did things get so bad so quickly?
Look up the texts listed below. Write down the point they make. Notice the steady progression of sin:
1. Gen: 3:6
2. Gen: 3:11-13
3. Gen: 4:5
4. Gen: 4:8
5. Gen: 4:19
6. Gen: 4:23
7. Gen: 6:2
8. Gen: 6:5, Genesis 6:11
Genesis 6:5 and Genesis 6:11 did not arise in a vacuum. There was a history before them. This terrible result had a cause. Sin progressively got worse. It tends to do that. Sin is not like a cut or a wound, with some automatic, built-in process that brings healing. On the contrary, sin, if left unchecked, multiplies, never satisfied until it leads to ruin and death. One does not have to imagine life before the Flood to see this principle operating. It exists all around us even now.
No wonder God hates sin; no wonder, sooner or later, sin will be eradicated. A just, loving God could do nothing else with it.
The good news, of course, is that though He wants to get rid of sin, He wants to save sinners. That’s what the covenant is all about.
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Many years ago I read James Michener's book, "The Covenant" It is a work of fiction but like many such books it was written to describe real issues. Michener follows the Dutch and Huguenot settlers story. They brought with them Protestant thinking and used the Bible as the basis for their decisions. They considered themselves as the new Israelites and believed that God had sent them to conquer the new land. Ultimately this concept of the "Covenant" lead them to develop the idea of Apartheid.
About half way through reading this book, it suddenly dawned on me that Seventh-day Adventists have their own idea of the covenant and that our attitude to covenants was very similar to that adopted by the Dutch Reform Church in South Africa. I had to do a bit of soul searching at that stage. I asked myself the question, why are we so confident that we are right and the South African Dutch Reform church was so wrong?
It was not an easy question to answer, especially when I agreed with them on so many issues. The Big Lesson I learned was that it is all too easy to read the Biblical covenants and interpret them in a way that justifies what we already believe. Perhaps, in this study this quarter we should look beyond affirmation to the challenge of the covenants. If we read the history of the biblical covenants, one lesson stands out clearly. Many folk focussed on the privileges and rewards and committed or reinterpreted the responsibility bit. But that is where the rubber hits the road!
[ I am still not home and will be returning later than I anticipated. My in-laws have a few health issues at the moment and we are caring for them. The fact that we are not travelling though has given me the opportunity to write a few comments.]
We discussed this very question of whether we believe in a Seventh Day Adventist covenant or a universally applicable covenant in Sabbath School class yesterday. I would like to see what others think before sharing what we thought.
Also, I will keep your family in my prayers. Blessings!
Karen I always said what I believe though others might not agree. The bible says the Lord is coming for his church which means, all whoever keeps his saying as mentioned in the bible. The SDA church is not his church per say. The church is made up of all those who embrace his covenant whether you are in whatever reform organization. There are others who obey the bible and keep the sabbath although the do not carry the name SDA but might be in a reform organization. We say we are spiritual Israelites, others say they are too but are not a part of us. Only the Lord knows, he will be the judge.
But I do hope each and everyone of us is studying our bible and doing what the Lord asked of us. We cant depend on the spiritual knowledge of others because that will not make us stand when trials comes. We cant quote what a brother or sister says at that time.
Brother Maurice I look forward to reading your comments. I will be praying for you and your family.
Good to have you back Maurice. You were missed. Will keep your family in prayers.
I am always pleased when your comments lead the discussion. Thank you for all your bring to the lessons.
Leilani
Really happy to see you. God bless you
thanks for the comments. i wish your in-laws and your family good health.
Welcome back young fellow I missed you.
Thank you, Ronald.
I missed you too Brother Ashton. I will keep you and your family in my prayers.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom 6:23
The Sin Principle
In all the texts above we can see the progression of sin and its end is in eternal death.
In the photo above it is so fitting for today. How sin looks and what sin causes- violence, murder, pollution, killing, drunkenness, phonography, child/ren abandonment, attacks by animals, thousands of diseases (mental, social, physical and psychological),sickness, etc etc. After Adam and Even choose to sin, all men were born in sin and shaped in iniquities. Sin is rooted in the very fabric of human DNA. But we have no excuse, for this reason Jesus came as a baby to live a life free from sin. He came to show us how it is possible to live without sin. He did so that we can live the new life with him. Thank you Jesus and help me live a life without sin.
The new covenant is the same old covenant. Pre-sin, the law was written in the hearts and minds of Adam and Eve. After sin, the entire generation forgot God. Now, these are the days mention in the bible, he is daily renewing that same covenant with humans who accepted him as their Lord and savior. He is writing the same law in their minds and hearts. Jer 31:31-34.
Hi Lyn, your comments beautifully describe Covid 19 (or any other virus for that matter). Sin, like the virus, infects, the host and unless checked by an outside source (in this case God) it gets progressively worse until it kills the host. I thank God for the remedy - the life of Jesus.
Cheers
Thank you Lyn for retracing the Lesson,s direction
After reading through the suggested texts, this lesson about the ‘Sin Principle’ proves a bit more difficult to digest than I thought. What sin is, is difficult to understand. I want to find out what changed our parents from the creatures the Father approved of, to the one He needed to dismiss from the very home He designed for them to live in and enjoy forever.
During my contemplations, a thought came to mind - our heavenly Father admonishes us not to judge – Matt.7:1-3KJV. This must be very important advice, crucial toward maintaining a good relationship with Him and our fellow man. This thought led me to the following understanding.
I think the ability to ‘sin’ entered the heart of our first parents when their minds became able to form ‘judgment’, being based on their own perception of ‘right and wrong'. The forbidden fruit of the tree in the Garden was 'to know good and evil’. The first parents' fall from their original estate caused in them the ability to give/assign value to their choice. Sin does not lay in that they choose wrongly, the act, rather in that man and not God now assignes value to their choice; and so, unredeemed, man sins continuesly.
The Father could tell right away that their mind had changed to include the capacity to judge when He asked them: ‘who told you that you were naked? Their nakedness was a fact, but that they became aware of their nakedness as a state of being, a new state of awareness, implies that they made a value judgement; they became aware of being naked.
Babies and little children are not aware of their nakedness; our parents lost their innocence, their total, unquestioned oneness with their Creator. Now, all man’s acts are based on his 'self-awareness' instead of 'God-awareness’, and its inherent faulty ‘value-judgments’ is 'sinning'. When a person knows the Way of the Father, rejects it to follow his own way, this act becomes sinful - 1John3:9-12KJV
Deciding on the right action requires a thoughtful assessment of that which one knows in order to make a good choice. Nothing wrong with that, except, that in our fallen state of heart and mind, especially if the moral compass is out of alinement with ‘true to the Will of God’, the life of the individual will be negatively affected by the consequences of its wrongful choices.
Gen.6:5,11KJV depicts the fallen heart and mind's dire effects on himself and life around him. the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth (nature) was filled with violence. Gradually, the heart and mind of the generations after Noah descended again into spiritual darkness; sin’s effects compounding man’s misery continuously.
Though, the 'Sin Principle' did not have the last word! Throughout the millennia, our Father’s Covenants enlightened humanity and so influenced humankind to want to change its 'ways', its approach to life and living. Finally, it was time for the Son of God, our Savior Christ Jesus, to come and establish for all to see the heavenly Father’s kingdom of Life, Light and Truth, inviting all to live in it.
Now is the time to forsake the reliance on our own ways of understanding and judging life's values, and desire with all our heart and mind to live the Will of the Father, to trust in His judgement to know what is best for His children.
Thank you everyone for your warm welcome back.
"God wants to end sin. At the same time, God wants to save sinners"
What a delicate Surgery successfully performed by God.
God is in the Business of dealing with Sin; bringing an end to it not the Sinner. Unfortunately the Sinner who refused to let go the Sin will eventually perish with the Sin.
Thank you Daniel
After the fall, the “very good” state of the earth declined as the curses(Prov 26:2) God described would follow brought the new reality of disease, death and decay. There is no mention of a city being built before the flood, so we might assume a society without government or rule of law, and that only might was right. We can see how this would operate as we read of the French Revolution and the horrible atrocities that took place then as God's law was laid aside. Such a state of affairs placed the Promised Seed in peril, which the story of the flood verifies by the few people who actually boarded the ark.
The other aspect of life then that would have made matters worse is the longevity of the people at that time. Sin harbored only increases and gets worse as time passes, and the sinner becomes increasing wicked and more clever in carrying out their evil intentions. Anyone “meek and lowly of heart” would be trampled into extinction, which is always Satan's intention, as we read in scripture. Satan is the example of where persistent sin will lead. Doesn't this explain the need found in Gen 3:22-24?
Though the Bible narrative is free of drama or explicit details, there is enough to reveal the great decline in righteousness and increase of wickedness. Today do we see division and wickedness increasing in every segment of society, including family and church? This is how prophecy depicts the outcome soon to follow around the world as its inhabitants head toward the final conflict called "Armageddon". How does this present trend affect us? Where do we stand in relation to the covenant of grace and righteousness?