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LESSON
2: WHAT IS SIN?
I.
What is the definition of sin?
A. Any act which breaks the law of God.
1 John 3:4
Whoever commits sin also commits
lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
B. Failure to do what we know God’s law requires of us.
James 4:17
Therefore, to him who knows to do
good and does not do it, to
him it is sin.
C. Any desire to do wrong or any evil thing hidden in the heart.
1 John 3:15
Whoever hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
D. All evil done openly or secretly.
Luke 12:2
For there is nothing covered that
will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.
E. The depraved or sinful nature with which we were born. That which
predisposes a person to break the law of God.
Romans 7:19
–21 For the good that I will to
do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to
do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I
find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
Luke 6:43
–45 For a good tree does not bear
bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by
its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather
grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his
heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his
heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
II.
Where did sin originate? How did it come to the world?
A. In the Garden of Eden. This was God’s intended home for Adam and
Eve. God made Adam a holy person, but this holiness was a holiness of innocence.
While this was good, God wanted Adam, and all people that would come after Adam,
to have a moral holiness. That is, they would be able to use their choice, their
free will, to choose between good and evil. Of course, God wanted Adam to choose
good, that is to obey His law, but for his choice to be a moral choice, there
had to be both good and evil for Adam to choose.
Genesis 2:7
–9 And the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in
Eden
, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord
God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The
tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
B. It came by the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden. They could
have chosen to obey God, but they did not. This was the first sin ever
committed.
Genesis 3:1
–6 Now the serpent was more cunning
than any beast of the field which the Lord
God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not
eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We
may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of
the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest
you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For
God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will
be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her
husband with her, and he ate.
C.
The sin Adam and Eve committed ruined their
relationship with God and affected the relationship of their offspring with God.
Adam was created in the image of God; but notice that his son was in his own
image. Bible teachers call this the depraved or sinful nature.
Genesis 3:6
–8 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of
its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then
the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked;
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard
the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among
the trees of the garden.
Genesis 5:1
–3 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man,
He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and
blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam
lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness,
after his image, and named him Seth.
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