WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday September 30, 2018
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GOD CONFRONTS SIN
(Sin separates us from GOD)
(Genesis 3)
Before GOD
ever made man, the Scriptures tells us that Lucifer had already been ousted
from Heaven and confined to the earth where he would be the shrewdest of all
the creatures that GOD would create later on (Ezekiel 28:12b-19, Luke 10:18).
In actuality, satan ruled, or, had dominion over the earth at that time, as GOD
had not yet saw fit to place HIS figurative represent, man, here on earth.
When GOD created
mankind the way we know him now (the creation account of the Christian bible),
HE then gave dominion over all things on earth to man, who would serve as HIS
personal, figurative, representative, and by doing so, HE automatically usurped
satan of his self-appointed position as “prince of the earth”.
Here in Genesis
3, satan regains control, or dominion over the earth, back from man, because
Adam and Eve weren’t willing to do what GOD had commanded them to do in order
to keep control of what GOD had given them. There in the Garden of Eden, they accepted
satan’s “sin nature” the moment they disobeyed GOD, and as a result, sin and
death entered into the world and became a powerful negative force upon man’s
existence.
On that day, the
serpent, at that time, a “subordinate to Adam and Eve”, quickly pounced upon
his first opportunity to take advantage of his “lackadaisical superiors under
GOD”, and became, himself, “the prince of this world” once again. The serpent successfully
convinced Eve that her “disobedience” would make her “equal to GOD”, and Adam,
who was there with her at the time, apparently agreed (Vs.1-6). It was at that
moment that they both realized just how “vulnerable and naked” they were,
because they were now, “totally separated” from the GOD, WHO created them, in
HIS OWN spiritual image. They were now feeling “the sting of guilt” for the
very first time.
If we are to be
victorious in this life, just as JESUS was, we must do so by understanding,
remembering, and doing exactly what GOD commands of us in HIS Word, just as
JESUS did. In this world, we all eventually come to know we are “naked” and
“unprotected” from the subtleness and shrewdness of satan’s temptations, unless
we stay in obedience to GOD.
When we
don’t know and adhere to the laws of GOD, it always leaves us vulnerable to
satan. A personal relationship with GOD is a relationship that we simply cannot
afford to live without. And that relationship must be an “experiential” and “personal”
one, the only kind that GOD has to offer us.
The position of
“innocence and peace”, that GOD had placed Adam and Eve in, was destroyed by
their yielding to temptation from man’s only enemy, satan. And the consequences
of that disobedience would affect the entire human race, for all times. Satan’s
shrewd enticement of Adam and Eve will forever remind us that we are never
forced to sin, but rather, we are always vulnerable to temptation, and must
ultimately “choose” to do the “right” or “wrong” thing.
For, among all of
the wonderful things GOD bestowed upon us, most importantly, and perhaps most
critically, HE gave us “wills that are free”. In order to overcome temptation
we need to know the Word of GOD accurately, and then, be voluntarily willing to
trust in HIS Word and judgment, that it is the very best thing for us to do.
If we believe
GOD’s Word, we believe that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge
and wisdom”. Satan convinced Eve that “disobedience to GOD” was the beginning
of knowledge and wisdom”. However, the truth is that, wisdom can never be
obtained by disobeying the CREATOR of wisdom, WHO is GOD. GOD’s Word tells us
that, before the world was ever created, wisdom already existed with GOD. In
other words, GOD created wisdom first, before HE ever created anything else
(Proverbs 8:22).
Following the
spiritual fall of Adam and Eve, the spirit of “mistrust” and “alienation”
entered into their personal relationship with each other (their marriage), and
their personal relationship with GOD (their Faith). They begin to hide
themselves from GOD, and made excuses when they were finally confronted by HIM.
They both blamed GOD directly for their sin, instead of accepting
responsibility for their own “bad choices”. Adam claimed that it was the fault
of “the woman GOD made” (v.12), and Eve claimed it was the fault of “the
serpent GOD made” (v.13).
Today we react in
the same way that Adam and Eve did when confronted with our sins, but instead,
we claim that “it is the “sin nature” that GOD gave us when we were born”. And
so, again, we see it as GOD’s fault that we sin, not ours, which is still just
as ridiculous as it was when Adam and Eve originally voiced their lame excuses.
We sin because we
want to, not because “we can’t help it”, and a 100% human JESUS, proved that
with HIS OWN mortal life. For a wide variety of inexcusable reasons (bad
teaching, laziness, the desire to do only what we want to do, etc.) most people
don’t have an accurate knowledge of, or desire to obey the Holy Scriptures, and
this is in spite of it being available to us today, in almost every language
there is.
Human beings are
not born with “sin nature”, but rather, we are born with “GOD’s nature”. We
acquire “sin nature” from satan the moment we first disobey GOD at an age of
accountability, just like Adam and Eve did. GOD would not be a “just GOD” if HE
started us out with the disadvantage, or “deficit”, of already having sin in
us.
Instead, what
Scripture teaches us is that we are born into a “state of sin”, or, “a world of
sin”, a world where sin already exists. The sin is not originally in us, but
rather, we are “born into it” by way of our parents, who sinned before us,
starting with Adam and Eve, who were the first to choose to do the wrong thing.
Psalm 51:5 is one
of the most misinterpreted verses in Scripture, and its misinterpretation is
what gives rise to the demonic thought of “being born with sin in us”. There
the Hebrew word used for “born”, “chuwl” (khool) means “shaped” or “born into a
state of”, in this case “iniquity”, or, “brought forward” into “a state of
being”, or an environment that already exists, and therefore am destined to
become a product of that environment. Therefore, correctly interpreted, it
means that we are born into a world where sin already exists, and not that we
were born with sin nature already in us. We accept satan’s sin nature the first
time that we disobey GOD at an age of accountability, just as our predecessors,
Adam and Eve did.
GOD wouldn’t be
angry at us for sinning, if HE in fact, “made us” to sin from the beginning,
starting us out in a state of helplessness, for that is a ridiculous thought.
GOD made everything “good”, from the beginning just as HIS Word says, and HE
still does, especially with “the human side” of HIS creation. The originals
(Adam and Eve), and the reproductions (us), were, and are, made perfectly well
and good in the beginning (Genesis 1:31), particularly in the spiritual sense
(being made in GOD’s spiritual image).
Sin brought “physical
death” into the world, however, we don’t have to fear because JESUS has covered
it, and will eventually replace it all together with “spiritual life”, the end
result of HIS vicarious sacrifice on the cross at Golgotha. Satan crippled
mankind with temptation and deception, but JESUS “crushed satan’s head” with
HIS “righteousness”, and has now “reclaimed” man from under the dominion of sin
and death (v.15).
The only way that
we can keep our “restored relationship” with GOD, and with each other pure, is
by accepting responsibility for our sins and bad choices, earnestly repenting,
and then, by relying on the “forgiving love” and “life-giving blood” of CHRIST
JESUS to heal the damaging effects that our sin can have on our lives, and, on
the lives of others.
GOD banished man
from the “ideal setting” of the Garden of Eden for his own good (Vs.22-24). However,
HE did not banish man from HIS heart, and, from the ideal setting of the coming
“Millennial Kingdom” here on earth, nor from “the Kingdom of Heaven” later on,
for the same reason. And so, biological death can now be viewed as a “grace
gift” from the Almighty GOD (for we can’t enter Heaven unless, we first, die to
this world). And when we choose the right path, we will be kept from the
“punishing consequences” that lie on the road to destruction, and, in the end,
we will come to know the absolute full extent of GOD’s redeeming love for
mankind, HIS greatest creation, when HE welcomes us into the paradise that is,
the Kingdom of Heaven.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
