Sin: Part 3

This is part 3 of 3 of the series on sin that I taught to the youth at my church. Read part 1 here. Read part 2 here.

Sin.

Part 3. How Does Sin Affect The Human Race?

Sin affects the Human race in many ways, but can be divided into two major categories; consequences in life, and punishment.

Consequences in Life.

1. Original Sin

The consequences of sin in this life include original sin. Original sin can be further separated into the categories of original guilt, and original pollution.

Original guilt is the doctrine that teaches that Adam’s sin was imputed to his descendants, and therefore every descendant of Adam has the guilt of that sin to bear. We can see, biblically, that death is the punishment for sin, and that punishment is passed from Adam to all of his descendants. See Rom. 5:12-19; Eph. 2:3; 1 Cor. 15:22.

Original pollution teaches that “original sin is not merely negative; it is also an inherent positive disposition toward sin”. (LB) Original pollution is well expressed by the doctrines of total depravity, and total inability.

Total depravity is not the idea that men are as depraved as they possibly could be, or that they have no God-given conscience, but rather that every part of man’s nature is corrupt. This doctrine teaches that there is no spiritual good in relation to God, in the sinner, only perversion.

Total inability is not the idea that man cannot perform good in any sense of the word. He is able to do external religious good, civil good, and natural good, but “these same actions and feelings, when considered in relation to God, are radically defective. Their fatal defect is that they are not prompted by love to God, or by any regard for the will of God as requiring them.”. (LB) The unregenerate man can do nothing that is pleasing to God, including changing his own propensity for wickedness. In the words of Paul, “those who are in the flesh, cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8) See also: John 6:44; 8:34; 15:4,5; Rom. 7:18,24; 8:7,8; 1 Cor. 2:14; Heb 11:6

2. Free Will.

In any discussion of inability, depravity, pollution, and original sin, inevitably the question of free will is going to come up.

Lessons Learned Part 2

In January I had to leave my family for five weeks in order to travel to Illinois for work. It was the hardest time I've had in a while, but not all in vain. God taught me a lot in my time in that dank, tiny hotel room.


The second big thing that I learned was how much the Holy Spirit is involved in the relationships between His people. I met several brothers and sisters throughout my trip, and it astounded me how easy it was to feel at home with them. I attended a few different churches while I was there, and even though, from a worldly perspective, I had little or nothing in common with the people there, I had an immediate bond with them. Before I was saved, I would have never hung out with people twice my age, or that grew up in the midwest, and liked different music than I did. I never would have gone to lunch with computer programmers or Air Force Commanders, or pastors, or insurance agents. The only thing that I had in common with the people I met was a common relationship with Jesus Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 


The commonality that I held with these brothers and sisters, caused me to love them immediately with a love that I had never even thought possible with my closest friend, before regeneration! A pastor that I met while in St. Louis, Jeremy Jessen, providentially preached a series on the Holy Spirit while I was visiting his church. He talked aout this very issue, and really drove it home for me. I realized that the love for one another that Jesus spoke about in John 13:34 is a work of the Spirit, and without that work, the love for one another cannot possibly manifest. So the Holy Spirit is evident in a believer when the supernatural love for people (with whom there is no reason for earthly love), is seen.


Just my two cents.
SDG  

Sin: Part 2

This is part two of a three part series I taught to the youth at First Baptist Church of the Lakes, in Las Vegas, NV. You can read part one, here.

Sin.

Part 2. Where Did Sin Come From?

In Genesis Ch. 3 we have a historical narrative of the fall of the race of man. Historical narrative is a type of literature that records actual events in the form of a story. The chapters before and after the account of the fall of Adam and Eve are also historical narrative, although some would have us believe that some parts should not be taken in the form in which God himself gave them to us. The implications of the first few chapters of Genesis are so wide reaching that in order to avoid them, some people have distorted the plain reading of the text to fit in their own ideas. As Bible believing people, we must submit our lives completely to the Word of God, and this includes any and all ideas that may not be popular to an increasingly secularized society. See 2 Cor. 10:5

Take some time to carefully read the third chapter of Genesis and you will see the origination of all corruption ever to befall all of creation. The sin of Adam may seem to our modern mind as not possibly affecting his descendants, but we must continue to see things from a biblical perspective. The culture in which the Bible was written, and in which the Israelites were raised up was much more comfortable with the idea of “federal headship”.

Federal headship is the system in which the father represents his family, and by extension, his descendants. The concept is not only cultural, but biblical as well. In Hebrews Chapter 7, we see Levi represented by Abraham in the giving of the tithe to Melchizedek, many years before Levi was even born! Furthermore, if federal headship is rejected, we have no basis to accept a substitutionary atonement at Calvary. If it’s “not fair” for Adam to sin in my place, then it is surely “not fair” for Christ to die in my place.

At this point we must remember that how comfortable, or easy a doctrine is, has no bearing on whether or not that doctrine is true. The Bible clearly teaches that we all sinned “in Adam” (Romans Ch. 5), and therefore we are all guilty of that sin. We commit various sins because it is our nature to do so, being sinners, in virtue of what our first father purchased for us in his disobedience.