Genesis: Sin is Reality

Well, good morning.

So we have not left our sort of series going through Genesis 1 through chapter 3.

This is actually Paul analyzing Genesis.

And so we're going to look at Paul's words this morning about what he thinks about this Genesis story that we've been picking apart for the past six or so weeks.

When I was about six years old for Halloween, I dressed up in gold sweatpants, a gold sweatshirt.

My mom, who's sitting right here, she made me like a gold cardboard vest and it tied behind the back.

And we went to the store and bought a C3PO mask, a plastic one, if you remember these, and they dug in the plastic cut you under the eyes, and the rubber bands cut you on the side of the head.

And we went out trick-or-treating that night, and everybody didn't say hi to Russ.

They said hi to C3PO.

And I thought that was wonderful.

I mean, I remember just loving this.

And then we got home that night.

My sister and I, we got on the family room floor and we dumped out our pillowcases, right?

Full of candy to count how many pieces we had.

And I had to take off the costume.

And I can remember being extremely sad.

I remember now I'm 38.

I can remember being extremely sad about the moment I had to take off this C3PO costume, which I called CP3O until this morning when I Googled it and realized it was C3PO.

And I remember being very, very sad about this.

So why was I sad?

Well, it's the same reason why my children, they will be sad Halloween night when they finally have to take off their costumes that they've been wearing for the past month.

That we buy a month ahead of time to try to get our money out of them as much as we can.

And they're going to be very sad.

Those girls will be sad because why?

Because it all it ends.

And you know what?

It's just a lot more fun to be dressed up than to be Russ or to be Johnny or Cindy or whoever.

It's just fun to pretend.

But the costume always comes off.

And deeper than the fact that it's just always sort of fun, deeper than that, more profound than that, is that we aren't quite sure if we ourselves, by ourselves, when the costumes come off, if we're enough.

Right?

And this is what we talked about last week.

This idea of shame.

If we're really seen, we're really known.

Are we okay?

Are we adequate?

Are we enough?

And this is why we so easily fall apart if we don't make the team.

Or we lose the girl or the guy or the job or the marriage, or the kids not trying, they're not quite performing, or not trying as much as you want them to.

The costume falls off.

Because the thing that we were relying on to tell us who we were just came off like a cheap plastic C3PO mask.

It just came off, and now, now, now I'm really seen.

I'm out there.

I'm exposed.

I'm vulnerable.

And that's what we said last week.

We're just not quite sure.

We're just not quite sure.

If the costume comes off and we're seen, are we enough?

And what we also said last week is that feeling of shame, that feeling of shame is produced by sin.

Now that's a word that's not used a lot, like not used a lot like in culture and in the world.

I don't hear it a lot.

I hear a lot of other words used that I think are pretty much saying about the same thing.

But a lot of modern people don't like the word sin.

This idea, this doctrine that human beings are innately flawed, innately imperfect.

Because a modern person hears the concept of sin, and many of you, even right now, you hear the word sin, and you go, uh, not sure.

Because, hold on, hold on, I know where it's heading.

Once you say sin, I know where this is heading, because you're gonna judge me.

And you're gonna judge my friends, and I love my friends.

And every time I have seen sin used, it's to not love my friends.

And so I'm not quite sure about this word.

And this is mostly because of bad church experiences.

I mean, this is mostly because of bad church expressions, is what this is.

Where people have used the doctrine of sin not as a lens to see reality, to see my reality, to see your reality, but as a tool for control and self-righteousness.

So a few weeks ago, I was hustling out of the house, trying to get out of the house.

I grab my wallet, I grab my phone, I grab my keys, I go to the garage, I get in my car, I back out of the garage, it's sunny out, I reach into the cup holder, and they're not there.

You know what's not there?

My sunglasses.

The fourth piece of me surviving as a whole human being.

Phone, wallet, keys, sunglasses.

So right away, park the car, go back in the house, look up in the kitchen counter, I look in the bedroom, I look on the end tables in the den.

I cannot find them.

My world is not okay.

It's becoming more and more frustrating.

I don't go anywhere without my sunglasses or knowing where they're at right now.

They're in the cup holder of my car in the parking lot.

I know that.

If I don't know that, I'm not okay.

Right?

They're gone.

So they're I'm frantically searching.

I need them.

I can't leave for the day without them.

I will not leave for the day without them.

And so I'm frantically searching, no peace in my life.

It's just going on.

And then I realize what I'm missing, I have the entire time, because you know the rest of this story.

Where are they at?

They're on my head.

Of course.

You know that story.

And you know the feeling.

You know the feeling when something, something's missing and you know it's there because you've lost your phone.

Right?

Some of you right now, you just by me saying that, you feel like maybe I should check.

Right now, there's an anxiety in you because I mentioned it.

Is it really in my purse?

Some of you tapped your pocket, and then you're like, I am okay.

I'm an okay human being.

I'm gonna be okay.

Right?

It's this feeling that something is present.

But when our inability to find it or name it is not there, there's this lack of peace.

Maybe it's not your phone, maybe it's the TV remote, and I'm not talking Comcast like size of your forearm.

I'm talking about the Apple TV remote.

If that thing goes missing, my family just goes ahead and hangs out in the driveway until I find it, right?

It's so small, it's so frustrating.

Why did they do that?

I don't know.

None of us know.

None of us know why they made it that small, but it is the most frustrating thing to ever be created in life.

It just tucks itself perfectly.

You know it's there.

That's my point.

You know it's there.

You know what's under the cushion, behind the pillow, under the couch.

You know, but it's so small you can barely see it, even if I handed it to you.

But you know it's there, right?

It's right in front of your eyes.

This is my point.

The doctrine of sin is right in front of us.

It's reality.

It's my reality.

Innately imperfect.

And the sooner you see it, in the equal reality of God's grace, the sooner you will be free.

You remember the Genesis story that we've been talking about so far?

It begins in Genesis 1, just to review.

Adam is created, man is created in the image of God, out of the Trinity, paracaresis, the dance of love.

So he's created out of a God of love.

He's created in the image of God, out of the dance of love.

This is our beginning.

This is your beginning.

And then God says, Have a blast.

I created this great place for you.

Have a blast.

Have a good time together.

Care for the garden.

Hey, just don't eat of that one tree.

And sadly, in a move for control, in a move for independence, not surrender, not humility.

Eve eats and Adam eats, and then sin enters the world.

Shame with it.

So a few points about sin.

Point number one.

Sin is best defined as that which breaks shalom.

Sin is best defined.

Let me explain that.

Sin is best defined as that which breaks shalom.

So sin is not primarily behavioral.

That's sins.

Okay?

Sin creates sins.

That's very important to know.

Sin is the condition, the basic condition under which all human lives, Christian and non-Christian, all human lives, exist.

It's a flaw in our system.

It's a flaw in your system after you're a Christian.

It's a flaw in your system when you're 90 years old.

It's a flaw in your system, it will always be there.

It's that slight, always consistent bent toward yourself.

That thought that you're going, like, I shouldn't think that way about him or about her, about that thing, and then you just keep thinking it?

Or you keep doing that thing.

And the condition is what creates the behaviors.

So sin is not primarily behavioral.

Sins are created by sin.

So back in Genesis 3, God lays out these consequences for Adam and Eve.

This new existence, this new life is formed after they reach for control and independence.

Sin shows up, shame shows up, and he says, hey, in Genesis 3, mid-Genesis 3, he says, there will be difficulty for you two and how you live, how you work, how you relate, and how you procreate.

God is saying there will be pain and difficulty unto the most basic core parts of your life.

Because sin creates death.

Sin creates shame.

Sin creates difficulty.

Sin creates death.

Sin breaks shalom, the peace created for us to exist in.

And that's the word.

Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace and wholeness and health and blessing.

That's what these two had in the beginning in the garden.

They had shalom.

They had peace with God, with each other, with nature.

That's what they had, and that's what sin destroyed.

Now maybe you would define sin as a break in God's law.

Or maybe you would define sin as just doing something wrong.

Nothing wrong with those definitions.

Those are good definitions.

That's true.

It's just not the whole story.

The other part of the story is that God designed our lives for shalom, and sin is a break in that shalom.

Now, Paul picks apart the Genesis story in Romans 5.

So let's reread that verses 12 through 14.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, so this Adam is talking about the garden and death through sin.

And so death spread to all men, so that's to me and to you, because all sinned.

So we're just like Adam.

You're just like Adam.

I'm just like Adam.

We reach for control and independence rather than surrender and humility to the God who created us.

For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses.

Moses is the one who got the law, Ten Commandments, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Okay, so Paul gets pretty theological here.

I won't fully break this apart, but what he says here is that hey, hey, without there being stated right and wrong, you wouldn't even realize.

You wouldn't even realize that you're breaking shalom all the time.

You wouldn't even realize that you are living right or wrong unless it was stated for you.

And now that the law is given, that there is a moral right and wrong in our thinking and doing and in our motives, now we see we're not perfect.

So point number two is this sin is best understood as idolatry of the heart.

Sin is best understood.

Sin is a break in shalom, but it's best understood for our lives as idolatry of the heart.

That's the greatest metaphor for sin in the scriptures.

And Romans 1, Paul says, oh yeah, those two, this is my paraphrase, you can read later.

Those two in the beginning, the worst thing they did was worship created things over the creator.

That's what they chose.

That's idolatry.

That's the definition of idolatry, that you worship a created thing over the creator.

Pastor and author John Orberg, he asked these questions when it comes to idolatry.

Do I feel like I have enough money and possessions right now?

Or do I feel like I need a little more?

Do I have enough power and control in my life?

Or do I feel like my life needs more?

Is there a relationship in my life which I am so attached that my life would be destroyed if I didn't have it?

What am I willing to betray of my values in order to obtain that one thing?

What desire is so strong in me that it wraps my thinking?

So idolatry is sin in us, it's sin in us creating costumes for us to wear.

And on a good day, it's good because we maintain the costume.

Right?

We're really good at pretending, we're really good at performing, the idolatry, whatever created thing we have created, to not have to rely on God, not surrender to his sufficiency and sovereignty and lordship in our life, but to rely on the created thing.

We're doing pretty good.

We feel pretty good about ourselves.

But then you end up where you didn't plan on ending up, or the thing that you thought was going to do the sufficiency and the satisfaction, the fulfillment.

It doesn't add up.

And before long, before long, always you end up in shame.

Always.

And you get the whispering of condemnation that Paul's talking about.

See, I told you.

I told you.

I told you you're not enough.

Go get another idol.

That's condemnation.

That's sin, the condition in us, whispering condemnation.

I told you you're not enough.

You need something else.

You need something else.

Live in the false self, build up the false self, that's sin and all those idols.

And that's Paul's point, that's the Genesis story point.

Come Genesis 3, that the path of condemnation.

It's there, it's real, but it's not the real story of your life.

It's not the whole story of your life.

Justification is the whole story of your life.

That you have been loved from the beginning.

And that while in Adam we understand our imperfection, in Christ you understand your redemption.

And this is coming into point number three.

And this comes against all modern people who don't like the word sin.

Point number three, the doctrine of sin moves us away from judgmentalism and moves us toward compassion.

If I see my costume, my sin, my issues, my mess, which are ridiculous, and they're there just as much today as they were the day when I became a Christian of all of life.

They'll be there when I'm 84 years old.

They will always be there.

They are inner and they are outer.

They're just there.

And when I see my own issues, I'm not, how can I be judgmental toward you?

Like maybe I'm judgmental in a given moment, right?

Maybe that's one of my issues, even.

But if I'm aware of that, how can I stay in a judgmental attitude toward you?

No, no.

It would move me toward compassion because if I'm the sinner before you're the sinner or before they're the sinner, that changes everything.

You aren't the problem.

And they aren't the problem.

I'm the problem.

And this is why the doctrine of sin is not depressing.

It is not even close to depressing.

The doctrine of sin is freeing.

Because finally, you can say the thing that's been there the entire time.

And that is, I'm a sinner.

And I can stop pretending to be that I'm not.

Because it's reality.

And it's just true about me.

And this brings us into the last point, the good news, that point number four.

While sin will always affect you, sin is not the whole story of your life.

You will have to fight against sin your entire life because unchecked, it is nasty and it destroys shalom, it destroys your life, your family's life, relationships, it destroys everything it comes in contact with.

But none of that is the core of who you are.

Listen to Paul as he finishes his thoughts on Adam and our way out of this problem.

Verse 15.

But the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin.

For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation.

But the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

So we can walk in the flesh and that false self who walks by the voice of condemnation, or we can walk in the spirit, the true self, who walks by the voice of love.

And that's a movement.

That's a movement from a life governed by sin and shame to a life that is governed by love and grace.

And that movement is done by this word called repentance.

Right?

I talked about it last week.

And I said, let's not give this word over to the crazy guy at the football game, yelling it out out of hatred, out of a megaphone.

Because I need repentance, and you need repentance.

We need to do every day, not just like on a big rally, and we're all gonna repent or at the football game, somebody's yelling at a no, no, no.

Like we just need to be repenting constantly.

And the reason why we can do this is because in the context of already being loved, you don't live in any fear.

God doesn't hate you.

I mean, in that context, we can just say, oh God of mercy and grace, known in Jesus Christ, help me.

That's repentance.

That's repentance.

Help me.

That's it.

You want to pray repentance?

Help me.

That's it.

I need outside help.

I need your grace toward me.

I need your move toward me.

And I know it.

I know it in the incarnation of your love for me, seen in history in Jesus who took on my sin.

Right?

So I didn't have to try to work out of this thing that I'm never really working out of.

And that I am gifted, that great gift of justification and righteousness.

I'm gifted God's righteousness because of Jesus for me.

I mean, many of us have lived by condemnation and shame our entire lives.

And some of us just transferred it.

Like we were in the world under condemnation and shame, and then we just came into a church and just lived by more condemnation and shame.

Just use that for motivation.

But that doesn't have to be your way of life.

That is not the way of Christian spirituality.

Because the entire time, every second of your life, something wonderful has been true about you.

That's what Genesis 1 tells us.

You were created in the image of God, created out of the dance of love.

God created you out of love, God seeks you out of love, and God redeems you out of love.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you rest and may you repent and may you walk in the truth that yes, we are sinners.

But it is in the great reality that God's grace is always abounding more and more.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you.

That you help us see what is real in our lives.

That our sin is real, that we are not perfect.

We are not perfect in the way we think about ourselves and how we think about other people, how we treat other people, how we relate with you.

And for this, for this, we're sorry.

And even at times we're not sorry.

We're sorry about not being sorry at times.

God, we thank you.

Your grace is bigger than all of that.

Your grace is bigger than our hard-heartedness and our stubbornness.

Your grace is bigger than our doubt.

Thank you that the free gift of justification is enough for us.

God, so many of us in this room have lived by shame and condemnation for so many years of our life because we have always thought of sin and our sin as only being depressing and condemning without seeing that it can be a freeing reality when we understand it in the context that your grace is abounding more and more.

Help us to see, yes, we're imperfect, and with that only, only help us to see that your sufficiency is even greater.

Thank you for this great Genesis story.

That we were created out of love.

You seek us out of love and you redeem us in Jesus out of love.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.