Sin and Its Consequences
applications the Spirit is giving you from these verses.
Since God created all of us in His image, we have a free will. He gave us a free
will so we could freely choose to love and obey Him! Don’t you want people to
choose to love you? This freedom also gave us the choice to be in a relationship with
God. Sadly, Adam and Eve chose to use God’s incredible gift of freedom to do the
Their choice brought death into the world, and made us all God’s enemies. Their
disobedience brought the concept of sin into our world and put us in bondage to it.
We became enslaved to it and had no choice but to sin. We could say, sin became
their (and our) slave master.
Their choice also brought the knowledge of bad into world. (Let me remind you,
before Adam and Eve chose to disobey God’s one command there was only good in
the world.) Bad is defined as the opposite of good and is explained by various
words. These words are: ugly, hurtful, painful, unhappy, inferior, wrong, hideous,
confusion, fearful, unfruitful, insecure, mean, and evil. Have you ever thought about
how very different things would be without the knowledge of bad in the world?
Their sin brought the state of eternal death into the world as God told them it
would. Ephesians 2:1-3 explains that sin puts us in a state of death and rebellion
towards God.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of
the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all
formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the
mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (NASB)
What saddens me is that Adam and Eve chose to trust in or rely on themselves
and the talking serpent, who was actually Satan (Revelation 12:9). They did this
instead of trusting in God, who had just created them to love them. Some people
doubt that God created anything, but Adam and Eve were there right after He
created the world they lived in. So there was absolutely no excuse for them to doubt
God. An important concept to remember is: You either trust in God and what He
thinks is best or by default you are trusting in what you think is best. Satan is
always at the root of not trusting God.
2. Adam’s and Eve’s perfect relationship with God, who created and loved
them, was shattered. They were now in a state of death because they chose to
be. They were now captives of Satan and of their evil desires. They had
rebelled against God and were now His enemies. They had lost their freedom
of choice - whether to sin or not, because they were enslaved to it. (Our
freedom of choice whether to sin or not, is given back to us through belief in
Jesus Christ and what He did for us. This is because He redeems us from
slavery to sin.) Read Romans 3:23 also 5:6-10, and Ephesians 2:1–7 and
summarize what these passages are saying to you.
3. Remember Adam and Eve did not have a sinful nature until after they chose
to disobey God. From Genesis 3:1–6, why did Adam and Eve choose to
disobey God? (Think of why you disobey God and it will help you answer
this question.) Before we become Christians, there is no way we could obey
God because we were held captive by our sinful nature. When we become a
Christian, we are set free from our sinful nature so we can obey God.
However, as Christians we can still wrestle greatly with disobeying God
because our sinful nature is still with us. What do these thoughts say to you
about how difficult it might be for you to choose to obey and trust God? What
helps you to choose to obey and trust God? (As you struggle with obeying
and trusting God, just remember what awful consequences can come from
not.)
4. From Genesis 3, what type of world did we end up with because of sin? (Just
think of the definition of bad.) How did Adam’s and Eve’s relationship with
God change? Is your relationship with God the same way? Ask God if you
are hiding from Him (minus the fig leaves and trees)? Be as specific and
truthful as you can with your answers.
5. From Genesis 1 and 2, what type of world did God want us to live in? How
did God want our relationship to be towards Him?
by Gini Crawford
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