Sunday School | Hamartiology - Doctrine of Sin (What Does Sin Lead To)

Introduction

Press on. Sorry, I don't remember hearing that. Okay. I do remember having a hard time getting you to be quiet. Okay, so you guys welcome here. If you haven't been with us in this class, which normally meets in the other room, we're in like a months-long, years-long, global, comprehensive doctrine survey. We're walking through the 10 major doctrines of Christianity.

Let's see if we can even remember. What have we done? What were the first three? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, right? Theology proper, Christology, pneumaticology. We did that. Then what did we do? Was it was man? I don't even literally, you're actually informing me at this point. Was it man, the next? We did our anthropology, the doctrine of man. Is that all we've done? And then now we're on sin. We're on sin. We did nothing else? Oh, bibliology. Yeah, it's the doctrine of the Scriptures. And then now we're doing the doctrine of sin. Do you know the fancy word for that? Hamartiology. Very good, okay?

The Doctrine of Sin: Genesis 3

Last week, I asked you guys to build up, like, let's just kind of brainstorm through the Scriptures. What are the passages that we need to look at? And we, you came up with a big long list. And so now what we're going to do in the next few weeks, we're just going to walk through them and try to extract from these most central texts on the doctrine of sin. What do we need to understand?

No, you're back. It's good to see you, buddy. And the thing we have to start in the same place. Where do you have to begin the doctrine of sin? You've got to go to Genesis 3. You have to go to the scene of the crime. So if you have a Bible, go to Genesis 3, if we're going to understand it, we're going to, we're going to start right here. All right, Genesis 3.

Let's just read through, and together we're just going to try to extract a few things. Genesis 3, verse 1:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, you must not eat from any tree in the garden.

And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God did say, you must not eat from fruit from the tree that's in the middle of the garden. And you must not touch it or you will die.

The serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked. So they sowed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” And he answered, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man said, “Well, the woman you put her with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” That’s pretty classic blame shifting right there.

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”

Now, I don’t know if I’ve explained this before, but you may have just noticed that Genesis is the acorn from which every oak tree grows, right? Someday at this church, maybe when we’re done, John, no promises, I don’t know what we’re going to do after we’re done, John, but we could study the book of Genesis and that would not be a bad way to spend our time. And in particular, the first three chapters, the amount, the number of crucial ideas that find their origin back in Genesis 1, 2, and 3, it’s hard to imagine how much has been compressed into this, okay?

So we’re just dropping into Genesis, but I want you guys to just tell me, let’s draw out, I don’t know, 3, 4, 5 observations. We’re trying to learn about sin from literally the entry point here. So what do you notice here? What from this passage would you say that you draw out that, like, this is a key takeaway for sin? Gil?

Insights on Sin from Genesis 3

Gil is saying that, what was the threat used? Don’t eat from the tree in the garden. What’s going to happen if you do? You’re going to die, okay? So the first idea here that we get from the learning about sin is that sin leads to death, but there’s this giant asterisk, right? Because Satan says, you will not surely die. So now we’re like, well, hang on a second, will we or won’t we? So on the one hand, we have this idea that sin leads to death, but then that statement is being undercut, and then when we watch this story play out, we’re left, and she doesn’t drop dead. He doesn’t drop dead. And the reality is for the rest of your life, you have been told, hey, don’t do that. And if you do that, bad things will happen. And if you’ve ever done something wrong and nothing bad happened, right? This lurk, so there’s this idea that sin leads to death, but we’re also, we’re always like, maybe it leads to death, and maybe it doesn’t, right? That’s going to be, we’ll kind of unpack that more, especially beginning in Romans 5, hopefully today, okay?

So sin leads to death, but that has been called into question in our minds, which is in some ways kind of unhelpful. All right, what else do you notice? Genesis 3. Yeah, Marty?

Sin Leads to Fear

But Adam is afraid, so sin leads to fear. Okay, this is great. So Adam is afraid, and so sin leads to fear. And I would expand that. We could do the whole big framing on this. This is actually an interesting thing to look at. I think when sin enters the world, it really is the case that death comes, but it doesn’t come alone, right? There are three primary new experiences that humanity is going to experience from this moment on that were not part of the human story prior to this. And they are, do you guys know the, you know the triplet? Have we talked about this? What are the three things, Shima? Okay, that’s true. That’s not one of the three. Okay, that’s going to be an advocate. You’re going to be advocating for sin in just a second, I think, right? So they get to eat meat later. That’s not going to come until after the flood, okay? But so right here in Genesis 3, there’s three things that show up. Fetser? Guilt. Yep. That’s it. Guilt, shame, fear. This is actually really, actually, this is a good thing to know. So where do you see the guilt of Genesis 3? They sin, and then suddenly you see the experience of guilt. Where is it, Robin?

I’m going to call that something else. We’re going to call that fear, right? They’re going to hide because they’re afraid, right? Guilt, where do you see the guilt? The blame shifting, right? So when you say, “This woman whom you gave me, this snake, this is a stupid snake.” I didn’t even, who brought the snake, right? So they’re experiencing guilt, and I want to say this is important. I’m talking about emotional states. You could be guilty, but not feel guilty, and you could feel guilty, but not be guilty, right? What we’re talking about is their emotional experience, and suddenly, this is something new. There’s this barrier between them and God, and they feel guilt.

Joe, did you want to add to that? I’ve read that 80% of the residents of mental health can be freed if they knew they could be forgiven. Yeah. So the claim is that 80% of the residents of mental facilities could be freed if they could be forgiven. That is what almost the entire, if you guys have seen Shutter Island, have you guys seen Shutter Island? I won’t unpack the big surprises in that movie, but this is kind of the ultimate conclusion, is that the sense of culpability can drive you mad, right? And that’s true, okay? Guilt shows up. Where do you see their shame? Yeah, they’re naked, I can cover themselves. That is a dead giveaway for shame and fear. They’re afraid, and they hide, right? So sin leads to death. Understand it’s being questioned. We’re going to unpack that in a minute. Guilt, shame, and fear all flow out of our sin, and if you’ve been alive for any length of time, you experience that.

What else? Genesis 3, we’re just going to mine it for some insights here. Yeah, tell me.

Right. Okay, this is great. So there’s something fundamentally deceptive, right? And so, and you see, Adam, I mean, the snake and Eve both screw up the original message, right? What was God’s actual prohibition? Don’t eat from this specific tree. How does Satan reframe it? You can’t eat from any tree, so that’s not true, and Eve corrects him and says, no, no, no, we can eat from the other trees. We just can’t eat from this tree, and what else? We can’t touch it, which God hadn’t said. So it’s interesting, like these messages are getting corrupted, and you have what there’s an interesting double two things going on here, at least at this point, really two things. In our world, it’s going to grow into three things, but there’s something wrong inside of Eve’s heart, right? There’s something that she’s susceptible to, not maybe not wrong initially, but there’s a vulnerability that Satan preys on. And so, in your life as well, sometimes you just do bad things all by yourself, right? You’re not being tempted, you’re not being influenced. It’s just you, but then sometimes you are being influenced by things outside of yourself. Yes? And you see this. The Bible is going to do something pretty curious. We’ll see it in a number of passages as you walk through this, but sin gets personified. In fact, we’re in Genesis 3, just flip, go to Genesis 4, and we’ll expand on this idea just a little bit. In Genesis 4, there’s a whole Cain and Abel story. Take a look at this, and verse, we’ll start on verse 6:

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?” And he’s already killed his brother. Or no, he’s about to kill his brother. Or no, he’s about to. And then he says, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it.”

In Genesis 3, sin is personified because it is a person in the snake, in the ancient serpent, in Satan himself. In Genesis 4, there’s no living character that embodies it, but sin is still nevertheless described as this crouching beast. We have to contend with that. Sometimes the things that I do that are shady are just internally driven, but repeatedly, the Bible will speak as if there is some foreign, outside agent acting upon us, drawing us away, right? Genesis 4, in particular, but we see it personified in the snake in Genesis 3.

The Reality of Sin's Deception and Personification

Robin?

Okay, so time out one second. I was reminded before we started to tell you guys to talk loud, okay? And this mic is trying to pick you up. So, go ahead again.

Robin’s saying that when it comes to sin, there’s a fork in the road. Do I do it? Do I not do it? And that’s, I mean, you all know this, you’ve experienced this a thousand times. If nothing else, you experienced it when you’re thinking about eating another cookie, right? I mean, you know this, this reality in your life is like, I could, but I might not. What should I do? Or should I spend the money? Should I save the money? What should I do? Should I say it? Should I join in the gossip? Or should I keep my mouth shut? There’s always this fork, and absolutely here for Cain. It’s like, sin is trying to master you, but you must master it.

Absolutely, for sure. Katherine?

Yeah.

It’s a good song, Katherine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. So Katherine is saying that what do you see immediately is this rationalization. And that is a strategy that we use basically to deal with our guilt and our shame. It wasn’t really my fault. Under these circumstances, you know, you would have done the same, or under different circumstances, I would never have done this. We have this deep longing to get out from underneath our guilt, to get out from underneath our shame. And we make a lot of excuses for it. You see it all starts right there.

Okay, one more big one. Gil?

I should have asked if you were in Genesis 4. Like, is this? Because God said, you know, it says, if you must call it, you’re a state. It’s just kind of, but Jesus being 100% human is going to show us that he’s dating.

Yeah. Okay, let me try to repeat that. So Gil’s asking the question, in Genesis 4, when God is telling Cain, “Hey, listen, you must conquer your sin. It desires to master you. Could he? Is it possible?” Right? And you can look at that in a couple of ways. It could be in the same way that the law is a tutor that is meant to lead us to Christ. And essentially, the job of the law is to expose our inability to keep it. It’s meant to be a mirror that shows, like, try. And when we recognize that we cannot, when we recognize our inability, that’s what makes us humble. That’s what makes us soft. That’s what drives us to Christ, right? And that is exactly accurate.

There’s fundamentally the purpose of the law is not to give you the rungs of the ladder to climb that you can be righteous. The purpose of the law is to show you you’re incapable of climbing this ladder so that you will, I don’t know, my metaphor is breaking down, you will get on his escalator or something, right? That he has made a way that you’re incapable of doing. Ultimately, that is the case. However, if we really follow the whole loop all the way through, what’s supposed to happen? This is highly compressed here. What’s supposed to happen is that we see what we’re supposed to do. We recognize our inability to do it. We cry out for help. And God in his mercy gives us help not only to forgive us for our failures but to resource us to be what we could not be on our own so that we can actually become obedient people, right? So it does, and God does care that at the end of the day, we would obey him. But he’s trying to bring us through this event where we recognize our insufficiency, our inability, so we would cling to him for his grace, we would be resourced by his Holy Spirit, and then we would actually be in reality what he calls us to because we’re doing it in his power and not in our own, okay? That in 45 seconds, we could expand that for hours, but that’s essentially what is meant to be happening here. It’s not meant to be a shortcut. “Hey, just do it in your own power.” It’s meant to show us our inability, drive us to him that we would be resourced by his Spirit, okay? That’s highly condensed.

The Commentary of Romans 5 on Genesis 3

Now we’re going to leave Genesis 3 for a minute because so many things we want to look at. I want to suggest to you that the most important commentary on Genesis 3 is actually in the New Testament. It’s in Romans and it’s in chapter 5, okay? I think Romans 5, you could, you could under, like, commentaries or books that people write to explain books in the Bible. I think the only inspired commentary we have on the Old Testament is the New Testament, and if we really want to get Genesis 3, you’ve got to go to Romans 5.

So flip up there and we’ll make some observations in Romans 5. And let me ask you this. Here’s the first and maybe the most important question about Genesis 3. Is Genesis 3 describing a historic event or is it a metaphor, a picture, a parable, a story? You understand the question? Was there someone named Adam? Was there someone named Eve? Was there a particular moment where the world broke? My answer to that is yes. I don’t think you have to be, I think if you answer that question no, it doesn’t mean you can’t be a Christian, right? There is a debate about this. How do we understand the seven days of creation? Is the earth 10,000 years old or like, you know, 2 billion years old? Okay, I think there’s a legitimate debate to be had about those things and I don’t know all things. And there’s a case to be made that Genesis, there are gaps in the narrative that make taking the seven-day creation a straight, you know, face value problematic. Maybe the world was made in seven days. I am personally not sure of that. I’m also not sure that is not the case. I just don’t know. But by the time we get to Adam, the person in Genesis 3, you guys, I think it has to be taken as a historical, real event, not because of Genesis 3, but because of Romans 5. Paul, in the only inspired commentary that we have on Genesis, treats Adam like a historical figure on the level, on the reality level of Jesus himself, right?

If you lose Romans 5, I think the whole thing unravels. So I’m not answering the question about the seven-day creation, but I do think that Paul treats this event as if it’s not just a picture or metaphor. He’s saying this actually happened. The first thing that Romans 5 teaches me about Genesis 3 is that it’s a true story. It actually happened.

Here’s what he says. Romans 5, we’ll start in verse 12. There’s a ton of stuff in here, but there’s just a couple of things we want to get that Paul says 15 times. Therefore, Jesus’ sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned. And then he interrupts himself. So we may not even get past verse 12 this morning. We’ll see.

Just to clarify, sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and this way, death came to all men because all sinned. What is he saying there? What are they saying? Several things, but let’s just try to put them on the table. And wages of sin is death. Okay, this is a great summary, Catherine. So this question that Gil was kind of raising earlier, God tells Eve, hey, if you eat of the tree, you’re going to die. And then Satan’s like, no, you’re not. Paul comes down and says, yeah, you will. That death enters the world through sin. And this is, I think, fundamental belief in the biblical view of sin. That if it were not for sin, Adam and Eve would have been sustained in life. But they did, and we are now broken, and everyone in this room is a mortal being.

Now you can look at Eve’s death and Adam’s death in a couple of different ways. On the one hand, they were immediately, their fellowship with God was broken, they experienced guilt, shame, and fear, and something broke. But it took them like 900 years to actually die. And die they did. Death entered the world through this sin. Now curiously, when we were in Genesis 3, we were looking at Eve. He doesn’t even mention Eve. He mentions Adam. And that has implications, too. Unmistakably, Eve is the one. Like we always hang this thing on Adam’s neck, but it was Eve who listened to the snake. It was Eve. Why do we blame it on Adam? Why do we blame it on Adam? He was in charge. He was the one God spoke to. He was in charge. It is a curious thing, and I don’t know what would have happened. What if Eve takes a bite of the apple and Adam knocks it out of her hand? What would have happened? Would Eve just taken another rib and made a new one? I don’t even know, right? Nobody knows. What would have come of that? But whatever it is, by the time we get to Romans 5, it’s very clear. Death entered the world through one man, or sin into the world through one man, and death through sin. Adam is held accountable for what Eve did, right? And in fact, he joined her in it. He participates in it. He, rather than leading her and training her and teaching her what God had told him, he just succumbs to her seemingly better idea. And that is when the world breaks.

John?

Oh, that is interesting. I don’t think I have no — so you’re saying she takes a bite, and then Adam takes a bite, and that’s when the change really takes place. Fascinating, John. Yeah, that’s a good observation.

So, the world, sin enters through one man, death through one man. Adam is held accountable for the whole thing. Suzanne?

Yes. Okay. This is so good. So this is really, really interesting. So Eve, if you eat the fruit, you’re going to die. Adam, if you eat the thing, you’re going to die. They take a bite, and they don’t die. But who does? The animal, right? Now, you guys are well-trained. It’s not as obvious people. Like when they make a garment of skin for them to cover them, the fig leaves don’t cover their shame. They need a new garment to cover them, and that garment requires something to die. And so, sin equals death, sin equals death, sin equals death, but it doesn’t have to be your death.

This is the earliest hint of what we call penal substitutionary atonement. The first moment where a substitute dies in your place for your wrongdoing is right there in the garden. This is one of the reasons, one of many reasons, that it becomes obvious over time that the garden was a temple. The garden was the place where the sacrifice was made. It is the place where God meets man, and it’s where sin is atoned for right there in the garden. So yes, sin equals death, but it doesn’t have to be your death. It could be the death of another. It’s a really important observation, so I’m grateful for that.

Stephen?

Yeah, Adam was our federal head, right? Ah, this is Romans 5, yes. Okay, so now we’re going to unpack this idea of federal head. Catherine, you want to get some quick?

Only God could do the killing, though. Yes, that’s right. Yeah, he is the one who’s going to institute the sacrifice. That’s right. Yeah, that’s right. We don’t get to be like, I did something wrong. I’m going to kill Gary, right? We don’t get to do that, okay?

Now, as soon as you use a term that may or may not be familiar to you, this is a little bit nerdy theologically. Federal head. This is really important. It’s in verse 12, and it’s not obvious. So listen to this:

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all men because all sinned.

Okay, right there, Paul interrupts himself. NIV puts a dash in there. Does the ESV have a dash? Okay. The idea is that he’s saying something, and then he stops short. Hang on a second. Let me back up. Let me explain this. What’s going on here? This is surprising. When he says, “Death came to all men because all sinned,” it does not mean—.

It does not mean what you probably think it means, which is Adam sinned, and then Adam’s kid sinned, and then his grandchild sinned, and then his great, great, great, great grandchild sinned, and that’s this list of wicked things that he’s done, and we’re all sinners. We’ve all imitated Adam. It does not mean that. That’s true, but it’s not what he’s talking about.

What he is saying is that when Adam sinned, Gil sinned in that moment, when Adam sinned, Susie became guilty, and that is a strange idea. But it is unmistakably what he means. It is so shocking and so surprising. That’s why he interrupts himself, and here’s what you need to understand about sin: you are not just a sinner because you sin. You’re a sinner because you are of Adam. That when Adam sinned, his sin was imputed to you. This is the doctrine of federal headship. And it is very possible that right now, some of you are thinking, “Time out, time out. I don’t like federal headship, but I promise you, you do not want to reject it,” because every good thing in your life is predicated on the idea that one man’s life could be credited to you and that you would get everything that he earned. If you reject the federal headship of Adam, you have no basis to claim the federal headship of Christ, and apart from that, you have no hope because even if you weren’t guilty for Adam’s sin, then you’re guilty for your own, right?

And so we embrace the fact that in Adam, we are fallen because apart from that, in Christ, we cannot be saved.

Now, I am giving you high-level theology in a very condensed form. I will show it to you in Romans here in a second. But first, Robin?

The Reality of Original Sin

Okay, go louder. I can barely hear you.

Robin is saying that when we talk about the doctrine of original sin, or we’re born in sin, or Psalm 51, we’re conceived in sin, all of that, is that rooted in this? Absolutely.

Paul is saying, really without any mistake that when death came to all men because of all sin, watch him unpack the case. Okay, here’s how he does it.

Look at verse 13:

For before the law was given, sin was in the world, but sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking the command as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

His case is this. You got Adam up here, you know, like zero year, whatever. And then you’ve got Moses. What does Moses? I don’t even know. You know, 2,000 years later or something. Who knows? So you’ve got this whole window of time from Adam to Moses. He says, “The law wasn’t given till Moses, but everyone who lived between Moses and Adam, every one of them died. Why did they die? What can explain their death?” Answer? The culpability of Adam, that they were in Adam and they have inherited from him not just an inclination to do bad, but they have inherited from Adam guilt itself.

And he’s going to say the same thing like fifty times now. Take a look at this. He says, we’ll put it in verse 15:

But the gift is not like the trespass, for if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace in the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many?

Again, the gift of God is not like the result of one man’s sin. The judgment followed one sin and it brought condemnation—.

Implication is to everyone. And he’s going to make it more clear.

But the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

Look at verse 17:

For if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift