Galatians 57
The Doctrine of the Flesh
We are, of course, in the
middle of a war. We are not only in the middle of the angelic conflict but we
are in the middle of an internal war and that is the subject of Galatians 5 and
following. Open your Bibles to Galatians 5: 16.
Contrary to the way spiritual
warfare is taught by so many people today, the real battle, no matter who the
enemy is, whether the enemy is outside of you in terms of Satan and his
henchmen the demons, or whether the enemy outside of you
is the cosmic system, or whether the enemy is internal, our own sin nature, the
way to respond to that enemy and beat that enemy is always the same. It never
involves going out and taking Satan captive or rebuking the devil or any of
that sort of nonsense.
But it is always related to
thinking. The real battle takes place between your ears. It does not take place
somewhere else. So the issue is, ultimately and always, volition. And that is
the point of this passage we are examining this morning.
In Galatians 5:16 we read: But I say walk by means of the Spirit, and
you will not carry out the lusts of the flesh.
We have spent almost a month
analyzing what is meant by the concept of the mandate walking by means of the
Spirit. It is a present active indicative which indicates it is a standard
operating procedure for living the spiritual life. We have to walk. It is a
moment-by-moment, day-by-day, conscious dependence upon God the Holy Spirit,
moving forward.
Walk
by means of the Spirit, and what this tells us
then is you will not carry out the desire
of the flesh.
And so having taken a lot of
time understanding how walking by means of the Spirit works, that it works
because we have made a decision first and foremost to depend upon God the Holy
Spirit.
This isnÕt something mystical,
it is done primarily through learning and applying the word of God. But we have
seen that when we sin we grieve the Holy Spirit and we quench the Holy Spirit. We
are then out of fellowship and the Bible says that this is walking in darkness.
And as long as we walk in darkness we do not have fellowship with God.
So the only way to recover is
through 1John 1:9, confession of sins. Then we begin to walk in the light. That puts us experientially back into
fellowship where we can walk in the light. But here, once again the issue is
volition and obedience and application of divine mandates.
These are mutually exclusive
categories. We have seen this in
our well-known and memorized diagram with the top and bottom circles. Either
you are in the bottom circle in fellowship, walking in the light or out of fellowship,
walking in darkness. There is no middle ground.
And you can see that in the way
this verse is constructed. I say then:
walk by means of the Spirit, and then we have an interesting phrase, and, which is the connective KAI, and you shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh. The verb there is very interesting and
the way it is constructed is very strong. It is the aorist active subjunctive
of the Greek verb TELEO, which
means to bring to completion. Often this is translated perfect, but not in the
sense of sinlessness. Perfect has wrong implications
so I donÕt like that. The main idea is to bring something to completion.
A point of grammar here: you
have an aorist active subjunctive. Now, with something like this it is not so
important what the tense and the voice are, what is important is the
combination. And in Greek, what you would do if you wanted to say something and
you wanted to negate it in the strongest possible terms, what you would do is
put it in the subjunctive mood because that is the mood of potentiality. And
what you would do in your negation is show that there is absolutely no
potential here. And so you would take two negatives, in the Greek language you
have two negatives: OU and
ME.
In English it is bad form to use a double negative. It is
poor grammar and it is meaningless. However, in Greek, if you want to say no
and you mean it, then you double the negative. In English a double negative is
a positive. In Greek, a double negative is the most emphatic way to say
no.
If you take both Greek
negatives, OU
and ME,
and add a subjunctive verb, what you are saying is that there is no possibility
that this can occur. It is the most emphatic, strongest form of negation
possible. So that indicates that these are mutually exclusive concepts. You are
either walking by the Spirit or carrying out the desires of the flesh. You canÕt
do both at the same time. You canÕt be a little spiritual and a little
carnal.
You often hear people say,
well, even at our very best there is a certain level of selfishness, a certain
level of sin
there, and so even at our best, we
are never really doing GodÕs will exclusively. Well, if that is true we are never carnal, we are never in
fellowship.
How much unrighteousness does
it take to violate the righteousness of God? Just a little bit. So their pious
reasoning may sound like it has some validity, but when you start taking it
apart, what you usually find, like you do with most pious reasoning is that it
doesnÕt really hold water.
So what Paul is saying is, you
only have two options, you are either going to be walking by means of the
Spirit, or you are going to be fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.
The word here for flesh is the
Greek word SARKOS,
which can refer to the literal muscles that wrap around the bones of the body. But
it has a metaphorical meaning that relates to the sin nature. It is used this
way many, many times in scripture and it has about five or six different
meanings, but this is the concept here.
So now we have to switch gears
and instead of talking about the positive of walking by means of the Spirit, we
have to talk about the negative now and understand the doctrine of the sin
nature.
I have about thirteen or
fourteen points to cover on the doctrine of the sin nature. We are going to
start taking this apart to make sure we do understand how sinful we are.
You might not think that is so
important, but I think the more we realize how sinful we are, the more we
realize what grace is all about. A person who thinks that somehow they are nice
enough, sweet enough, they have an attractive enough personality to think that
God somehow loves them because there is something in them that God finds
loveable, can never understand grace.
The point of the scripture is
that there is nothing in us that God finds the least bit attractive. Not one thing. You are not nice enough,
you are not sweet enough, you are not good enough; youÕve not done one single
thing in your life that would gain the approval of God. That shocks most
people, because most people want to think that there is something about themselves that God finds attractive. And the Bible says,
not at all.
And the reason we think this is because we donÕt understand
the sinfulness of sin. So letÕs start off by looking at point 1, the
terminology.
1.
The terminology here is SARX. This is used
figuratively for that which inhabits, or has as its source the genetic
structure of the human being and produces the inclination and propensity to
sin.
Now
we want to have a caveat here, a word of warning. Back in the early church and
even before that there is always a human viewpoint philosophy that comes along
and says that which is material is evil, and that which is immaterial is
good.
That
is not what I am saying. What I am saying and what we will see is that the Bible
says that sin invaded the entire make up of the human being, and resides, not
immaterially, it is not an immaterial thing like the soul, but it resides in
the very flesh. Paul uses these very strong terms to show where the sin nature
resides and how it is translated. It inhabits the very genetic structure. That
is why today when you will hear, and I predict in the coming years you will
hear more and more, in fact, any day I expect the discovery of a certain gene
that means you will be an alcoholic, or a certain gene that means you will be a
murderer, or a certain gene that you will be a homosexual. The Bible does not
negate that. Where they will go with that is saying that this necessarily
determines what you will be. That is wrong. The Bible says that the sin nature
has its source genetically and is transmitted genetically through procreation. This
genetic material is merely a predisposition in certain directions. Ultimately
it is your volition that determines whether or not that is brought to
fruition.
Every
single person has certain proclivities of the sin nature. Some of you are
motivated by approbation lust, some are motivated by power lust, some of you
struggle with materialism lust, or sex lust. Those are the basic four
motivators of the sin nature. Some of you have trends toward self-
righteousness, others of you have trends toward lasciviousness, some have
trends toward antinomianism; it all depends on your makeup.
Everybody
is different. Sometimes you might be one way, and in another time in life
another way. It depends totally on
your volition. Your environment may or may not give you those options, and you
may think you donÕt have a problem whatsoever in a certain arena, and all of a
sudden, when you are thirty or forty years old, somebody introduces you to
something you havenÕt had before, maybe you grew up in a home where alcohol was
never served so it was not an issue and then when you are forty years old you
are at a party and someone pours a thirty year old double malt scotch and you
think you ought to try it and you do and you just think it is motherÕs milk. And
all of a sudden you have never had that feeling before and it reacts chemically
with your body and now you have a problem you never thought you would have.
Environment
plays a role. But the ultimate issue is not your genetic predisposition, it is
not the predisposition of your sin nature, it is up to your volition. As an
unbeliever you are a slave to your sin nature and you canÕt do anything other
than obey your sin nature, either the area weakness or the area of strength,
whatever.
But
as a believer you are free from the power of the sin nature. This is what the
scripture clearly teaches in relation to the plan of salvation. At phase one,
faith alone in Christ alone, we are saved from the eternal penalty of sin but
we still have a sin nature.
Phase
two salvation is the process of learning the assets God has given us
spiritually in terms of doctrine and the Holy Spirit so we can utilize those
assets correctly and not yield to the power, the temptation of the sin
nature.
When
we start off with our definition we are clearly recognizing that there is a genetic
aspect to the sin nature: that it is transmitted genetically, passed on
physically, resides in the cell structure of the body and carries with it
certain inclinations and propensities to sin. That is the definition.
There are some verses to
substantiate that.
Romans 7:5 says, For while we were in the flesh, the sinful
passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our
body, notice the physical terms used, to
bear fruit for death.
Romans 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for
the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
In Romans 8:4 and following,
which we will look at eventually as one of the greatest discourses on the
battle between the sin nature and the Holy Spirit, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not
walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit,
Romans 8:5, For those who are according to the flesh set
their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the
Spirit, the things of the Spirit
Romans 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is
life and peace.
Romans 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does
not subject itself to the law of God; for it is not even able to do so.
Romans 8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
These are some of the
key verses to look at which demonstrate that the term flesh is used in
reference to the sin nature that every human being possesses, which is our inclination and our propensity and our orientation to
sin. Now that we have said that, letÕs move to some definitions.
2.
Definitions: The
Westminster Larger Catechism, now if you were raised Presbyterian you probably
memorized either the Westminster shorter or Larger Catechism. These were put
together by English Calvinists in the 16th century in order
to inculcate doctrine into children.
It is an excellent tool and they had to memorize a variety of questions
and their answers. For the most
part it reflects excellent theology.
The Westminster Larger Catechism has defined sin as any want of
conformity unto or transgression of any law of God given as a rule to the
reasonable creature. Now that is a pretty standard and often quoted definition.
Louis
Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Seminary, modified that a little bit. Instead of saying it is a want of
conformity unto the law of God, it is better to put the absolute standard as
the character of God because the law of God is simply the verbal expression of
the character of God. So he changed the definition of sin as any want of
conformity to the character of God.
Further, he said that the general term for sin is the Greek word HAMARTIA, which means the mark or ideal has been
missed. This mark or ideal is the
essential character of God, which is made known to man by GodÕs revealed will
or law.
John
Calvin had a very extended comment on sin that I thought was just
excellent. And I thought I would
read a couple of extracts from this, it is a rather long paragraph, but he says
some fairly profound and important things. He says, Ôoriginal sin then, may be
defined as an hereditary corruption and depravity of our natureÕ.
I
want you to pay attention to these words, because they are not words that
people like to hear about themselves. But it is essential to understand who we
are as God defines us if we are ever going to understand what the real problems
are and really appreciate the grace solution God has given to us. Notice these words. These are not words
a psychologist would say to engender a positive self image.
ÔOriginal
sin then may be defined as an hereditary corruption and depravity of our nature
extending to all parts of the soul which first makes us first obnoxious to the
wrath of God and then produces in us works which in scripture are termed works
of the fleshÕ.
He
clearly talks about the fact that sin is not some illness. Some people want to
handle sin as if it is some illness, or simply a lack in man, something
missing. We will come along later on and talk about some of the false views of
sin to understand that.
But
he clearly states that it is a corruption and depravity. He goes on to say a
number of other things and then towards the end he concludes by saying, ÔNay,
their whole nature, as it were, is a seed bed of sinÕ.
Have you thought about yourself that way
lately? When you look in the mirror do you say, look, there is a person who is
a seed bed of sin? Have you looked at that sweet
little baby you have and thought about that child as a seed
bed of sin? That is what the scripture says and we have to start with
reality here.
ÔThe
whole nature as it were is a seed-bed of sin and
therefore cannot but be odious and abominable to God. Hence it follows that it is properly deemed sinful in the
sight of God for there can be no condemnation without guilt.Õ
Next
comes the other point. ÔThat this perversity in us never ceases, but constantly
produces new fruits,Õ in other words, these works of the flesh formerly
described, Ôjust as a lighted furnace sends forth sparks and flames or a
fountain without ceasing pours out water hence those who have defined original
sin as the lack of original righteousness,Õ if you go back to Aquinas and
others, that is how they want to define sin, itÕs what they call privation,
lack of righteousness, but the Bible says it is not simply that you lack
righteousness, you also have something more added to it, it is not just an
absence of righteousness, it is the addition of something evil and obnoxious to
God. That is the problem with the Catholic definition of sin, is that it isnÕt
sinful enough. It is simply that man lacks something. But he not only lacks
something, he has something added that is evil and obnoxious.
So
Calvin says,Õ hence those who have defined original sin as the lack of the
original righteousness we ought to have had, though they substantially
comprehend the whole case, do not significantly enough express its power and
energy. For our nature is not only utterly devoid of goodness, but so prolific
in all kinds of evil that it can never be idle. Those who term it
concupiscence,Õ which I looked up, that is an old word, I donÕt know what it
meant when this was translated, but in current dictionaries it refers to sexual
lust. So it is not a good word at all to define the sin nature, at least not
anymore. ÔThose who term it concupiscence use a word not very inappropriate,
provided it were added that everything which is in man, from the intellect to
the will, from the soul even to the flesh, is defiled and pervaded with this
concupiscence, or to express it more briefly, that the whole man is in himself
nothing else than concupiscenceÕ.
In
other words, we are totally depraved. So when we talk about sin, we will talk
about it this way, sin is any mental, verbal, or overt act, which violates the
character, standards and will of God which are
revealed in the word of God. Now what that tells us right away is that there is
an absolute standard, and that is in the person and character of God.
We
live in an era today which rejects the notion that
there are absolute standards. The technical term for the ideology dominating
our current culture is post modernism. Postmodernism walks hand in hand with
something called multiculturalism. At some point we will probably take the time
to do a detailed study of these things, but multiculturalism says that every
culture is equal and has equal value. And all parts of culture are equal and of
equal value. So if you are a Satanist, or an animist in darkest Africa, or an
intellectual at Harvard University, or if you are a white male European, or a
female Asian, whatever your culture is, the greatest sin you can commit is to
say that one culture is better than the other.
Now
what lies behind that is a system of values that you cannot say that something
is right or something is wrong anymore, because that simply reflects your own
cultural bias. And if your are the worst of all sinners, a white male, then you
can never define right and wrong because that reflects your chauvinistic bias. You
have to use other terminology.
Notice,
you never hear anybody talk about behavior as right or wrong anymore, especially
in the schools. What you hear over and over again is, that something is
appropriate or inappropriate. And we have all fallen into that trap, we hear it
all the time now and I think we should slash those terms from our vocabulary,
because the root of that terminology is post modernism.
There
is nothing right or wrong anymore, it is either appropriate or inappropriate. So
there is a good point of application this morning in relation to your own
vocabulary.
Sin
comes from an absolute. It is a violation of that absolute that resides in the
standards and character of God.
The
second definition we need to address is the sin nature. The sin nature is the
capacity, the propensity and the inclination in every human being to make life
work independently of God. Now pay attention to that. It is the capacity,
propensity and the inclination in every human being to make life work
independently of God. Notice, that doesnÕt focus on horrible, evil acts that we
usually think of when we think of sin. Because what sin is, in its essence, is
saying, I can make the decision, and I am the authority, not God. I will
determine what right and wrong is and not God.
It
is an assertion of independence and that is what took place in the original
angelic fall, and also in the garden of Eden, which we will look at in point 3
which is the origination of sin in the universe. Sin originated in the universe when Lucifer first sinned,
Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14.
LetÕs
turn first of all to the Ezekiel 28 passage.
If
we look at the beginning of Ezekiel 28 we will see that the word of the Lord
comes to Ezekiel to address an oracle of condemnation against the prince of Tyre. The New American Standard translates it the leader
but it should be translated the prince of Tyre.
Now,
this is really going to amaze you: there is a most Old Testament scholars today
do not think either of these two passages have anything to do with Satan or
Lucifer. That is what is being taught even at places like Dallas Theological
Seminary.
I
think that is absolutely absurd. If you look at what is said here in
relationship to the prince of Tyre starting in verse
2 down to 10, that obviously will apply to a human
ruler. But what is said starting in Ezekiel 28:11 and what is addressed to the
King of Tyre, is something else again.
The
King of Tyre cannot be a human being. In fact I think
an excellent term used here is a French term, eminence grise,
and this always refers to the power behind the throne. The way that developed
is back in the 1600Õs when the major power in France was Cardinal Richelieu,
you know of him if youÕve seen The Three Musketeers. He always wore his red
Cardinal robes and he was called eminence
rouge, his second in command, who carried out a lot of his dictates and who
succeeded him as cardinal did not wear red robes, but wore grey robes.
He
was really the power behind the throne in France and he was called the eminence grise.
That is where this term comes from and it is a little addition to your
vocabulary.
Whenever
you see that term it refers to someone who is manipulating things behind the
scenes. That is the scenario we have starting in Ezekiel 28:12, that the human
leader of Tyre is really a puppet and he is being
manipulated by someone else who is identified as the true ruler of Tyre, the King of Tyre, and this personage
cannot be a human being because of what is said about him.
It
must be referring to an angelic personage. It begins in Ezekiel 28:12 you had the seal of perfection, past tense, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. This terminology in Hebrew
indicates this creature at one time was the most perfect creature to come from
the hand of God, the most brilliant, the most beautiful, the most intelligent
creature to ever come from the hand of God and that describes Lucifer, the
highest of all the angels.
Then
we have in Ezekiel 28:13 in Eden you were
that is how it is written in the Hebrew for emphasis, Eden being a term for
the throne room of God, you were in Eden the
garden of God, not to be confused with the garden where man was placed, you were in Eden, the garden of God; Every
precious stone was your covering.
The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl,
the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And
the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day
that you were created They were prepared.
Now
the interesting thing here is, we donÕt have time to do this, but if you look
at all of these jewels and you look at the concept here, these jewels remind us
of the jewels the High Priest of Israel was to wear in his breastplate. If you
were Jewish and you read this, the dress of the High Priest of Israel would
come to mind.
From
this we get the hint that before his fall Lucifer had something of a priestly
function in relation to all of the angels. This is our first hint of that. He
was absolutely perfect.
Then
in Ezekiel 28:14 we read, "You were the anointed cherub who
covers.
This
is a pregnant verse in terms of the implications. First, he is called the
anointed cherub and the word we have for anointed is the Hebrew word meshiach.
What
is our English translation of that? It is Messiah. And Messiah refers to
whom? It refers to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Messiah simply means the anointed
one. But it shows that this role Lucifer held prior to the fall was a special
role. He has a unique role. He was a cherub, a class
of angel that is very powerful, probably the highest of all of the angels were
the cherubs.
In
Hebrew to make a plural im is added,
so when you read cherubim, that means cherubs. The
cherubs are intimately located in the throne of God and are almost always
associated with His righteousness justice.
So
here is this angelic creature, the most beautiful and intelligent of all
creatures who has terminology used about him that is
related to priestly function. He is the
anointed cherub who covers. And that term covering again, remember there is
the covering of sin on the mercy seat in the ark of the
covenant. This is a term that carries with it the sense of atonement. There
are all kinds of nuances to these words that are used to describe LuciferÕs
function prior to the fall that speak of some kind of a priestly role.
The
verse goes on to say, And I placed you there. You were on the holy
mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire ŌYou were blameless in your ways
From the day you were created
Until unrighteousness was found in you.
God
created Lucifer perfect. But like all rational creatures that God creates he
had volition, and he exercised his volition against God one day, and unrighteousness, that means he
violated the perfect righteousness of God, unrighteousness
was found in you.
And then Ezekiel 28:16 is interesting, ŌBy the abundance of your trade, now we
are talking about Tyre. Tyre was a major commercial center
in the ancient world. It was on
the Mediterranean Sea, so ships from Egypt and all around the Mediterranean,
from Greece, from Rome, from as far away as Spain, all brought their goods to Tyre. It was a commercial center, a lot of trade going
on.
Ezekiel uses this imagery of trade and
says, by the abundance of your trade you
were internally filled with violence.
What was LuciferÕs trade, what was his
commerce? We canÕt say for sure, but I would suggest, because of the priestly
terminology used to describe him, what he is trading, what he is trafficking
in, he is carrying the praise and worship of the angelic host to God. The High
Priest of Israel would be carrying the praise and worship of the people of
Israel to God. The High Priest is the representative of all the people and they
approach Him through the High Priest.
So all the angels would approach God
through Lucifer as their High Priest, and as he trafficked in that trade, what happened
was, he decided he wanted all of that praise and worship for himself instead of
giving it to God. That is the
image we have here. He begins to want to be like God. The result is given half
way through Ezekiel 28:16
And you sinned;
Therefore I have cast you as profane
From the mountain of God.
And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub,
That same terminology there,
From the midst of the stones of fire.
ŌYour
heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground; 38.40
I put you before kings,
That they may see you.
ŌBy the multitude of your iniquities,
In the unrighteousness of your trade
You profaned your sanctuaries.
Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you;
It has consumed you,
And it goes from there to describe the
rest of the judgment.
Now letÕs turn over to Isaiah 14 to see
a little more detail in the origination of sin amongst the angels. This is the original introduction of
sin into creation. Prior to this there was no sin.
Isaiah 14:12
How
you have fallen from heaven
O
Lucifer, son of the dawn!
You
have been cut down to the earth,
You
who have weakened the nations!
So this starts off where Ezekiel 28
stops.
Isaiah 14:13 But you said in your heart,
and here we have the sin of Lucifer.
I will ascend to heaven. Here we have
the five ÔI willsÕ he is asserting his will over
against GodÕs will.
That is why I define the sin nature as
essentially that inclination of asserting independence from God. It is saying, I
will, rather than Thou will. That is the essence of sin: I am the final
authority, not God.
I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God. The
stars of God is a term in the Old Testament for the
angels. He wanted to rule the
angels. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north;
Isaiah 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like
the Most High.
This is LuciferÕs sin,
it is characterized by the assertion of independence or autonomy. He wants to
be completely independent of God and his claim is that he can rule the
creation, he can rule the angels, he just want to go off on his own and his
claim is that he has enough intelligence and enough power to rule the creation
on his own without any interference from God. God will show in the course of
the angelic conflict that this is a completely fraudulent claim, that nothing
can be accomplished on the basis of arrogance, accomplishment comes only on the
basis of humility which is understanding our right relationship with God and
being dependent upon Him.
Sin originated in the universe when Lucifer first sinned. That
is point 3 in the doctrine of the sin nature, Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. We do
not know exactly when this took place. It was sometime before Genesis 1:2, in
that interlude between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 when Lucifer fell and took
one third of the angels with him. We donÕt know how long a period of time that
took. My inclination is a short period of time, some people want to put a lot
of time there but I donÕt think it took a lot of time.
It didnÕt take a long time for man, once he sinned for
everything to fall apart so I donÕt think it took a lot of time and I think
everything happened very rapidly and God had to judge the universe. That is
where Genesis 1:2 picks up, and the terminology there, we will pick up back in
Genesis 1:1 because we are going to get into Genesis 3 in a minute.
The
earth was formless and void, tohu wa
bohu
is the phrase typically used in the
scripture to describe a state of judgment, darkness
was over the surface of the deep darkness
is also used in scripture in antithesis to God and to perfection and to
indicate sinfulness and the deep is used symbolically as a representation of
chaos, anarchy and sin.
And
the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
This indicates an absolute regeneration of the earth after the judgment of
Satan. So what comes up afterwards has nothing to do with what took place
before. It is a complete, total
renovation of the planet in preparation for the creation of man.
Sin originated with LuciferÕs first
sin, there was a judgment and then Lucifer made his claim, how can a just,
loving God send His creatures to the lake of fire without giving them the
opportunity to prove what they can do, so God is going to give Lucifer an extended
opportunity and that is human history.
3.
Sin is an act of volition against God,
producing sins in four categories.
Sins of commission, omission, ignorance and cognizance.
Sins of commission
are when you actively perform or engage in an overt, mental or verbal act which
violates the character of God.
A sin of omission is
a sin because you fail to attain the highest standards revealed by God. For example, you have the opportunity
to demonstrate impersonal love to someone, love your neighbor as yourself, and
you donÕt hate them, you donÕt hurt them; you just donÕt do anything. You just
ignore the situation. That is a
sin of omission. By failing to do what you should have done you are sinning.
Then there are sins
of ignorance, doing something you did not know was a sin. Nevertheless, you
wanted to do it and you did it. Because you wanted to do it you are culpable.
Ignorance is not an excuse. Just because you did not know that there is a shell
in the chamber of a 45 when you pointed it at somebody and pulled the trigger,
doesnÕt bring them back to life. Ignorance is never an excuse. Even if you do
not know it is a sin, you still violate the absolute standard of God.
Sins of cognizance
are sins you commit knowing they are sins.
Jesus Christ paid the
penalty on the cross for every single sin in every single category. He paid the
price for sins of omission, commission, ignorance and cognizance. Jesus Christ
paid the price for every single sin in history.
5.
As we have seen, sin is ultimately an act of independence
against God. So all sins are first and foremost against God, no matter who else
they might affect. You might murder someone and that is obviously a sin against
them, but it is first and foremost a sin against
God. When David confessed his sins
of adultery with Bathsheba, the cover up of the conspiratorial murder of her
husband Uriah, when it was all said and done, and hundreds of people were
affected by his sin, he said, Lord,
against Thee and Thee only have I sinned. Sin doesnÕt have to do with
violating someone elseÕs standards. You donÕt sin against your husbandÕs
standards or your wifeÕs standards. Sin is a theological term and relates to
violation of GodÕs standards.
WeÕve already talked
about how sin originated in the angelic realm in the universe, and now we are
going to talk about how sin originated in the human race in relation to AdamÕs
original sin in the garden.
When God created Adam
and Ishah,
she did not get the name Eve until after the Fall when
she began to have children, before that she was known as Ishah.
Man was originally
created in the image and likeness of God according to Genesis 1: 26 & 27. Male
and female, both are equally in the image of God. They were created perfect. They
had absolute righteousness even though this was an untested or unconfirmed
righteousness.
They were placed in
perfect environment and God provided everything that they would need to supply
every single necessity that could be imagined. God placed them in the garden
and He said in Genesis 2:16 & 17: The
Lord God commanded the man saying, ŌFrom any tree of the garden you may eat
freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will not eat,
for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.Ķ
We have to look at a
couple of things as we note this prohibition. First of all, God supplied all
kinds of food for Adam and Ishah. There was nothing inherent in the fruit from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil that made it wrong. It was not poison, there
was not something in it that changed them. It was not physically wrong, it was
wrong because God said it was wrong.
Also, it was not an
allegory for sex. Somebody will probably tell you that at some point so I have
to always add that. I remember an argument I got into with somebody years ago
and they tried to tell me I didnÕt know what I was talking about because
obviously none of this can be taken literally and what God was saying here was
that they couldnÕt have sex. Well, if God was saying they couldnÕt have sex,
why did He tell them to multiply and fill the earth?
This is taken
literally, there was a literal tree and literal fruit, but it was not
poisonous. It was not necessarily an apple, it was
probably a pomegranate, a fig, date, maybe even a peach. Who knows what it
was.
What it was is not
the issue; what it represented is the issue. The issue was obedience or
disobedience to God, that is what made it sinful, not that there was something
inherently wrong with the fruit. That is an important thing to think about. Most
of us want to think about sin as something that is inherently wrong.
There are a lot of
things we do that are wrong in our assertion of independence from God. That is
what made it sinful. What made it wrong is that God said it was wrong, and
eating the fruit was man saying, I know more than God knows. And I will make
the determination for my own life in opposition to God.
So there was a test,
the test of the tree. And there is
a penalty and the penalty is stated here in a very strong Hebrew phrase, the
use of the qal imperative plus a qal
infinitive absolute.
In the Hebrew if you
take a qal imperative of prohibition plus a qal infinitive absolute, that emphasizes the certainty of
the prohibition. I have taken time in the past, IÕm,
not going to do it now, going through some passages in Genesis where there is
an identical grammatical construction. It has been said that this should be
translated, because of the double verb here, dying you will die. But I have
demonstrated that if you translate this kind of semantic construction anywhere
else in the scriptures it is nonsense.
What this means is,
that at the moment of eating the fruit, death would occur. The death that
occurred was spiritual death, defined as separation from God. That is the essential meaning of death, it is not cessation of existence, but separation. Spiritual death is the cause of all
other kinds of death.
The Bible speaks of
six other kinds of death. These are physical death, which is the separation of
the soul from the body, sexual death, which is the loss of the function of
reproductive ability.
There is positional
death for the believer in which the believer is identified with death, burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ at the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit at
the instant of salvation.
There is operational
death which is the dead faith in James 2:14-26. There is carnal or temporal death when the believer is out
of fellowship and operating under the sin nature as opposed to the filling of
the Holy Spirit.
And finally there is
the culmination for the unbeliever, eternal condemnation, which is called the
second death.
There would be none
of these deaths in creation without spiritual death. All other categories of
death are the result of spiritual death. Spiritual death is the penalty for sin
and affects the entire dimension of creation. We see that in the consequences that are spelled out in the
curse starting in Genesis 3:14 which deals with the consequences in time.
As I have said in the
past spiritual death is p-1, penalty 1. All other forms of death, except the
second death which affects eternity, I call p2, the sin
penalty in space time history. In our day-to-day experience when we disobey God
there are consequences that we go through.
Jesus Christ paid the
penalty of spiritual death for sin on the cross, He died spiritually, it was a spiritual substitutionary
atonement.
Physical death is not
the penalty for sin, spiritual death is, so it was not ChristÕs physical death
on the cross that paid our penalty, it was His spiritual death on the cross
when He was separated from God the Father between 12 noon and 3pm when God the
Father put the earth in darkness and all the sins of the world were poured out
on Jesus Christ and He was separated from the Father and He cried out, My God,
My God, why have You forsaken Me?
That is when the sin
penalty was paid, it was not paid when He died physically, it was paid during
those three hours on the cross when there was darkness on the earth and all
other sins were dealt with as a result of that.
That is why we have
to confess our sins, we still have temporal
consequences that were not paid for on the cross.
There are certain
consequences spelled out by God in Genesis 3:14-19 called the curse. This is a
negative curse that God placed on the planet and creation and man because of
sin.
First of all, to the
serpent in Genesis 3:14, The Lord God
said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all
cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and
dust you will eat all the days of your life;
If you have a New
American Standard Version you will notice that these verses are indented, and
they are indented because they are stated in Hebrew as poetry. Moses wrote it that way to give it a
little more emphasis. What this is saying is that at the moment of the curse
there was a major physiological transformation in
the serpent. After this point he no longer would move about the way that he did
before, he got a new system of locomotion and from this moment serpents would
travel on their scuts as opposed to legs or whatever
form of locomotion they had prior to the Fall.
God changed their
physiological structure at this point in order to reflect this change. One
consequence of sin in time is that the very physiology of the serpent would
change.
And talking to the
serpent He said in Genesis 3:14 I will
put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed;
Your seed,
Satan, is all who would follow Lucifer. Lucifer was the serpent,
we know that from various passages of scripture. His seed is all who would follow him, all who would be
involved in the cosmic system.
Her seed refers to
the coming Messiah. This is the first promise, called the proto evangellium, the first promise of
the gospel.
And then God said, he shall bruise you on the head, this is
a fatal wound, which occurred when Jesus Christ bruised Satan on the head at the cross.
And you, meaning
the serpent, shall bruise him on the
heel. It would just be a temporary wounding. And that is what took place at
the cross. Satan did have a
temporary victory, but it was not a conclusive victory.
Now we are going to
spell out the consequences to the woman, To the woman He said
in Genesis 3:16 I will greatly
multiply your pain in childbirth,
Now this doesnÕt say,
ladies, that childbirth is part of the curse. You might have thought so at some
point but God intended woman to bear children from the time of her inception. That
is why God told Adam and the woman in the garden to be fruitful and multiply. That
was intended from day one. The fact that they did not have children in the
garden could be for any number of reasons. It could be that they werenÕt there
long enough, and it could be that God in His sovereignty prevented pregnancy
from occurring until they had the opportunity to go through the test. For
whatever reason, pregnancy was postponed.
Now there is going to
be a penalty. Remember, letÕs go back a little: God created Adam and Eve and
placed them in the garden. He gave
them what some people call the dominion mandate. He said you are to go forth, you are to be fruitful and multiply, and subdue the
earth. This is part of the original creation mandate given by God to the human
race. The curse is related to the fact that from this point on, because of
sin, it would be virtually
impossible for man to fulfill that mandate. Before the fall the fulfillment of
that mandate was easy. After the fall it would be an obstacle. So in terms of
the first part, be fruitful and multiply, the woman is now going to have pain
in childbirth, suffering and misery in going through all the labor pains
involved in giving birth to a child.
The man, in
fulfilling the mandate, is going to go through his own arena of difficulty. Remember,
you are to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. Before the fall man
guarded the garden, he cultivated it, he didnÕt have any problem. He wasnÕt in conflict with any
creation. After the fall he is in conflict with creation. He is not able to
subdue the earth fully because he has got to fight thorns, and thistles, and
weeds and he is in a battle with creation.
So the curse relates
back to the original purpose for man and it affects the woman. She is going to
be have pain and difficulty fulfilling her part and
the man in fulfilling his part.
And further for the
woman it says, your desire will be for
your husband, now that is not sexual desire, some people take it that way
but that is not what that word means in the Hebrew. The word is tesukatek,
it is the same word God used when speaking to Cain in Genesis 4:7 when God
told him about the temptation he was going through, and He told Cain, if you do not do well sin is crouching at
the door and itÕs desire is for you. It is the same word, desire, desire to
control, a desire to master, a desire to manipulate.
What we see here is
that sin is going to impact human relationships. Instead of peace and harmony
they will be characterized by continuous struggle for dominion and authority
and leadership. Your desire shall be for
your husband, you are going to want to rule the house, and he will rule over you. The word for rule here is a word that
implies tyrannical control. What
we see here is that generally speaking, in history, this doesnÕt mean, ladies, that
every one of you is a contentious woman who wants to go out and dominate your
husband, but that is the general tendency of the female of the species
throughout human history. And to whatever degree you have been taught biblical
principles you can overcome that.
That is the whole
purpose of sanctification, rolling back the various aspects of the curse. The
same thing is true for the husband. The indication here is that men (and you
can see this in history) men will want to gain a tyrannical control over women.
That is played out in history and can be radically transformed
with the acquisition of
doctrine.
Then man has to deal
with the fact that nature is being transformed. There is an aspect of sin that
impacts creation. Thorns and thistles rise up; in fact every category of
botany, zoology and anthropology are affected and impacted by the curse. All the
animals were originally herbivores, but after the fall they become carnivores. Their
dental structure, their digestive system changes, it is a radical
transformation.
What I want you to
understand from this is the exceeding sinfulness of sin and that when Adam
disobeyed God it radically transformed creation from A to Z. Every aspect of
creation was affected. Every
aspect of life, plant life, animal life, human life, relationships, everything
is radically transformed. Even to
the extent of changing physiological structures. So the earth after the fall
bore little resemblance to what it was like before the fall.
And of course, God
provided the perfect solution in Jesus Christ who began the process of rolling
back the curse because He is the one who died to pay the penalty and this is
rolled back sequentially.
It starts with the
redemption of mankind. Then you see it historically with the millennial kingdom
where part of the curse is rolled back so the lion lied down with the lamb, a
child can put his hand in a cobras den, and then it rolls back even further
after the great white throne judgment when all sin is purged from the heavens
and the earth and God creates a new heaven and a new
earth. That is how all this fits
in.
We got down to point
six, we have eight more points to go in the doctrine of sin and the sin nature
and we will continue that next Sunday morning.