Things That Make Christians Different From The World: Sin
In this series I have been preaching about the differences between Christians and the world we have to talk about sin. Sin is what separates us from God as people. We are all born in sin and until people accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior they will remain in bondage to their sins.
We all have a sin nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve even those of us who are saved. Everything was just perfect until the day that Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Life and then gave it to Adam and then he took a bite too and in an instant everything changed!
To see where mankind’s sin nature came from we have to go back to Genesis. In Genesis chapter 3 we see what occurred in the Garden of Eden with Adam, Eve, a serpent, and God.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 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.” 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;
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
16 To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
20 Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
I believe that it is critically important for us to remind ourselves exactly how and why sin happened in the first place because all of us still have to deal with the fallout of the decisions Adam and Eve made centuries ago.
While we all believe this account of Adam and Eve to be true and accurate, many people in the world consider this account to be a fairy tale, a myth and that it is just too farfetched to ever be true. But denial of facts does not make them untrue.
The world, in general terms, rejects the idea of people being born with a sin nature and that because of our sin nature we are separated from God spiritually. A big reason why the world denies that there is a sin nature and that we are all born into it is because then they would have to look really hard at their lives, how they live, what they think and most importantly, what they do.
Acknowledging that people are born sinful, the world would have to then begin to be accountable for their behaviors rather than simply rationalize their behaviors away as many do today. It is VERY unpopular today to speak out and say that something is sinful because it causes people to look inward and when this occurs they often don’t like what they are forced to see in their own lives.
Another difference between how Christians view sin and how the world views sin is that when people are confronted with their sins they then have choices that they can make. One choice is this: will I continue doing what I’m doing or will I change the behaviors that I’m participating in? Usually when people are called out because of their wrong behavior they will want to change it. Now this isn’t always true because I know of people who like what they’re doing no matter how wrong it is in the eyes of society or God. But in general most people will at least try to change their behavior.
The only problem with this is that they are trying to fix a spiritual problem with human solutions and this formula will never work. People can and do change their behaviors on their own for a short time by themselves. When I was still a drug addict I tried to stop abusing them on my own, by my own strength of will the longest I ever stopped on my own was for 2 months and I did this great feat of will power on three different occasions for a total of six months out of twenty years. Not a very good rate of success was it?
I was trying to fix a spiritual problem with a fleshly solution and when this formula is tried it will ALWAYS end in failure. And when the people of the world try to fix their behaviors like this they get discouraged and this can lead to them thinking that “well, I tried and it didn’t work so I guess I just have to live with this.”
This is just a lie from satan himself because there is an answer to the problem of sin and the answer is to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts and lives as their personal Lord and Savior.
And this is great news for everyone who will listen to the Gospel and believe what it says. The sin nature that we as people can’t fix on our own no matter how hard we try can be fixed basically in just a matter of minutes. The problem for the world is that one, many don’t believe that they have a sin problem and two; they often reject the very one who could and would make their lives much better.
Too many people in the world believe that they are just fine the way they are. And there are some who may say that they believe in God and that He made them the way that they are. God did not create people to be sinful. God created people to worship and love Him. It was because of the decisions that were made by the first two people that we have sin on a global scale. But to simply accept the false notion that we are who we are and we can’t change is ridiculous.
Change begins with salvation. In 2nd Corinthians 5:17 we read this: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come. When a person accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior things change don’t they? How many of you are the same way you were before you got saved?
The same thing can happen to anyone in the world who will stop believing the lies of satan and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior today.
But if people choose not to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior they are choosing to follow satan. And if you were to ask people in general who are not Christians if they were satan followers they would either laugh at you or get offended at your question. But the fact remains and that is that if you are not a Christian you are following the devil.
And this is not a popular message today either. Because to follow satan is to follow death, not only physical death but more importantly, spiritual death. In Romans chapter 6 verse 23 we read this: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Most people in the world don’t want to accept the fact that when we die we are going to spend eternity in one of two places. And the wages of sin which is death can be physical and it will always lead to spiritual death which is eternal separation from God.
Most people in the world see the short term effects of their behaviors on their lives but they can’ t see the long term effects because they are still in darkness and denial about what is going to happen to them one day when they will stand before a holy and righteous God and be judged. While Christians on the other hand are, or should be, very aware of the long term effects of our behaviors on our lives not only here on earth but also in heaven.
That’s because we have spiritual eyesight and wisdom that the world just doesn’t’ have yet. Jesus has opened our eyes for us and the Holy Spirit helps us to know what we’re doing and whether it is good or bad.
This intimate relationship that we have with God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is what makes us radically different from the world and in a way we have an unfair advantage over the world but the thing is that they can have what we have anytime that they want to, it’s just a matter of taking advantage of the grace and mercy that Jesus Christ offers to all humanity.
So, to recap, we are where we are because of what Eve did and what Adam did after her. Because these two decided to listen to satan rather than God we all have a sin nature that we can do nothing to fix by ourselves. And as it says in Romans chapter 5 verse 12: Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned… The world needed a Savior and that Savior is Jesus Christ.
If we don’t let Jesus fix our sin problem then we are doomed to suffer because of our poor choices and our wrong behaviors. What the world needs to understand and come to grips with is that if they reject Jesus Christ then they are choosing to spend eternity in hell and they will get to think about all the times that God gave them an opportunity to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
What are we doing to help them with their sin problem? It’s not enough to simply point out that what they are doing is wrong we have to tell them about who can fix the problem once and for all. All we need to do is show them Jesus. Jesus has been, is and will always be the answer, AMEN!?
