LifeWay Bible Studies for Life Series for October 3: Sin is a big deal

LifeWay Bible Studies for Life Series for October 3: Sin is a big deal focuses on Genesis 3:1-6, 16-19,24; Romans 5:12-14.

image_pdfimage_print

Do you see the obvious process that Satan uses? It should look familiar because it’s the same one he has been using since time began and in our own lives. He’s trying to cause Eve to doubt and it’s what he wants you and me to do as well.

Listen to it, “Did God really say not to change a few numbers on your taxes?” “Did God really say not to talk about your friend behind their back?” “Did God really say (fill in the blank)?”

Eve actually steps up and says, “Yes, he said not to do that.” Then Satan just goes for the all out lie (which is his native language) and she (we) get hooked. It’s paramount to know what God has said and what he continues to say to you. Without this you are easy pickings for Satan and are headed for a life of frustration and trouble.

But even when you know what God has said, you must stay strong in it. It’s not enough to just know stuff; you have to wrap your life around it with the resolve that the only thing that can move you is God.

Verses 9-13 of Genesis 3 is a fascinating passage, actually conversation. Knowing full well what has happened, the Lord calls to Adam and asks, “Where are you?” He’s God; he knows where Adam is, so why even ask?

The question is really for Adam’s sake. “Adam, why are you hiding from me? You’ve never hidden from me before.” God is trying to bring Adam into an understanding of what has happened.

What if we pushed this a little further and thought through maybe God isn’t just talking about a physical place, a location, but what if God is calling to Adam about his spiritual state? “Adam, where are you spiritually? You’re distant from me, and that’s not normal for you.”

It’s certainly easy to understand why God hates sin so much in that it drives a distance between us and God when he is trying get closer to us and draw us to himself. We need to take the time throughout the day to listen for God’s voice. He is speaking and asking you where you are.

Adam does go on to try and explain himself. “I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” If you find yourself trying to hide from God (good luck with that!) is it because you are afraid to talk to him? To be seen by him? Fear does this to us; it moves us from being in the light and out in the open to darkness and trying to do things in secret.


Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays


But God isn’t satisfied with leaving us where we are, he wants his children to be out in the open with nothing to be ashamed of. God questions Adam again, “Who told you that you were naked?” Essentially Adam must admit that he listened to someone else besides God. Again, God already knows, but he is trying to get Adam to figure out the source of the lie he bought in to. “Did you do what I told you not to do?” Can’t you just hear a father talking to his son?

God’s attention is then turned to Eve and she gets much the same question. Notice, too, through this discussion that God doesn’t “beat them up” because that’s not what he does.

While there still were consequences for what they had done, God’s love and provision won in the end as he provided for them. The same is true for us today. While we still may have or feel lingering consequences to our sins, God’s love far outweighs them, and he provides.

While it is necessary to understand our sin, God wants us to focus on his love and provision. When we do this, we don’t find ourselves hiding from him but instead going to him in our times of need and just simply wanting to spend time with him.

Sin is universal; every person who ever has lived has had to deal with it. Sin is not bound by demographics or culture. Because no one is exempt from sin, that means everyone needs a way to deal with it, a way out of it. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.

Saying that something isn’t a sin doesn’t change it either, particularly since God already has declared it as sin. In his perfect wisdom, God “fixes” sin in a similar fashion as to how it started—through one man. Verses 12-15 of Romans 5 explain that just as sin entered the world through one man, Adam, so the sin of the world is dealt with through one man, Jesus.

While we all fell under the condemnation of sin, we all are offered a way to be free from its grasp. And while we didn’t have a choice in falling into sin (which in all honesty and reality we all would have done exactly what Adam and Eve did), we do have the choice to have our relationship fixed, or reconciled, with God through Jesus.


We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.

Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.

More from Baptist Standard