A deep dive into Sin, Judgment and Grace.
We started last week's message with a review of the events from creation, up until the birth of Abram who would go onto have his name changed to Abraham, which means The Father of Many. Rochelle and I got home and discussed the message and the amount of information that was covered between Genesis 1 and 12 and Genesis 12 and Genesis 20, Prior to the birth of Isaac the next of the Patriarchs.
As this is a deep dive into scripture, we looked at the things we had covered and decided that it would be prudent, now that’s a quaint old word, prudent, meaning wise, sensible to cover a pattern that occurs and reoccurs in scripture, well in life quite often. Rochelle introduced you to the symbols of Harry Wendt’s, ‘Bibles Big Story’ also last week so I will be using some of his illustrations to tackle what I want to address today.
“In the beginning God created,” are the first five words of our Holy Bible, these sacred scriptures. We talked about this a couple of weeks back and he saw all that he had made, and it was good, beyond that, in Genesis 1:31, records “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was morning – the sixth day.” God’s love was poured out on his creation and there was harmony in the Garden of Eden and with all the living creatures and humanity and with the original Couple Adam and Eve and in their relationship with God their creator. Things were humming along nicely.
What occurred next, time wise we don’t know how long it was before the fall of mankind, from that place of not having eaten from the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. To having eaten of the fruit, which resulted in the couple hiding in fear of God as he walked in the Garden in the cool of the evening, because they were naked. So, the original sin, was they had done what God had commanded them not to do. Prior to this time the couple had no understanding of their unclad state. They lived in total innocence. The man’s response to God when asked if he had eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was to blame God and the woman for his actions. “The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Genesis 3: 12.
How does that compare with Adam’s declaration when God gave him the woman made from his rib in the previous chapter? “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man.” Genesis 2:23. After the fall we see change in the charged emotions of Adam from joy to shame. This was the start of distance between man and God and between males and females. As a result, God’s judgement on the couple occurred, there are always negative outcomes to having sinned. Yip, even if you think you have got away with it. Note: the word sin is derived from a term for having missed the mark, an archery term.
As a result of that original sin, the serpent who played the part of deceiver, was cursed to crawl on his belly and also be loathed by humanity.
The woman was from that time to have increased pains in childbirth, the man was to labour to produce food from the ground to eat and they were both to die physically. Interestingly, it was after this that Adam named his wife Eve as she was to be the mother of all the living.
God’s grace is shown in this situation that while the couple were banished from the Garden of Eden, they were made garments by God, and he clothed them. He literally covered over their shame.
The next of Harry Wendt’s depictions relates to who? Yip, Cain and Abel. The thing with Cain is that he was jealous of Abel’s offering to God and killed his brother. There is a compelling point to note here, regarding God’s grace. It is this; God forewarns Cain just like he informs us of the outcomes of our actions. As Adam and Eve were warned, remember, they knew the consequences of eating from the tree. Cain was warned “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.”
The human condition is such that even with the heads up on outcomes we tend towards what is destructive to us, that thing called sin. Even when we know the speed limit, the boundaries are sometimes pushed. What looks good and easy can lead to a lifetime of pain. Sin desires to have us! Jesus tells us in John 10:10 we “have an enemy who comes only to steal, kill and destroy.” How many damaged relationships and people have been the result of out-of-control arrows missing the mark, the result of sin?
So, Cain killed Abel. God asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” His response was “I don’t know am I my brother's keeper?” Genesis 4:9. What follows is this:
The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (Genesis 4:10-16).
It’s an interesting thing that Cain thought so little of Abels life but was in fear of his own. He was a murderer who was expelled from the land to become a wanderer, because he had spilled his brother's blood on the land and as a result put himself under a curse and could no longer stay on the land as he had brought a curse upon it, and it would not yield crops for him. So, God gave Cain a mark that meant he would not be killed, God the bestows grace and saves Cain from the outcome of his own actions.
Harry Wendt then pictures the interaction of heavenly beings with human females. (Genesis 6:1-4.)
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
After these four verses God saw that mankind had wickedness on their hearts and he decided to wipe mankind from the earth for he was grieved at ever making mankind, animals and birds. The sin of mankind was grieving God and being the creations of the creator they came under judgement. The flood was the judgement. For the sake of humanity there was God’s grace as he recognised that Noah was a righteous man. Humankind had the opportunity to start again as Noah’s family’s descendants and the animals were saved. There’s a lot of Genesis committed to Noah and his journey, he gets the monopoly on four and a bit chapters.
We live in an interesting age where many see God in a similar light to Father Christmas, that because he loves us, we can behave in any way we want, and we will be okay with God. However, God detests evil and established commands for living. God established 10 commandments for the Hebrew people at Mount Sinai you can refer to these Exodus 20, these get a bit more coverage from God through Moses in the book of Leviticus. However, if you are anything like me, thankfully, Jesus made it a bit easier to understand by explaining the law as two great commandments. Some question, why obey God’s commands? Simply because he is our creator. We have a Salvation Army doctrine about this matter, it goes like this; “We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.”
Some of you will understand that that batch of biscuits or the cake that doesn’t come out of the oven looking and tasting just right can end up down the waste disposal or feeding the sparrows, personally I’ve watched in horror as some overdone biscuits or muffins have met their demise.
The thing is that there is judgement of creations from all who create, top artists aim for perfection of contrast and colour, Michelin Award winning chiefs for the best taste and presentation, and like them our creator is entitled to judge. Yeah, but we know better sometimes, well we think we do. There is judgment because God is Holy and a just God and he wants the best for his creation, he knows those things that cause his creations pain or to have a reduced quality and expectancy of life. The theme of Mans Sinning, God’s judgement and Grace will continue to be seen in scripture and in life in general. If you do not believe that this is a pattern that has been established by God and even adopted by humanity, try driving on the wrong side of the road when you leave the meeting and wait for the resulting outcomes.
Our first General, William Booth said this about the chief danger of the age we live in; “The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.” I would like to focus on “Forgiveness without repentance” as it is certainly a danger, because God’s grace is available to those who repent, who have a remorseful heart in regard to their sin. There is danger as some, and some in Church leadership included are in the habit of stating that because God is a God who loves his creation there is no need for repentance and it is okay to live lives of sin. Scripture tells us otherwise. Yes, God loves his creation, and he does not want people to remain trapped in their sin, to continually miss the mark. But if they respond in a way that they see God only as a loving God, not a Just and Holy God as well as a loving God, those with burdens of sin and shame are left to carry them, those sins still end up being paid for and “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a) For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sometimes love that is genuine is tough love, parents will know that. Repentance leads to release, relief and reconciliation with God and and sometimes those we may have harmed.
But back to Genesis, and the first of the Patriarchs who is? Yes, that is right Abraham. Harry Wendt illustrates the sin in humanity building a huge tower at a place that would after beknown as Babel, as a result God judged their sinfulness, and confused their language by giving different languages and he dispersed the people across the face of the earth.
Right, we are now at the place where God delivers his rescue plan for humanity. God uses a righteous man once again, righteous meaning he has a right relationship with God, it does not mean he is perfect. A man who will be called Abraham, the father of many. God tells him this:
Genesis 12:1-3
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
He did and that was the start of God’s rescue plan for humanity as we know it, I know we did this last week, but hold your Bibles at Genesis 11, the light part can be seen as the Fall of Mankind and God’s judgement of humanity, he valued those who had right relationships with him and as a result we are here today. The heavy bit, yip this bit can be seen as God’s rescue plan, his grace, the story of our lives is intertwined with these people of old, their life stories have influenced our life stories.
So, the sin of the people was the building of the great Tower of Babel, the judgement was the confusion of language and the dispersal of the people. From that came to us all, God’s grace in the person of the Patriarch Abraham.
Now this story does not end here; eleven chapters is weighed against sixty-five and a bit books. This is the weight of God’s judgement (First 11 Chapters) against the weight of his desire to have us saved from our sins and to have right relationships with us all, individually and collectively. While the wages of sin is death, the rest of John 10:10 tells us “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
So, throughout scripture we know that God in his goodness judges the actions of humanity and extends grace, covering over shame, and showing the way to the righteous. We are left with the question who are the are the righteous? To answer I will leave you with some words of Jesus. Turn to Luke 18:9-14.
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
We all have an opportunity to seek God’s grace.
