Spurn The Allurement Of Sin

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from 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” (Genesis 3:1-6, NIV).

During the 1st Albay Conference of the Bless Our Cops Movement, the Police Superintendent of the Philippine National Police, Atty. Joenel Aurelio, gave a personal testimony. According to him, there was a time in his life that for him to commit adultery is just okay, as long as his wife would not know it.

He realized later the gravity of sin, when he understood that his sin was against God.

How about us do we just take lightly when we have committed sin?

Or have we arrived also to the point of acknowledging the seriousness of sin? And do we really understand what it means to sin against God?

So, this time, as we will try to see the seriousness of sinning against God and, at the same time, we will be motivated to… SPURN THE ALLUREMENT OF SIN … … which is also our title, as we focus on our text (Genesis 3:1-6).

So, is sin really bad? Why should we spurn the allurement of sin?

We believe that the book of Genesis is not an ordinary historical narrative. It includes within its scope the activities of God.

Both Christians and Jews believed that it was compiled and written by Moses. He wrote it in the Wilderness of Sinai about 15th century BC.

“…Moses wrote and compiled Genesis to encourage the early Israelites while they were preparing to enter the land of Canaan, the Promised Land. The content of Genesis would have been especially significant to them…”

After Moses reminded them just Who is this God, who will bring them to their destination, He proceeded to narrate the goodness of God in preparing the earth for our first parents. Yet, they displayed their unfaithfulness to Him and disobeyed Him.

Yet, in the 3rd chapter we could see the brilliance of the Grace of God. But, before we study how God portrayed His grace, we consider first the “filthiness” of sin – how evil it was. So, we could appreciate more His grace and why we should hate or spurn the allurement of sin.

We really need to vomit it out of our lives, especially if we understand the wickedness of it (verses 1-6).

We read verses 1-6, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from 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.”

In the previous chapter, we could already perceive a glimpse of the grace of God. We saw that after God created the heavens and the earth, he “formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). God had planted a garden and placed the man there.

In the garden, God made all kinds of trees that were pleasing to the eyes and good for food. In the middle of it were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.