THE CONCEPT OF ORIGINAL SIN AND THE RESPONSE OF GUILT AND BLAME

RETURN TO SYLLABUS

GENESIS 3:7-13

Lesson #10

THE CONCEPT OF ORIGINAL SIN AND THE RESPONSE OF GUILT AND BLAME

• Memory verse: Rom 6:23
• The book of Genesis contains the beginning of deception. In our study of this book, we will see many occurrences of deception. The first one is Satan’s deception of Eve in Gen 3:1-5.
  • When Satan deceived Eve into eating from the forbidden tree, he caused her to accept as true that which was false.
    • This is the definition of deception:
    • “to cause to accept as true or valid that which is false or invalid”. (Webster’s Dictionary)
  • Satan’s four lies:
    • You will not surely die.
    • Your eyes will be opened.
    • You will be like God.
    • This is desirable for gaining wisdom and knowledge.
  • These same four deceptive lies are repeated today in false religious movements throughout the world.
• Read Gen 3:7-13 The Results of Sin: Shame and Fear
  • Innocence was gone.
    • They immediately knew that they were naked. (7)
    • Remember that the balance between man’s three-part nature, body, soul, and spirit, was changed so that the body became more important to him than the spirit.
  • What was the first thing they did?
    • They sewed fig leaves to cover their shame.
    • What is the significance of the fig leaves?
      • The fig leaves represent man’s self-works and self-determination to make things right in his own way.
        • Man today follows the same pattern with his good deeds to gain God’s pardon.
        • Read Isa 64:6-7
      • Jesus cursed the fig tree in Mat 21:19 and then related it to self-righteous religion that simply covers up man’s sin.
    • Notice that Adam and Eve did not seek God, but God sought them. That is the mercy of God. God always seeks man before man seeks God.
  • What was the next thing Adam and Eve did? (8)
    • They hid from God.
      • Why?
      • The fig leaves did not relieve the guilt.
      • In the same way, man’s self-righteous deeds do not relieve the guilt today.
    • Is it possible to hide from God? No.
      • They hid themselves from God’s visible manifested presence thinking that they were hiding from God’s omnipresence.
      • That is not possible.
  • What were God’s options? (9)
    • God could have abandoned Adam and Eve and started over.
    • God could have given man an eternal punishment without any hope.
    • Instead, God used grace with consequences.
      • Grace with consequences is a unique balance between love and justice.
        • Grace satisfies God’s character of love.
        • A system of consequences satisfies God’s character of justice.
      • God’s grace to Adam:
        • God asked Adam, “where art thou?” (9)
        • God did not ask this question because He did not know Adam’s location.
        • God was giving Adam a chance to humbly confess.
        • This is a plea for Adam to examine his spiritual whereabouts in relation to God.
        • Adam’s response: (10)
        • Adam felt shame and fear.
        • He knew he had done wrong.
        • He felt guilty.
        • God asked, “who told you you were naked? (11)
        • Of course, no one told him. He felt guilty.
        • God is asking him to examine his conscience that tells him he has done wrong.
        • God asked, “hast thou eaten of the tree…?” (11)
        • God was giving Adam a second chance to confess his sin.
        • Adam’s response: (12) Blame:
        • He blamed the woman for his sin.
        • He blamed God for giving him the woman.
      • God’s grace to Eve:
        • God asked, “what is this that thou hast done?” (13)
        • God is asking what sin she has done that needs repentance.
        • Eve gives an honest response. She said, “the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” (13)
        • She recognized the nature of the temptation, but she didn’t ask for forgiveness because she blamed the serpent.
      • At the point of each of God’s 4 questions (3 to Adam and 1 to Eve), God seeks repentance.
        • Therefore, in these questions, we see God display his marvelous grace.
        • And we see the importance of repentance from sin in God’s perspective.
  • Something to contemplate:
    • Discussion: Why are all men sinners just because of what Adam and Eve did? (the concept of original sin)
    • Read 1Cor 15:21-22
      • We all have a common origin – Adam
      • We all share a common heritage – the sinful fall
      • We all enter a common legacy – born with a sin nature
      • We all would have done the same thing.
      • We all have the same adversary – Satan
      • We all live in a cursed world until the second coming of Christ. (Rom 8:21-22)
    • What is the concept of original sin?
    • Read Rom 5:12
      • By Adam sin entered into the world.
      • Why does it not say that sin came by Eve? She was the first to sin.
        • It is because Adam was the authority figure. He was responsible for relaying God’s message about the prohibition to Eve. God did not personally tell Eve not to eat of the tree. He only told Adam.
        • Eve was deceived, but Adam ate willingly.
      • The wages or consequences of sin is death. (Rom 6:23)
      • Sin and death passed to all humans born of Adam and Eve.
• Application:
  • Read 1Jo 1:6-2:2
    • What is man’s response to sin today?
    • The natural response to sin is guilt and blame.
      • When we sin, we feel guilty. Guilt is a heavy load to bear. Therefore, we look for some way to lighten the load by relieving our guilt.
      • We do this by blaming someone else or something else.
        • When we do this, it balances the scale between guilt and blame and we feel better.
        • But what have we really done? We have only fooled ourselves into thinking our guilt is any less in God’s eyes.
    • The natural response was Adam and Eve’s way of dealing with guilt. They tried to relieve their guilt by using blame. (12-13)
      • Adam blamed the woman, and Adam blamed God.
      • Eve blamed the serpent.
    • The better way:
      • Instead of the natural response, we must respond to sin by using God’s way:
      • God’s way is the way of repentance.
        • Asking God to forgive you is the only way to lift the guilt and not blame someone else or something else.
        • When we go through Jesus Christ, we have God’s guarantee of forgiveness.

Homework

Genesis 3:14-16

• Application of Gen 3:7-13
  • If, as the Bible says, we are all sinners, how do you handle sin, guilt, and blame in your life?
• Preparation for Gen 3:14-16
  • Read Gen 3:14-21
    • We find the second covenant in Gen 3:14-21 for the second dispensation. List the conditions of the covenant binding upon man and those binding upon God.
      • Conditions binding upon man:
      • Conditions binding upon God:
    • What do you think Gen 3:15 means?
• Memory verse: Gen 3:15