Bringing Clarity to the Term Christian – Part 4

Bringing Clarity to the Term Christian – Part 4

Christians were former sinners – Continued

Welcome back to Powerful God – Practical Faith and the 4th installment of our blog series;  “Bringing Clarity to the Term Christian”. Again, I am very grateful that you have been following along with us. For those of you who are new to the blog, I would encourage you to read the previous blog posts in this series, Parts 1-3, to get updated on what has been discussed so far. I sincerely hope you do and that it will be beneficial to you.

In this post we are continuing our discussion on Statement 2 of our 14 Statements clarifying what a Christian truly is. By way of review, let us revisit this statement again….

A Christian is a former slave to sin and an enemy of God.

In our previous discussion, we took some time to discuss exactly what sin was. We defined the Greek term for sin, “hamartia”, which means to “miss the mark”, and that all of us have been born with an inability to live up to God’s righteous standard. We demonstrated how the Scriptures taught us that we were born with sinful proclivities and desires and that doing wrong, or the potential for doing wrong was a part of our “so called” spiritual “DNA”.

What we left off with last time was the question….”Why?”. Why is it that we are “not” naturally born with completely righteous desires? Why is sin, or missing the mark of God’s standard is the condition that primarily controls our thinking and behavior. The answer to this question is rather clear to explain biblically, but difficult for us to fully understand because as human beings, created by God, we are limited in our comprehension of God’s eternal plan and purposes, which he has known prior to creating anything at all.

To answer this question of “Why”, we return again to the book of Romans. In chapter 5, the Apostle Paul gives us some valuable insight into the reason why we are sinners. Romans 5, beginning with verse 12 says:

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— for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 

Romans 5:12-18 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

In this passage of scripture, the Apostle Paul is making a contrast between the two most important men in human history; Adam and Jesus Christ. Although the contrast is obvious in the passage and will need to be discussed in more detail further, my focus, initially, will be on the person who answers our  “why” question. This person is Adam.

In the above passage I have highlighted several specific statements Paul makes that are crucial in explaining the “why” question.  Being conscious to avoid taking scripture passages out of the context in which they were written, I have extracted these statements from the text above for emphasis. Let’s review them.

• …. through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin,….
• …. death spread to all men, because all sinned …..
• …. death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam….
• ….the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation….
• ….through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners…..

First of all, Paul states that sin entered our human existence through “one” man. In the full passage, we discover that the “one man” Paul is referring to here is Adam. Through Adam, sin entered the world. Now what is it that Adam did to cause sin to enter the world? Well, for many of us, the answer to this question is very well known. It has been explained countless times in both Christian and non-Christian circles all over the world, both as truth and in many minds, as myth. The story of “Adam and Eve” or the “Fall of Man” as it is often titled, is perhaps one of the most popular stories in Christian history. This true historical account is crucial to our discussion and understanding of the introduction of sin into the human condition; not only because of what occurred, but also because of when it occurred.

As many of you know, we find this story of the “Fall of Man” in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Below is the summary of the account from Genesis 2 and Genesis 3:

Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Genesis 2:15-17 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

 

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’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 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.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 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.” 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. 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.

 

Genesis 3:1-7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Now there are many people who read this Genesis story and believe that it is some sort of a fairy tale. Some believe that it should not be taken literally but symbolically or figuratively in order to describe some hidden or abstract meaning. After all, who believes in talking serpents or in a God who condemns people to death just by taking a bite of a delicious looking fruit, right? Well, I would like to submit to you that this story is true, it is supposed to be taken very literally and the surface level explanations often assigned to it takes away from the real intent, depth, and seriousness of what God wants to reveal to us.

In this Genesis account, we see that God, the Creator, after creating man, places him in this place called Eden and gives him a simple command, a rule, or a law as it were. God commands this man, Adam, to Not eat of this one particular tree among all of the other fruit trees provided by God to him. Now many have made light of the simplicity of the command and even mocked it. But when I think of the primitive environment Adam was in and the fact that the only human beings in existence were both Adam and his wife Eve, It does not seem that implausible that God would use a command such as this. Is it quite possible for God to have used a different command or utilized something other than a fruit tree as the object of His prohibition? Well of course. But God had a purpose in using a fruit tree and we must be willing to concede to his sovereignty if we are ever going to understand his purposes in time.

Another point I would like to make is that the object of the prohibition is not as important as the prohibition itself. I believe that the reason God gave Adam the command was to set the boundaries of his subordination. Although Adam had received all this dominion over the earth as is recorded in Genesis 1-2, the fact of the matter is that he is…. a man. Adam was the creation of God and God expected Adam to honor that truth via respect, worship, and obedience.

Well, obviously there is a lot more to explain on this 2nd statement but, in an attempt to keep the blogs readable in a timely manner,  I will have to commit more of Statement 2 to the next blog…. or two.   Please come back for more further discussion.

Thank you and God Bless.