The Nature of Sin

Fourth Meeting

Sin and Death

Read Acts 20:35

Question: Does love give?
Question: Does love receive?
Question: Does love take?

How would you describe sin?

Read Genesis 3:1-24

Question: Did Eve receive or take? What did Adam partake of?

Question: What do you think? Is God's punishment a little harsh?

Question: What did they do that was so bad? Do you think eating a piece of fruit deserves death and separation?

Question: If God is love and He desires our love to be freely given (freewill), then why does He appear to be so controlling?

Question: Is God about command and control? (Genesis 2:15-25)

What is sin?
The Greek translation of sin is “to miss the mark.” This simple translation is still ambiguous (at best) in its meaning. What mark? “The Mark” is likely the holiness of God (Lev 19:1-2), but what is so unholy to God about eating a piece of fruit?

If God is about love, and you cannot love without freewill, then what is this command and control issue we are seemingly looking at???

Here is a definition that should help you understand the seriousness of sin. The definition of sin is this, “the acting out of selfish desire.” What Adam and Eve did was choose their own desire over the desire of remaining in unity with God in perfect love. Instead of living within giving and receiving, Adam and Eve took what they wanted.

Man was born with a free will. He was given the ability to freely choose his way. He was given a choice to trust God with the knowledge of good and evil, or to choose to have the knowledge and face death. The choice God gave man was simple. It was to trust, love, and choose to remain in the circle of His love (choose us), or choose yourself over Him outside of His love. It was as if God was saying “if you love me, you trust me and therefore live in perfect harmony with me.”


When we choose our own way outside of God, we decide to live for ourselves. When we live for ourselves, we no longer live according to perfect love but live according to selfish desire. Once we make our selfish choice, our soul is terminally infected with sin (selfish desire). We become a people no longer capable of perfect love. The soul of man no longer has the ability to commune with God within our spirit. The soul turns to the natural man (natural senses) and responds to the environment naturally instead of God supernaturally. This is the primary difference to living a life by faith. We become a slave to sin (the natural man). We are unable to live a life in response to God and make choices free of selfish desire.

Life by the flesh: Galatians 5:19-21
Contrast life by the Spirit: Galatians 5:22-24
Definition of “flesh” is “the natural man”: Romans 6:16-19, 7:14-25.
The natural man is hostile towards God: Romans 8:5-8
Sin is lawlessness: Rom 6:19, 2Cor6:14, Heb 1:9, 1John 3:4, Matt 24:12

Why is lawlessness contrasted to love? Lawlessness only governs self. Perfect love is subject to one another with God as the head. (Eph 5:21, Phil 2:3)

Sin is always about me..me..me and perfect love is always about us. Because perfect love is eternally communal and sin is eternally selfish, they are mutually exclusive and therefore eternally separated. The eternally selfish is without resource and unable to spiritually commune with anyone else. S/he is a spiritual black hole. (2Cor 6:14)

Question If you could stop sinning today, what difference would that make in light of eternity?
Answer: You would still be a sinner. Eternity does not forget.

Without death we would be in trouble: The grace in death. (Gen 3:22-24)
Death gives us an opportunity to die by faith and fulfill the law of God. (Romans 6:4-7)


Prayer time

Remember: Sin is “acting out of selfish desire.” Sin says, “I choose me.”