Sin

If the “inside (uchi) fellowship” had spread as God intended, our reality would not have been like it is today. Something has gone wrong in our world.

This world was created by God, so it works according to God’s rules. Paradise had rules too: “house (uchi 家) rules”. The first people, Adam and Eve, should have been very happy in God’s house, but instead they thought, “I want to be God”. So they drove God out (soto) of their hearts and cut off their relationship with him. It’s as though they said, “From now on, I’m going to make the rules without God.” The Bible calls this “sin”.

But sin of course had terrible consequences. As punishment for sin, human beings were expelled from paradise. Was there any hope left for humankind?

Sin

Opening Questions

1. According to the Bible, the world God created was “very good”, but that seems true no longer. What would you say are the biggest problems in our world today?
2. What comes to mind when you hear the word “sin” (in Japanese, tsumi)?

Last time we saw that God created human beings in (or, in the Japanese Bible [possibly a better translation of the Hebrew original], “as”) his “image”. As the “image” of God, humanity was made to reflect God’s glory, to represent God to the world, and to relate to God in the “very good” uchi fellowship established between God and human beings in paradise. God blessed the man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, with every good gift, and in return they were to love and serve (worship) God in joyful obedience.

God gave the man only one prohibition in paradise: 

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

Genesis 2:16-17

• Why do you think God gave this command to Adam?

Human beings were also created to enjoy relationships with one another (man and woman), and God gave them authority over the rest of the creation. They were commissioned to extend God’s uchi fellowship-circle out from the garden to the ends of the earth. Nothing and no-one was to be left outside (soto).

So far, so good. But in Genesis chapter 3, the mood changes. One of God’s creatures, it seems, has already turned his back on uchi fellowship with God, and has made himself an outlaw/outsider. In outright rebellion against God, he comes in the form of a snake to tempt God’s image-bearers to follow him outside…

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 

Genesis 3:1-6

• Why did the woman eat the fruit?
• What tactics did the serpent use to persuade her to eat it?
• What was the man doing while the serpent spoke with the woman?
• What should he have done?
• Genesis chapter 3 does not contain the word “sin”. But it is clearly a story about sin. What do we learn about the Bible’s understanding of “sin” from this story?

In response to the sin of Adam and Eve, God punishes them and their descendants. As part of that punishment, they are sent or driven outside (soto) the garden paradise:

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim¹ and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. 

Genesis 3:22-24

• Why do you think God sent/drove the man (and woman) out of the garden?
• How is life different for the man and woman outside (soto) the garden?

Concluding questions:

1. Think again about how the Bible describes sin. Is this something you are familiar with personally? What about sin’s effects on your life and the lives of others around you?
2. How do you think God feels about human sin? And about your sin in particular?

Later in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 51:3 (8^th century B.C.), it says, 

For the Lord comforts Zion [a poetic name for the city of Jerusalem]; 
he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden, 
her desert like the garden of the Lord; 
joy and gladness will be found in her, 
thanksgiving and the voice of song.

This suggests that there may be a way back to paradise after all. We’ll consider that possibility next time!

Footnotes

[1] Cherubim are heavenly messengers/angels.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.