1 – 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’?”
2 – The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3 – 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.’ ”
4 – “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 – “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 – 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.
7 – Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 – Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9 – But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 – He answered, “I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 – And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? ”
12 – The man said, “The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 – Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
This is the Word of the Lord…thanks be to God.
As I’m sure you know, when you go to the theater to see a movie a number of things happen after you get your popcorn, sit down, and the lights finally dim. First they show a creative and somewhat humorous little film about “inconsiderate cell phone man” in order to guilt you into turning your phone off. Then they show another short that uses paper bag puppets to tell you how to use Fandango to get your tickets ahead of time. With that out of the way what do they show next? Right-previews of coming feature film. These previews are called “trailers” and the idea is to give you enough scenes from the movie to entice you to come later and invest $10 to see it.
Well, for those of you who haven’t seen the new film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I want you to think of my introduction this morning as sort of a verbal “movie trailer.” I say this because I want to describe a scene from Lewis’ book that I think just may entice you to see the film-or better yet, read the book. And as you “view” this “trailer,” see if it doesn’t remind you of certain parts of today’s familiar text from Genesis 3.
Now, as I told you last week, this book is about four siblings, the Pevensie children, who, in order to avoid the daily air raids, are sent away from London during WWII to live in the mansion of an old professor miles away out in the English countryside. While exploring his estate, they find a huge wardrobe and the youngest, Lucy, looks inside. She discovers it is actually a magical wardrobe because it leads to a land called Narnia, and, as she walks through the snow covered forest of Narnia, she meets a faun, named Mr. Tumnus who invites her to his house. They have tea in his cozy cave-home and after a lengthy visit, she returns through the wardrobe to find her three siblings.
Lucy tells them about Narnia but they don’t believe her, because even though from her perspective she had been in Narnia for several hours, from their perspective she had just been gone from their world for a moment or two. By the way, to me, this part of Lewis’ book illustrates what I think is a Biblical teaching, that time in Heaven doesn’t pass like time here does.
In any case, Lucy’s siblings they think she’s pulling their leg. But, the younger of the brothers, Edmund, takes things a step further. In the book, he teases poor Lucy about her visit to a “magical world” mercilessly. Now, to quote Pat Cook, “Edmund is the sort of kid you just want to smack upside the head. He’s rude and arrogant, and always enjoys teasing his younger sister to the point of tears. He has a chip on his shoulder about where he fits into the family and is generally disagreeable.”
Well several days later they are playing hide and seek in the professor’s huge mansion and Edmund decides to hide in the wardrobe, and in the process he too discovers Narnia. When he first stumbles past the winter coats hanging in the wardrobe and finds himself in the Narnian forest covered with snow, he hears sleigh-bells, which would normally be a good thing in winter, especially in December, but not necessarily in a place where it’s never Christmas! Well, a sleigh driven by two reindeer pulls up with a nasty-looking dwarf holding the reigns. His passenger is Queen Jadis herself, the white witch who has all of Narnia held in her icy grip.
Now, this witch is very aware of a prophecy in Narnia that says her wicked reign would end when four human children-two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve-sit on the throne. And she realizes if she can capture one of these children or better yet all four, she can avoid her fate and continue her wicked rule, so the Queen pretends to be friendly to Edmund. She invites him up into the sleigh and covers him with her fur robe. She uses her magical power to make him a hot drink and then asks if he’d like anything to eat. Edmund’s thoughts go to that traditional chewy candy eaten at Christmas by British children, known as Turkish delight and the queen uses her magic once again to make him a round tin full of several pounds of the best Turkish delight. Edmund begins to stuff his face with the sticky candy. In fact he can’t get enough of the stuff because it was enchanted. As Lewis says in his book, “…anyone who once tasted it would want more and more of it and if allowed would go on eating it until they killed themselves.” In other words, they would surely die. Sound familiar?
Well, he polishes off the contents of the can very quickly and greedily asks for more but the White Witch says “no” for now promising him rooms full of the stuff if he will bring his brother and two sisters to her. She explains that she wants to make Edmund the prince of the country, and that his siblings are to be his courtiers and nobles. She promises that all his desires will be fulfilled if he will simply do as she asks. Well, after succumbing to the witch’s temptation, Edmund returns through the wardrobe to our world, enslaved by her wicked charms and even meaner than before.
To illustrate his recent deeper descent into evil, on his way out of Narnia he bumps into Lucy who has entered Narnia a second time and she excitedly says, “Oh Edmund, I am glad you’ve got in too. The others will have to believe in Narnia now that both of us have been there. What fun it will be.” But, once they exit the wardrobe and meet their two siblings Edmund lies about having been in Narnia. He says it was all a game that he and Lucy were playing, that there is no such place. And as Lucy runs from the room in tears Edmund begins to plot as to how he can betray his family to the White Witch so as to gain not only power over them but more Turkish delight.
Okay-end of trailer. To find out the consequences of Edmund’s wicked plot you’ll need to purchase a ticket to see the entire film! But let me ask, what do you think of Edmund? I don’t know about you but I’m disgusted with his behavior. He needs some time behind the woodshed if you know what I mean. I mean, he seems like such a spoiled brat doesn’t he? Definitely not the kind of kid you’d want your child to play with and then possibly emulate!
Well, you know, the actual truth of the matter is this: the Bible teaches that because of sin all of us are every bit as disgusting as Edmund. Our worldly “delight” may not be Turkish but everyday we have shown that we are “sons of Adam” and “daughters of Eve” in that we have followed in their footsteps and yielded to sinful temptation in one form or other. Every day each of us sins, just like old Edmund.
In his best-selling book, Whatever Became of Sin, Dr. Karl Menninger tells of a stern-faced, plainly dressed man who once stood on a busy street corner in Chicago. As pedestrians hurried by on their way to lunch or business, he would solemnly lift his right arm, point to the person nearest him, and shout out, “Guilty!” Then without changing expression, he would resume his stiff stance for a few moments before raising his arm, pointing at another pedestrian, and shouting again, “Guilty!” Menninger writes that the effect of this strange pantomime on passers by was almost eerie. They would stare at him, hesitate, look away, look at each other, and then at him again; then hurriedly continue on their way. One man who had been the object of the man’s strange verdict turned to another and said, “But how did he know?”
Well, this strangely dressed guy on the street corner was right. We are all guilty and like this passerby, deep down inside I think we all know it, but we don’t like to admit it.
In fact our entire culture seems to be in denial when it comes to sin. I mean, these days sin is not something we like to talk about. It’s definitely not what you would call politically correct. Calvin Miller writes, “The word ‘sinful’ was once considered to be an important part of theology but of late its only an adjective we apply to gooey desserts and women’s perfume.”
And the sad fact is, this way of thinking can be found in many Christian circles. Even we have a hard time thinking of ourselves as sinners. These days it’s a concept that just seems too extreme. This week I came across a cartoon from Leadership Journal a couple years back that showed four congregation members with concerned faces meeting in their pastor’s office. With earnest and imploring eyes they presented their shepherd with a clipboard filled with sheets of signatures of the people in the church. Their spokesman said, “Pastor, this petition requests that in your sermons you change the term ‘sinner’ to ‘person who is morally challenged.'”
Well, the fact that sin is taboo in our culture and even in our churches has caused many of us to not be as familiar with this Biblical concept as we should, so let’s refresh our memories a bit.
What exactly is sin?
Now, one thing we need to realize as we begin to answer this question is that, as the Genesis record tells us, in the beginning our world was a perfect world. It wasn’t created evil. I mean, there was a time when there was no such thing as sin. Everything began perfect. All nature was in harmony and free from pain and decay. The first man and woman were perfect in body and spirit, harboring no evil thoughts. They were in perfect harmony and joyful companionship with nature, each other, and with God, Who spoke with them face to face every day as a dear friend.
Remember? Before today’s text in Genesis 3 God looked at creation and pronounced everything “very good” (Gen 1:31). But with the fall, all human history became tainted by that which is very bad. For example: Genesis 4 records the first murder, a case of fratricide. Verse 19 contains the first mention of polygamy. Verse 23 tells of another act of murder. And from there the human race declines so bad that by Genesis 6:5 it says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was on evil continually.”
In subsequent chapters the Genesis record tells us of the beginnings of such evil actions as homosexuality (19:1-5), incest (19:30-38), idolatry (31:30-35), rape (34:1-2), mass murder (34:25-29) harlotry, (38:14-19), and numerous other forms of wickedness and sin. And all this evil stemmed from the actions of Satan and then Adam and Eve, who used their God-given freedom to choose to do wrong.
I say all this to point to the fact that evil and goodness are not equal opposites. No, evil is dependent on good. It’s like a parasite. Thomas Williams puts it this way, “Evil is to good, not as black is to white, but rather as rust is to metal, as disease is to health, as death is to life.” He’s right because evil can exist only where it can feed on good. So you see, evil cannot precede good because it cannot exist independent of good.
C. S. Lewis writes, “You can be good for the mere sake of goodness: you cannot be bad for the mere sake of badness…Goodness is, so to speak, itself; badness is only spoiled goodness.”
Look at it this way. People who sin-people who commit evil-are grasping for good but they are trying to get it in the wrong way. For example: Gluttons eat too much because they desire the good taste of food. and the feeling of a full stomach. Tyrants grasp for power because they desire significance. Adulterers and fornicators have sex because they want pleasurable sensations.
Now, food, significance, and the pleasures of sex are all good things. God created them. There’s nothing wrong with desiring them. But, evil-sin-enters when we try to get these pleasurable things, these good things, in the wrong way, in ways that are contrary to God’s loving laws. So you see, sin is indeed a parasite that feeds on things that are inherently good.
In Lewis’ book Screwtape Letters, writing to a junior. demon, the archdemon says of God, “He made the pleasures: all our research so far [as demons] has not enabled us to produce even one. All we can do is encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden.”
So, evil is dependent on good. It feeds on it and distorts it. And then another thing we should note in our “refresher course study” is that sin can be classified in three basic categories.
(1) And the first is this. sin is most clearly seen in our actions.
Sin is outward behavior like Edmund’s when he selfishly plotted against his siblings and then lied about being in Narnia, knowingly hurting his little sister in the process. Sin is things like gossip and slander. It’s cutting people off in traffic. It’s cheating on your taxes. It’s stealing and murder. It’s all those actions listed in the Genesis record and more.
I mean, sinful actions are plentiful and obvious. In fact, it’s sad to say but it seems as if every day mankind comes up with a new way to act contrary to the will of God. And as 1 John 3:4 says, everyone who acts in this way, “Every one who sins breaks [God’s] law. All sin is lawlessness.” So our actions can be sinful.
(2) But inaction can be sin as well.
Now, sinful actions are often referred to as sins of commission. But as James 4:17 says, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” So, sin is also inaction. And this variety is often referred to as a sin of omission.
The Book of Common Prayer puts it this way, “We have done those things we ought not to have done and we have left undone those things we ought to have done.” When we see suffering we can help ease, when we see a lonely or hurting person that we can help and do nothing, this is sin. These are sins of omission.
A few weeks ago I came across some of my late father’s sermons on tape. In the first one I listened to, Dad was preaching on the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. You remember the story. Jesus told of a rich man who entrusted his servants with portions of his wealth while he was gone. He gave one five talents, one two talents, and another one talent. The first two servants invested the money wisely and doubled their master’s wealth, but the third buried his talent in the ground. He did nothing with the money that had been entrusted to him. Do you remember the master’s response? He said, “You wicked and lazy servant…Throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:26, 20)
Jesus followed up this parable by telling His disciples that on judgment day, people will be penalized for doing nothing-punished for their sins of omission-for their not doing anything about the suffering people of the world, the hungry, the thirsty, the lonely, the sick, the poor, those in prison.
In his message Dad wisely pointed out that this word, “wicked” is not one that Jesus used that often in the New Testament. For example, He didn’t refer to the woman caught in adultery as wicked. He didn’t use this word to describe the murderers crucified next to Him. But Jesus did use this word, “wicked” to describe an individual who did “nothing, nothing at all” with the talent that had been entrusted to him.
I don’t know about you but this thought makes me squirm, because I know there are times I lazily don’t do what I should. And in Jesus’ eyes my inaction-my omission-is wicked.
So our sin can be seen in both our actions and inactions.
(3) But the Bible teaches that even our thoughts can be sinful.
Jesus repeatedly said as much. For example, in Matthew 15:19 he said, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
And in Matthew 5:22, 28 He said, “I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
So we sin in our action, our inaction, and even in our thinking. And this leads to a very important fact when it comes to understanding sin. You see sin is our state. It’s not just what we do, it’s what we are. I mean, we are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. Ephesians 2:3 says, “We are by nature children of wrath.”
Please understand me here. It’s not that we can’t do good. We do; we do good things. It’s just that on our own we can’t keep from doing bad things. I mean, those people in the cartoon weren’t too far off. We are definitely morally challenged. But our problem goes even deeper than that. We are “totally depraved.” Even though we were made in God’s image, we have fallen. Each of us is corrupt at the core. The very center of our being is twisted by selfishness.
As David said in Psalm 51:5, “I was born a sinner-yes from the moment my mother conceived me.” God inspired David to put his confession in the Bible in order to remind us that we all have an inherited sin nature.
Romans 5:19 says, “…through the disobedience of one man [Adam], the many of us were made sinners.” You see, when those first two humans sinned in Genesis 3, they plunged the whole race into a helplessly fallen state of bondage to evil. And early on the Bible points to this fact.
Genesis 5:1 says that Adam was made “in the likeness of God.” But in verse 3 it says that Adam became a father of a son, “…in his own likeness.” In other words the children of Adam were like him, not God, and every child since has inherited this same “genetic” flaw that started with Adam, spreading the disease of sin to all mankind.
As Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone to his own way.”
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”
Romans 3:10, 23 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one…All have sinned….”
And our culture may deny it but we have to close our eyes to do so because this fact that we are totally depraved is so very obvious. All you have to do is watch the news to see evidence of it.
As G. K. Chesterton said,”The doctrine of original sin is the only part of Christian theology that can really be proved.” In fact Chesterton goaded modernist theologians who he said,”…essentially deny human sin, which they can clearly see in the street.”
Well, Chesterton was right. Our fallen state is very visible. Man’s inhumanity to man is everywhere we look. We can’t hide it because we’re all totally depraved. We sin because we are sinners and we are helpless on our own to stop.
As Jeremiah 13:23 says, “Can a leopard change his spots? In the same way, Jerusalem, you cannot change and do good, because you are accustomed to doing evil.”
And as Paul said in Romans 8:7-8,”The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law-indeed it cannot.”
If you think I’m being too harsh, accept this challenge from Max Lucado. For the next 24 hours lead a sinless life. I’m not asking for a sinless decade or year or even a month, just one perfect day. Can you do it? Can you live without sin for one day? No?
Well, how about an hour? Could you promise that for the next sixty minutes you will have only pure thoughts and actions? Still hesitant? Then how about the next five minutes? Five minutes of worry-free, anger-free, unselfish living and thinking-can you do it?
I can’t either because just like you I have an internal disease called sin. Like you, I do a pretty good job of covering it up most of the time. But inside this disease eats away at me and pollutes my thoughts and words and relationships and actions and inactions. I can identify with the Apostle Paul who admitted, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15)
And you know, another indication of the depths of our depravity is the fact that all it takes to get us to want to sin is to tell us not to. The thing forbidden becomes the thing desired. Just being told we can’t have something makes us feel that we’ve got to have it. We’ve got to try it. This is why when we see a “wet paint” sign, we feel an inner urge to touch the paint. I mean, if I were to put a button in front of you now, with a sign that says, “Do not press this button” all of us would want to press it and if given enough time we all would do so just to see what would happen. We are indeed slaves to disobedience and sin.
Now, some of us say, “Okay, I agree with you Mark. I sin but I’m not so bad. I’m not a terrorist or a child abuser. In fact, compared to most sinners I’m pretty good.” And you know, as Lucado points out, a pig might say something similar. He might look at his dirty, stinking trough partners and announce, “I’m just as clean as everyone else.” Compared to humans however, that pig needs help. And compared to God, we humans need the same. You see, the standard for sinlessness isn’t found at the pig troughs of earth, but at the throne of heaven. God, Himself is the standard.
As Dwight Pentecost puts it, “The doctrine of depravity has to do, not with man’s estimation of man but rather with God’s estimation of Man. The Scriptures do not measure men by man; they measure man by God Who has created them. The creature is measured by the Creator and is found to be wanting.”
Someone else said it best when he said, “If depravity were blue, we’d be blue all over. Cut us anywhere and we’d bleed blue. Cut into our minds and you’ll find blue thoughts. Cut into our vision and there are blue images full of greed and lust. Cut into our hearts and there are blue emotions of hatred, revenge, and blame. Cut into our wills and you’ll find deep blue decisions and responses.”
The tragedy is we don’t look blue. We look good. But there’s something deep within each of us that’s depraved. It’s called our nature. As I have said, we sin because we are indeed sinners. French essayist Michel de Montaigne put it this way, “There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to laws would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.” It’s hard to admit it but he’s right.
Now, let’s take our study one step further and remind ourselves of the effect sin has on us.
(1) First, sin causes us to lose our standard.
In other words, the more we follow in Adam and Eve’s footsteps, the more we reject God’s law, the more sin clouds our thinking such that it becomes difficult for us to discern between right and wrong.
And I don’t know about you, but when I watch the news or read the paper it shocks me at how blurred the moral lines have become. More and more I think our culture reflects the people Paul described in Romans 1 when he said,
“…in their thinking they became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, …He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent way of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless…”
You know, I understand the principle of separation of church and state but I think our society has carried it too far because in an effort to preserve religious freedom, we’ve forgotten that our laws must have a moral base; we must have a written standard. Fallen beings like you and me need a “plumb line.” We need something to always remind us why wrong is wrong and right is right. Otherwise, anything goes, and the natural direction it will go due to our depraved state is downward.
For example, is why a public school system will say they can’t give an aspirin to your teen if they have a headache without parental permission, but they can put your child in a car and drive them to a place where they can get an abortion without your ever knowing.
This is why here in the U.S. we have created a culture where we literally eat ourselves to death-all the time uncaring about the millions all over the world who die of starvation.
This is why more and more school systems now teach the homosexual lifestyle as a moral thing.
This lack of a moral standard is why, in spite of all the obvious negative consequences to this kind of behavior 90% of all sexual encounters on television and the movies these days are between unmarried people and in a typical hour of prime time television, TV characters talk about or engage in sexual activity 15 times. That’s once every four minutes.
It’s because sin has caused us to lose our standard. Our culture no longer recognizes what wrong is, what truth is.
And if you want to know the end result, if you want to know what happens when a godless society loses its standard, you can read the answer on a prison wall in Poland where it says, “I freed Germany from the stupid and degrading fallacies of conscience and morality.” Who made this boast? Adolph Hitler, and his words are posted in one of his Nazi death camps. Visitors today read the claim and then see it’s results: a room stuffed with thousands of pounds of women’s hair, rooms filled with pictures of castrated children and gas ovens that served as Hitler’s final solution.
(2) Sin causes us to lose our standard. But it also causes us to lose our worship.
I say this because the Bible teaches that worship is much more than what we do every Sunday. It’s a 24-7 thing; it’s our day-to-day relationship with God Himself. Remember? In Romans 12:1 Paul tells us that worship is sharing every moment of everyday with God, giving Him every day to use as He sees fit.
Well when we sin, when we disobey God, this relationship-our walk with Him-is destroyed. As 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light; in Him there is not darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”
Romans 8:7-8 says, “The sinful mind is hostile to God. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”
Think about it. Could you have a friendship with someone, a deep friendship in which you share your deepest fears, could you have a friendship like this with someone you knew was a gossip?
Could you have an honest, growing relationship with a spouse who insisted on sleeping with another woman?
Young parents, would you invite into your home someone who told you they thought child abuse was okay? Of course not!
We can’t have a relationship with someone who embraces behaviors we condemn. Well, neither can God. And this is why people who embrace the sinful lifestyles of this fallen world are so lonely, so empty, because they have said no to God, .the loving Creator they were designed to have a day-to-day relationship with.
As Romans 1:21, 25 puts it, (MSG) “They traded the glory of God Who holds the whole world in His hands for any cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand .Rather than worship the Creator they worship the creation.”
(3) One final effect of sin is this. Because of it we lose our LIVES.
I mean, sin is why we die. Sin is why pastors will always have to do funerals. It’s why Hallmark will always do a thriving business with sympathy cards. As Romans 5:12 says, “Sin entered the world through one man and death through sin.”
A recent news article reported on a dangerous practical joke played by a nursery employee. It told of a British Columbia-based nursery that is trying to track down people who bought poisonous plants from a company called Valleybrook Gardens that were incorrectly labeled, “tasty in soup.” Valleybrook Gardens has worked with government officials to locate the buyers of 17 improperly labeled perennials sold at stores in British Columbia and Ontario. Michel Benoit, the nursery’s general manager says, “The label should have read, ‘All parts of this plant are toxic.’ But an employee changed it to, “All parts of this plant are tasty in soup.’ The employee was making a practical joke and thought it would be caught by a horticulturist.” I’m sure he’s now a former employee.
Well, the devil has done the same to us. God put a warning label on sin that declared, “Do not eat from this for you shall surely die.” But our enemy switched labels. He tricked us. The label he attached to sin reads, “Looks good. Tastes good. Is desirable to make one wise.” The first humans fell for it and since we inherited their sin nature, we follow in their footsteps.
We fall for it too. And as Paul reminds us in Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin [for all of us] is death.” The price we pay for our depravity is the grave.
Now, I don’t know about you, but this has been a depressing sermon. And I don’t want to end yet because there is good news. I mean, yes, sin causes us to lose our standard. yes, it causes us to lose our worship relationship with God. yes, it causes us to lose our lives. But don’t be downcast because you see Christmas reminds us that…
(4) …because Jesus came, we can lose our sin.
Remember, the angel told Joseph to call the Baby Mary carried in her womb, “‘Jesus’ because He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)
In Romans 5:17 Paul continues this Christmas message by writing, “If by the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man, [referring to Adam] how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Man, Jesus Christ.”
In Romans 7:24-25 he says, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
And then, Ephesians 1:7 puts it this way. It says that because Jesus came that first Christmas night. Because He shed His sinless blood for us, “…we have redemption…the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”
And one more. Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
So you see, Christmas is indeed a story of sin. It’s the story of God’s response to this problem that we all have, this disease that we are powerless on our own to cure. We’re sinners-hopelessly lost-but we don’t have to stay that way. It’s our choice.
We can choose to live as victims of our depravity or we can live as victors through the power of Jesus Christ.