Category Archives: Free Will

Consequences of Sin, Free Will, Satan, Sin

Disobeying God Has Consequences

As early in scripture as Genesis 3:1-19, God introduces us to the deception of Satan. Satan is not to be dismissed as parable but in fact is a real and powerful being that wants to deceive us and create separation from us and God. To do this, Satan does not need to convince us to serve him, he just needs to convince us to disobey or stop trusting God.

3 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man[a] and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, you are cursed
    more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
    groveling in the dust as long as you live.
15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike[b] your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

16 Then he said to the woman,

“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
    and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
    but he will rule over you.[c]”

17 And to the man he said,

“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
    whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
    All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
    though you will eat of its grains.
19 By the sweat of your brow
    will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
    from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
    and to dust you will return.”

There is much depth to this scripture, all cleverly packed into a story even a child can understand.

  • Satan is real. He will come against us often when we are alone. You likely will not recognize who he is when he comes.
  • Satan knows what God has said and lies to convince us God’s word is not true.
  • When we choose to sin, we often have a tendency to get others to do it with us or to agree with our behavior, to help rationalize that our disobedience to God was acceptable.
  • We do not help others by accepting and agreeing to their sin. Instead we create separation for ourselves from God as well.  We would help them by pointing out their sin and guiding them to repent.
  • When we listen to Satan and disobey God, we interrupt the good plan God has for our lives and instead replace it with our own path. God will not force us to follow Him. That would not be love.
  • When we sin, we cannot hide from God. Better to come before Him in repentance and seek forgiveness through His grace.
  • There are real and tangible consequences to our sin. They cannot be avoided by blaming someone else as Adam and Eve did. All who did the deceiving and those who allowed themselves to be deceived and reject God’s instruction will be held accountable.

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Adultery / Sex Outside Marriage, Creation, Free Will, Homosexual Behavior, Marriage, Sin

God Formed the Man From the Dust

Genesis 2:5-25 provides a lot of important details about God’s creation of man (and woman) that may be easy overlook. Try to avoid reading this scripture too quickly just because it is something we may think we know well. Spend time thinking about what it means… and how to apply it in your life.

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. 6 Instead, springs[b] came up from the ground and watered all the land. 7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. 11 The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. 12 The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. 13 The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. 14 The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.

15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man[c] to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.

21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs[d] and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

23 “At last!” the man exclaimed.

“This one is bone from my bone,
    and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
    because she was taken from ‘man.’”

24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

Here are a few of my observations:

  • God created man and man was special in his relationship with God, above the rest of God’s creation.
  • God created a place to meet man’s physical needs… a beautiful, well watered garden.
  • God created purpose for man… to watch over the garden.
  • God gave man free will and then also gave him clear instructions on what he should do and what he should not do… and what would happen to him if he did not obey God’s instruction.
  • God created woman to be the perfect companion to man. It is clear that God intends man and woman to be husband and wife… not marriage between same sex couples. God intended it to be one man and one woman in marriage… not adultery and sexual promiscuity. God did not intend for divorce to be considered. The relationship of husband and wife is to be second only to relationship with God and should be held above prior relationships with parents or friends.
  • There was not yet any shame… thus no sin at that point. Sin came later through the decision of Adam and Eve to disobey God and eat from the tree He told them not to. God did not create sin, he gave man free will and thus created the opportunity for sin. However, without free will there is also no love or relationship.

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