Paul wrote: “…just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”
(Romans 5:12)
Before time began, God had a plan for the world, and for our place within it. It was a plan based upon His nature. He was not just playing with us. We are not experiments in a cosmic laboratory. God is still working on that plan. The world is moving, slowly but surely, towards the end He always intended. But there have been plenty of twists and turns along the way. You and I have chosen options that are not in line with God’s will so, yes, we have sinned. That’s what ‘sinning’ means. The result of our sin is that now there is a barrier between us. We are alienated from our Maker. Yet He longs for that barrier to be removed, and for us to be in a close, fulfilling relationship with Him.
You might ask, “How did human beings learn to disobey God?” That’s a good question. It is answered in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. There we are told about creation. Now, we don’t know all of the details, but we are told that God made the world out of nothing, and that everything He made was good. God made the angels and He made them holy, that is, they were in a perfect relationship with their Maker. So were our first ancestors, whom the Bible calls Adam and Eve. As representatives of God’s good creation, Adam and Eve were also in a holy state. They spoke freely to God, but they also looked up to Him, simply because they knew that He had made them. They obeyed God because they knew themselves to be creatures obeying the will of their creator. All was well.
God entered into an agreement with Adam and Eve. We call it a covenant because it was based upon God’s promise. In this covenant, Adam stood as a representative for all humanity. If he obeyed God perfectly, living according to His will, then Adam would live forever. On the other hand, if he did not obey, Adam’s sinful disobedience would lead to his death. This covenant, then, was based upon God’s promise and Adam’s faithfulness. We sometimes call this the Covenant of Works.
You and I know that we have failed to keep this Covenant. We have made wrong choices. We have broken our promises. We may try to blame our environment or our education; we may even try to blame God; but if we are honest we must admit that we have made our own bed. Now we must lie in it. Adam had the ability to decide whether or not to sin, that is, to disobey God. So did the angels. Some fell, through pride, and became enemies of God. One was even responsible for enticing Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. By this act of rebellion the Covenant with God was broken. Humanity lost its special relationship with the Creator. Sin came into the world, and with it came death. Through disobedience, humanity was stained with sin. We could no longer be called holy. We lost our ability to please God. Even our motives became suspect. We were lost. Instead of the promise of an eternity with God, in fellowship with the One who loves us, our prospects took a turn for the worse. Not only would our bodies die, we faced the hell of an eternity without Him.
What I’ve just described is the condition known to theologians as original sin. It is the human condition – yours and mine. I want you to notice that this is not how God intended things to be. God’s desire for His creation was good. We are the ones who spoiled it by our rebellion. Adam represents us all. We have all chosen to disobey God. The result is plain to see. We spend our lives looking for something that is missing. We know that there is a void in our hearts, but we don’t know how to fill it. We try ignoring it, but the ache won’t go away. We try to substitute other things – material wealth or bodily pleasures, you name it, we’ve tried it – but nothing takes the place of a broken relationship with God. We are hungry for peace with our Maker, our Heavenly Father, but it always seems just out of reach.
All of the self-serving, destructive and violent behaviors for which the human race is known find their origin in our alienation from God. Whenever justice is perverted, goodness is abused, or loveliness is trampled down, sin has its way. This is what can make our world such a miserable place. We are not as we were intended to be. There is clearly something wrong.
So, the Christian Gospel (the Good News) begins with bad news. Our condition is not what it should be. There’s something wrong. Fortunately, this is not the last word.
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