The Problem With Sin

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So far in this series on the intent and design of marriage, we’ve looked at both an overview of the first marriage (Genesis 1), as well as some details (Genesis 2) including: leaving and cleaving (Gen. 2:23-24), companionship (Gen. 2:18), and being a help meet (Gen. 2:18 & 20).  We’ve also looked at the Fall (Genesis 3), the deception (Gen. 3:13), and the consequences for women (Gen 3:16).

The true temptation of Eve was to trust her own judgment rather than the Lord God’s.  She listened to someone other than God, and was deceived into thinking that her judgment was better than His.  She believed that God was depriving her of something, and although Adam knew better, (1 Tim. 2:14) he chose to follow Eve. Their actions changed human nature.

Unfortunately the consequences for disobedience apply to us too, and we can’t change them.  So how are we to live in spite of them? I think that first we need to get to the bottom line, which is sin.  Sin is the common thread throughout history which unites us with that first couple in that first marriage.

The problem with sin is is that it replaces God with Self. God defined good and evil when He created the tree of its knowledge. We were not created to define it for ourselves. Sin deceives us into believing that we are wiser than God, that we know better than God.  And if we are wiser than God, then we are wiser than others, we know better than others.

Most of the conflict we experience in marriage is because we each want our own way. We each think we know better than the other, and so we argue and fight over money, children, in-laws, jobs, habits, friends, pastimes, church. etc.  Even if the issues are valid ones, it’s the demanding our own way that is the problem.

So what can we do about it?  The world says we need to fight for our rights.  The Bible says we are to lay them down and serve others.  Jesus example for us was to perform the most menial service to His disciples by washing their feet (John 13:14).

Paul worded it like this:

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humilty of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Phil. 2:3-7 (NASB)

Like Eve, our problem is in trusting our own judgment and following our own desires.  And like Eve, our actions have consequences which effect not only ourselves but others as well.  Fortunately, God Himself came to show us another way.  It is only when we turn from Self and follow Him that we find that the only thing we have been deprived of, is an illusion of freedom.