The Origin of Sin
In The Beginning
Moving on this week, we are going to go from defining what sin is to where sin came from. I know I say this often, but if you haven’t read our latest post on what sin is, you should definitely give it a read. Not only do we discuss the original Hebrew definition of this word, but we break down how exactly this definition changes the way we view sin and how we interpret certain passages. So with the knowledge of what sin is that we gained from our previous post, we will now be discussing where exactly this sin came from. What exactly is the origin of sin? How did it all begin? Was it all Satan’s fault? Questions like these all arise from not knowing what the exact origin of sin really is. As Wayne Grudem puts it, “It is important to insist on the historical truthfulness of the narrative of the fall of Adam and Eve. Just as the account of the creation of Adam and Eve is tied in with the rest of the historical narrative in the books of Genesis, so also this account of the fall of man, which follows the history of man's creation.” Knowing the origin of sin and the fall of mankind as a whole is vastly important to understanding all of God’s Word as a whole. Let’s dive in and find out why.
In The Garden
For starters, let’s begin where most people start when they think of sin, the Garden of Eden. Throughout the first chapter of the book of Genesis, we see how God has created all of the cosmos and how He has filled and subdued the earth with life and beauty. No sin was present at this particular time which means everything functioned how God had designed it to function. It wasn’t until God created man that we saw temptation lead to the first overall sin ever recorded. Genesis 3:6 reminds us of this first-ever occurrence, “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 desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.” If you’ve read through this story before, you know that God gave Adam and Eve one rule to follow in the garden, which was not to eat the fruit of a specific tree. Then in the third chapter of Genesis, we see this specific law broken by Adam and Eve. This is that ‘missing of the mark’ that we discussed in our last post. If God has called us to be holy like He is, we must be willing to follow every rule and law that He has for His creation so that we may remain holy as well. And unfortunately, that doesn't last long for mankind as Adam and Eve are the first people to break the law that God has given them. Not only do we see this law broken, but we see the curse that God places on them and for all of mankind after this sin is committed. This is why Paul tells us in Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned” This first sin wasn’t just any ordinary sin, it was the sin that introduced unholiness to the world. This is the origin of sin for mankind. Whenever we need to remind ourselves of what introduced fallenness and sinfulness to God’s image bearers, we need to look no further than Adam and Eve deliberately disobeying God’s command to not eat of this fruit.
In The Heavenlies
So that's it right? We’ve found the origin and beginning of where the first sin was ever committed right? Not quite. We’re going to go even deeper here. The original goal of this post was to find the origin of sin, not just the origin of sin for mankind. Is it possible that sin existed before Adam and Eve were even created? Is it possible that sin can be committed by creatures who aren’t even human beings? Yes and yes. As Dr. Grudem plainly says, “Even before the disobedience of Adam and Eve, sin was present in the angelic world with the fall of Satan and demons.” As we can clearly see in the story of Adam and Eve, this serpent that tempted them in the garden was clearly a fallen angel, if not Satan himself. This means that sin could be committed by angels before the creation of man ever took place by simply disobeying God in the heavenlies. While we aren’t given an exact timeline of when Satan and these fallen angels were cast from heaven, we have enough evidence through scripture to have a specific timeline. Job is a book in the Bible that doesn’t have an exact timeline but is estimated to be one of the earlier books written in the Old Testament.
Look at what Job 1:6-7 says, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” So if we don’t have an exact timeline of when Satan was cast from heaven, but we do have two instances in the earliest texts of scripture that show Satan and his demons roaming the earth along with tempting Adam and Eve, we can correctly assume (like Dr. Grudem) that Satan was cast from heaven no later than the creation of mankind. Any instance before this timeframe would lead to questions about who the serpent is and who the sons of God are as well. So while we can point to an exact moment and origin that sin entered the world through mankind, the origin of sin in the angelic world came prior to this but is unclear from an exact timeframe. Nevertheless, we can clearly see through the origins of sin that mankind and even some angels have been opposed to God’s perfect order from the creation of the world and even before that! I hope and pray that as we acknowledge this, that we will understand more fully just how damaging and everlasting sin really is.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] Grudem, W. (1994). Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA79455700
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