What Does Sin Affect?
The Main Areas
To build off our previous week where we discussed some pretty big questions, we’re going to continue this theme as we discuss some more effects. I know we’ve already discussed what some of the consequences of sin are, but today we’re going to be digesting the different areas of our lives that sin affects that we may not even realize. After coming off of a week where we discussed how God views sin, we must keep this same mentality as we approach this question as well. If we think that sin only affects us personally, we really begin to miss out on all that sin has destroyed and corrupted from the beginning. As The Gospel Coalition states, “In the beginning, God creates a good cosmos with good humans who have good relationships with him, themselves, one another, and creation. But sin enters the picture and disrupts each human relationship—with God, self, one another, and creation.” It’s in these three areas that we can see sin has its deepest effects, and if we aren’t careful, we can easily overlook these effects and assume that sin only has to do with me, myself, and I. With that in mind, let’s dive in.
The Lord
To start, let’s go over the obvious that we’ve already briefly gone over in the past but still need to understand. That of course, is the effect sin has on our walk with the Lord Himself. From the very beginning, look at what happens with Adam and Eve when they sin against the Lord and how their relationship with God changed. Genesis 3:23-24 tells us, “Therefore the LORD God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden Of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” Here we have a solid picture of how our relationship with God is distorted once sin enters the picture. The very place where God’s Spirit dwelt and the very place that He had designed for mankind to subdue, Adam and Eve were kicked out of. This goes all the way back to our original meaning of the word sin, and how partaking in this act makes us miss the mark of who God has designed us to be. This isn’t just backed in the Old Testament, however, we also see this example in the New Testament as well. Paul gives a great example of this in Ephesians 4:17-18 “So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;” Paul is describing to the Ephesians here what a Christ-like lifestyle looks like, and he point to the Gentiles as an example of what not to do. The reason for this is that Paul is looking at a particular group of people who were not saved at this time. And the conclusion that he makes is that those who aren’t led by the Holy Spirit are ‘excluded from the life of God’. It doesn’t get much more clear than that. When we sin, we separate ourselves from God by driving a wedge between us that was never meant to be there.
Mankind & The World
On the flip side, sin of course affects ourselves and those around us as well. This is the aspect that we probably don’t need to spend too much time on because it has been a constant theme throughout this series. However, it is still a good reminder to gloss over this important aspect of sin. If you read last week's blog post, you will remember that John Piper gave us a great example of how sin may require the same forgiveness to be atoned for, but that doesn’t mean sin affects all of mankind equally. The example Piper used was spitting on someone and killing someone. Both of these are acts of hate, but both have drastically different outcomes! So it is with many of our sins. Whether we realize it or not, our sin doesn't just harden our hearts and separate us from God, but it also can damage others and affect them in ways that we never even noticed. Look again at what Paul says about this in Romans 14:21 “It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother or sister stumbles.” This is a very interesting command that Paul gives here given the particular circumstances. Eating meat and drinking wine are both not sins, but gluttony and getting drunk are. So by default, Paul is saying to not even partake in a practice that would eventually lead someone to sin even if the practice itself isn’t a sin. If this is how cautious God wants us to be to help others not sin, how much more cautious should we be when we realize our own sin is affecting not just ourselves, but those around us?! This is a great command indeed. Sin is always a disheartening act, but it is even more disgusting when we bring others down with us.
Furthermore, we are going to conclude by looking at an aspect that sin affects that many people overlook or don’t acknowledge. That of course, would be this world. Look at this very interesting curse that God places on Adam when he sins against God. Genesis 3:17-18 says, “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; With hard labor you shall eat from it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; Yet you shall eat the plants of the field;” This curse that God places over Adam affects not just him, but all generations after him, just like the rest of the curses. This particular curse would imply that before the fall, the ground that God had created needed no work, or very minimal work in order to produce food. Not only that, but this land that God originally created was one without thorns and thistles and probably many other kinds of harmful plants that we know of today. If you want an easy way to remember this, just know that every time you go out to pull weeds in your lawn, this was part of the curse from the beginning. I say this jokingly but honestly with some truth to it as well. Yes, no one likes pulling weeds, but the fall of mankind really did curse the very ground we stand on to produce things that God never intended it produce and to make producing good things like food much more difficult. When all is said and done, it is clear that the main aspects of life that sin affects are our relationship with God, our relationship with ourselves and mankind, and our relationship with this very earth. I hope and pray that this post has opened your eyes to just how harmful sin is and how active it still is in the world today, whether you realize it or not.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] Morgan, C. (2021, February 10). The nature of sin. The Gospel Coalition. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-nature-of-sin/
Comments