THE BEGINNING OF SIN
By Kevin Rutherford
The word sin means “to miss the mark.” The mark we have failed to hit is God’s ultimate standard of righteousness. That is, moral and obedient perfection. Sin is a transgression of the Law of God (1 John 3:4). When we do that which is contrary to what God desires, or when we fail to God what God requires we have sinned. All of those who are capable of sin have sinned (Romans 3:9, 23). We can now look all around and see the terrible effects of sin. Violence and immorality abound and destroy. There is no utopia or paradise here on this earth. One cannot create perfect places for people with monasteries, convents, or communes. Sin slips into communities, slides between cracks in the walls, and slithers into the hearts of every man and woman. But where did this all begin?
It all began in a paradise. A wonderful place called The Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-15). A loving God created a beautiful existence
for the man and woman whom He cherished.
Genesis 3 records for us that dark occasion when the serpent, the
devil, Satan, the fallen angel deceived Eve, the mother of all living. God said don’t eat of the tree in the midst
of the garden. Satan said it was
okay. Eve ate, Eve sinned. Eve offered, Adam sinned. Sin had slipped into the perfect paradise of
Left to suffer in our own sins we
would all face a bleak future of eternal death, an eternal separation from God
(Revelation 21:8). But the God who created man also loves man,
and made it possible for man to be saved from his sins. Jesus told us that the truth can make us free
from our sins (John
Sin began in the Garden of Eden,
and sin still exists everywhere and all around us on this earth. But God has given us hope for salvation from
sin through the sacrifice of His dear Son (John