sound of a soft breath

The Bible teaches that Jesus is the Savior of the world. But that raises an obvious question: Why do we need to be saved? What problem is so great that God himself had to come to earth to solve it? In a word, the problem is sin, and that's the theme of our next five passages."

I am journaling through the book titled The Essential Jesus: 100 Readings Through the Bible's Greatest Story written by Whitney T. Kuniholm. The above quote is from Kuniholm's introduction to the next five passage readings from the Old Testament. In reflecting on first passage reading of this group Kuniholm writes

We tend to think sin is some obvious evil act, like murdering or stealing, and of course, that's part of it. But the full picture is more subtle and dangerous. Note that the serpent doesn't ask Eve to reject God. He simply questions God's authority (Genesis 3:1) and contradicts God's word (v. 4)"

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

"You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:1-5)

The word sin is a loaded word today and can mean different things to different people. From this account in the first book of the Bible we learn that the first sin was essentially ignoring God's authority. Eve, with the help of the serpent, reasoned that the boundaries God establish were not that important. She ultimately chose to ignore God's authority and follow her own. This was the first sin and it changed everything. Rejection of God's authority is the root of all sin.

Here is an interesting video using the man on the street (beach) interview format to find out what people think about sin. How do you define sin?


<a href="http://deforest-family.blogspot.com">Go to website to view this video.</a>

| More on the Essential Jesus journey. |