Expert: Marilyn - 2/4/2011

Question
Christianity beleives that everybody is born in sin. Just because Adam and Eve disobeyed God ,every innocent child that is born on the face of this earth inherits that sin. This defies all logic. It is also said that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. What does that mean? First somebody else is charged for somebody elses sin and then a third person suffers for that sin. There is absolutely no logic here. Can you throw some light?

Answer
Hello Guru;

I will write this answer in my own words. If you would like the Scripture references from the Bible which support my answer, please let me know.

When God created Adam He shaped his body, then breathed into him the "breath of life," and Adam became a living, speaking being. Not only did God give to Adam those qualities which set humans apart from animals: language, art, music, geometry, etc., God gave also gave to Adam and to all males the ability to begat, or cause to be conceived, more human beings. The sperm is a particularly active gamete, aggressive and alive. Within it is the "breath of life," the intangible something that makes a human being not only alive, but different from other creatures who also have arms, legs and lungs etc. This gift is also a huge responsibility which men still often do not comprehend.

God created Adam and Eve with the idea that they would rule the earth and He would be their King, similar to a duke or prince having control of a region while subject to a king. Like human kings, or military commanders, God expects to be obeyed. Not only that, the way a military commander or a king knows that those he commands love him is if they obey him. God gave Adam and Eve one rule: don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they obeyed this rule, then they would show their love for Him, but if they disobeyed this rule He warned them that they would die. What kind of fruit this tree bore doesn't matter, the thing that mattered was obeying the rule. For a king or a military commander love and obedience are one in the same.

Satan deceived Eve and she ate of the fruit. She turned to Adam and gave him some to eat and he ate. Something changed within both of them. In disobeying God they switched kings and some of the evil nature from satan infected them. For Adam and for us, this was devastating. The breaths of life which he carried in his sperm became infected with some of the evil nature from the new king, satan.

The death to which God referred was not only the eventual cessation of bodily function--death--but also cancer, multiple sclerosis, all illness, tendency to be addicted, rage, unfounded and or debilitating fear, anxiety, etc.. These are all forms of death. The perfection Adam and Eve enjoyed when they were first created was gone. Now their bodies would age and they would eventually die. Sin immediately made itself manifest when their oldest son killed his younger brother in a jealous fit of rage.

If you were king of someone and he disobeyed you, especially if that disobedience brought such awfulness not only to your present subjects, but to every one of his descendants, what would you do? Killing off the guy and starting over would be expedient, but not necessarily work in the long run because if your purpose was to create for yourself children who could rule along side you, that sneaking, lying satan would only try again.

Why did God allow satan to exist? God is Love. Love gives the beloved a choice...either love me or don't. If there was no consequences for choosing not to love, there is no choice. satan provides that choice. He began his rebellion against God long before Adam and Eve were created. His sin was conceit and it led to the idea that he could defeat God and take His throne away from Him. The name "satan" means "adversary." He lost his battle for God's throne in Heaven, but he has not quit. As God's adversary, he diligently and persistently pursues ways to either destroy what God loves, subvert what God loves or rule over what God loves. This activity receives every ounce of his vast intellectual abilities. It might seem that given his evil nature, he's clearly not the right choice, but obviously for Adam and Eve, he did a good job masking his evil.

A person doesn't have to look far to see satan's kingdom of sin in the world. Neighbors down the street are robbed, a girl is raped, someone is murdered, persons want to kill others of a different religion...the list is endless. And we tend to overlook the little sins we all commit daily. Stealing a paperclip from work, taking an extra five minutes for lunch, telling a little lie...those are sin too. If you have children, you know that if one toddler wants a toy his brother or sister is playing with, he will not hesitate to do whatever it takes to get that toy. He'll slap, kick, bite...whatever it takes. If a child is caught disobeying his parents, usually his first response is to lie about it, cover it up, or better yet, hope he doesn't get caught to start with. Sin infects us all. And sin separates us from God. Sin is like a vast cesspool which creates a divide between us and our creator.

God is Light and in that Light no darkness can exist. Sin is darkness. If we tried to enter His presence on our own, we would be burned up, we would die. This is part of what God was talking about when He told Adam and Eve they would die if they disobeyed Him. They would lose His Light and if they tried to speak with Him as they once had done face to face, they would die. For Love this separation between Himself and His beloved creation was also devastating. Love does not want the beloved to suffer, to be cut off. But He had a plan.

As soon as Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they knew they'd messed up. When God came to join them in their evening walk together, they hid. When He interviewed them about what had gone wrong, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent, neither wanted to take responsibility for his and her actions. But God chose not to kill them, instead He killed an animal and made clothes for them with its skin. God found a way to satisfy the law--don't eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will die--by providing a substitute to die for Adam and Eve. Animal sacrifice offered in faith believing God would receive it as payment for sin began.

Abel, Adam and Eve's second son, offered a lamb from his flock to God, but Cain, the oldest, brought vegetables from his garden. God accepted the lamb, but rejected Cain's vegetables. Cain burned with jealous rage. God tried to reason with him, but he would not listen, he rushed into the field and killed his brother. Some people wonder why Cain's offering was so bad. Well, it's because it goes back to the question: Will you obey God or not? For a King love and obedience are one and the same. Cain didn't want to obey God, he wanted God to take him on his terms. Also, the vegetables Cain raised were produced by the efforts of his own hands. He, in essence, wanted to fix the problem of sin with his own solution, not God's. But the problem is, we can do nothing to fix the problem of sin.

Today, do an experiment, see if you can love everyone all day long. This means for today, you can not be selfish not even once, you cannot ignore the man who needs a ride, you cannot turn your face away from the beggar, you cannot ignore the clerk in the checkout line at the grocery store who looks like she needs an encouraging word. You must call your mother who you know will talk for an hour and nag you about something, you must pay for your friend's lunch, whatever love asks of you today, you must do it...and you must do all of it. If you did it for one day, can you do it for a week? Will you succeed? Will you find yourself overwhelmed and inadequate? If you do this experiment correctly, you will find yourself overwhelmed and inadequate. If I do not need to leave the house, I might be able to do this for one day, but I have the suspicion that Love will ask me to go down the road and visit my neighbor who is a widow and very lonely. I like her well enough, but I have nothing in common with her. It is not easy to go visit her, I have a few dozen other things I'd rather do. But if Love wants me to visit her today and I do not go, I have sinned.

I will also commit sins of which I am unaware. You may have been on the receiving end of someone who is sinning unaware. You hoped for a phone call, a recognition of your birthday or an achievement and nothing happened. You may have been stranded by the side of the road and watched as dozens of cars whizzed past you while you shivered in the cold or worried if you would be able to get help before dark. That person who was supposed to call you, send you a birthday card or praise you for a job well done or help you when you were stranded sinned.

You are a sinner. I am a sinner. We can do nothing to fix this problem. God has to fix it. Animal sacrifices as substitute to pay for our sin are not sufficient. An animal is not the equal of a human being. It is only a stop-gap until a better solution can be found.

That better solution was for God to become a Man. Since humans created the problem and innocent human death is what is required to fix the problem and since there are no innocent humans to be found anywhere, God had to become a Man. Because only the "breath of life" Adam and all men carry was infected with sin, Jesus could be born of a woman and be sinless. The woman's egg is not infected because it does not carry the "breath of life." The egg is necessary, the way wood is necessary to have a fire, but the life of the fire is in the spark. So, God breathed part of Himself, His Word, into Mary. Yes, it's fantastic that God's Word is a Person, but if God were not fantastic, He wouldn't be much of a God would He? The Word became flesh, John 1, and was born to a teenage girl in a cave where the animals were kept. This demonstrates to us God's great love for us that He would humble Himself to come to earth, live as a Man and pay for our sins.

Jesus came for two reasons: 1) to show us God and 2) to fix the problem of sin. He did what we cannot do. He lived every moment He was on planet earth without sinning even once. Because He was innocent, He could not be detained in Sheol, the place where all human dead, both those who believed God and offered animal sacrifices and those who didn't, were held up to that time. He rose from the dead. Those who had believed God and offered animal sacrifices were released at that time to be with God in Heaven because the Law had finally been satisfied. Jesus walked on planet earth as a resurrected human for several weeks and visited His disciples and followers.

The Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote one paragraph about Jesus. My paraphrase: "There was this Jewish Rabbi Jesus who had a great following. He was crucified and His disciples said that He was raised from the dead." Other historians record Jesus' existence on planet earth. We also know from history, that all but one of Jesus' closest followers were killed for preaching Him raised from the dead. These men were in a position to know whether or not He actually had been raised. A man will die for something he knows is the truth, but he will not knowingly die for a lie. The disciples prove by their deaths that Jesus was indeed raised from the dead.

Now, Jesus turns around and says to you and to me, "I have loved you so much that I came into the world to pay for your sins so that there is no more any chasm between us. All I require of you is that you say aloud, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that I am raised from the dead and you will be a child of God, a joint heir with Me, and no longer a subject of satan." From the moment a person says those words and believes that idea in his heart, he is changed. God begins to extract from a person those things which came with the infection of sin and He begins to restore a person to what he was originally created to be and establish in his heart a fountain of love and joy which will sustain him and that he can share with others. The more a person understands Jesus and what He has done, the more a person is transformed. Christians around you will be in various stages of this transformation all the way from hardly changed at all to persons who love continuously, joyfully.

God is a Law Giving and Law Abiding God. As King, He should be obeyed. The penalty for law breaking is death. But God did not leave us without an escape. He loved us so much He satisfied the requirements of the Law Himself by shedding His innocent Blood in our stead. He loves you too. If you were the only sinner on the planet, Jesus would still come and die to pay for your sins, that is how much He loves you. Make Him your King today.

Sincerely,

Marilyn