Not defined by selfish interest

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 479.

One point I would like to make very clear is that we cannot define sin by selfishness. Selfishness would be looking out for your interest. This can be very negative when it is at the expense of God's character, desires and glory. But God loves us and often desires exactly what we desire for ourselves. In those times, our selfish desires are not sin but are right in line with His will.

However, such a definition is unsatisfactory because (1) Scripture itself does not define sin this way. (2) Much self-interest is good and approved by Scripture, as when Jesus commands us to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:20), or when we seek to grow in sanctification and Christian maturity (1 Thess. 4:3), or even when we come to God through Christ for salvation. God certainly appeals to the self-interest of sinful people when he says, “Turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek. 33:11). To define the essential character of sin as selfishness will lead many people to think that they should abandon all desire for their own personal benefit, which is certainly contrary to Scripture.

I have heard people wanting to know the will of God say that they must not do the things that they want to do because that would be selfishness and not God's will. Obviously, this is an over generalized statement.

Selfishness may be sin but sin is not defined or boiled down to selfishness and not all selfishness is truly sin. All sin is probably selfish.

ORIGIN or THE FIRST SIN

There is no true origin to sin. We have defined sin as the opposite of something (God's character, and desires and glory). Therefore it is not something that truly has an origin. Instead of thinking of the origin of Sin, we can instead talk abiout the first account of sin.

The fist time there was anything in existence (thought action motive etc) that was opposite to GOD's character, desire or glory was when Satan attempted to exalt himself above God's throne.

This is recorded for us in both Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Both of these passages are used to refer to Satan but indirectly. They specifically each talk to a king (Babylon and Tyre) but the conversation turns from being focused on the king to being focused on Satan. Some clues are given to us regarding Satan's Sin. It was:

Selfish

Opposed to GOD's rule

Opposed to GOD's glory

Satan was beautiful in his own position. But this wasn't good enough for him and he desired to exalt himself. We know that he walked in the Garden of Eden, so this event must have happened after the Creation of the world.

John 8:44 talks about Satan's sin from the beginning.

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

I wonder if the Fall of Satan is not specifically the event when Satan challenged the Word of God and encouraged Eve to follow him. This act was not surprising to Eve which seems to indicate that maybe she talked to Satan or a snake on a regular basis. It seems she trusted Satan. However, this is speculation at best.

As a result of Satan's thinking on and choice to oppose God, the first sin was exercised.

The first sin for mankind was when Adam chose to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. We will talk more about that in the next major section.

IMPUTED GUILT

(припысываемая,вменяемая вина)

Sin results in guilt and all of mankind stand guilty because Adam's sin has been imputed to them.