If you think there is no sin in your life, you are sorely mistaken

Genesis 3:14-24

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
¹⁵ And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”

²⁰ Adam^[c] named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

²¹ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.²² And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

In this passage, we see God dealing with sin in a way that reaches down through history and affects us today. Childbirth is still a painful experience. Work is often toil (the imagery of sweat suggests effort before a result is achieved) and rarely enjoyable. Our earthly lives are finite. The abundance of the garden of Eden is no more.

We can try and cope with sin in a variety of different ways. We can deny we are affected by it, and not even be aware of the pride involved in thinking along those lines. We can try escaping – which can take a variety of forms: from physically removing yourself from a situation, to withdrawing and avoiding contact with the relevant people. We can attempt self-medication with alcohol or other substances, which ends poorly.

Unfortunately, we always need to be on the lookout for sin in our lives and asking Jesus for help in overcoming the sin. I’ve heard it expressed that if our lives are like a garden, then sin is the weed that we need to be on constant lookout for. Often, I’ve found that I think I’ve ‘conquered’ a particular sin in one area of my life, only to then realise there are other sins that need attention. Like weeds, sin will unfortunately always be with us until Jesus returns.

Jesus’ death on the cross secured for us a new life with Him in heaven forever. We would do well to remember that, and look forward to it, as we endure the struggles and challenges of life in this brief moment before He returns and makes all things new.

Head: Are you sometimes tempted to deal with sin by running away when instead you should stand and fight?

Heart: where is there pride in your life that you need to repent of?

Hands: How can you encourage others this week to turn from sin?

Prayer: Lord, thank you that in Jesus you have saved us from eternal consequences for our sin. Each day, please help us to turn to you in prayer and repent of sin in our lives.

A song to listen to: Satan, your kingdom must come down

Oliver Meehan- Creek Road Presbyterian Church- Carina