Original sin: where did “sin” get its start?
Spoiler alert: It wasn’t where you think, in the Garden of Eden. The problem started in heaven long before mankind came along.
One of God’s “best and brightest,” Lucifer got greedy and the disease of sin was born and quickly metastasized:
“… You were the anointed cherub … From the day of your creation you were sheer perfection … and then imperfection —evil! — was detected in you … I threw you, disgraced, off the mountain of God. I threw you out — you, the anointed angel-cherub … Your beauty went to your head.”1
And what was the nature of Lucifer’s offense? Setting his will against God’s and attempting a palace revolt. It didn’t end well for him:
“But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’”2
Satan (Lucifer) was summarily cast down to the earth, along with one-third of the angels who sided with him. The next time we encounter his slimy trail, it leads into the Garden of Eden, the dwelling place of God’s newly created human beings, Adam and Eve.
In heaven, Satan was not a dust-eating reptile but dressed in splendor, breathtaking to behold and irresistibly persuasive. He was furious at his expulsion from heaven and bent on revenge.
The trouble was that he couldn’t get at God directly, so who better to attack than God’s freshly minted little “images” so innocently wandering their home in the Garden? If you can’t get to the parent, go for the kids.
Like secondhand smoke, our forebearers inhaled the infection of sin directly from the sulphurous breath of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. In a way, we were born again downward. C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Problem of Pain:
“The Fall of Man was not, I conceive, comparable to mere deterioration as it may now occur in a human individual; This condition was transmitted by heredity to all later generations … it was the emergence of a new kind of man — a new species, never made by God, had sinned itself into existence … we are members of a spoiled species.”
Originally created without a propensity to sin, Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden resulted in a crippling of their inner spiritual faculties. Immediately following their act of defiance, they became afraid of God, ran from His presence, covered themselves up, and blamed Him for their self-inflicted catastrophe.
Sadly, this predilection “package” has been handed down through the millennia to the present day in the form of a spiritual nature that is spring-loaded to the sin position.
Sin IS the Source of All Pain
As a youngster, I was both repelled by sin and drawn toward it with equal intensity. I defined sin as everything I like to do but can’t. I saw sin as my surreptitious “friend” that “worked” for me, or so I thought. I was turning God into a cosmic spoilsport who made me feel like Wile E. Coyote caught in the headlights of his oncoming holiness.
It wasn’t until much later that I discovered that the cause of every pain in my life is sin. Either my own sin, or those committed against me by someone else.
In his book, Grace: The Power to Change, author James Richards wrote:
“If I realize that sin is what brings pain into my life; Make a list of every pain in your life. Then link it to the belief or behavior that is bringing that pain. Do everything you can to see the belief or behavior that is bringing that pain. Then list all the pleasure that could be derived from walking in truth.”
The notion of “sin” has become unfashionable in our postmodern age and has been systematically eradicated from public discourse. We prefer to substitute terms like, misdemeanor, wickedness, iniquity, immoral, offense, wrongdoing, misdeed, lapse, misjudgment, error, etc. The Bible is not so politically correct, mentioning “sin” 500 times and ranking it public enemy No. 1.
In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis summed up sin’s pervasive effects brilliantly:
“All that we call human history — money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery — (is) the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
How About You?
Still hiding behind politically correct restatements of sin? Christ died for sins, not misdemeanors, misjudgments or missteps. So, call it what God calls it — sin, and leave it there. Then we can understand why God had to solve “our sin problem” for us.
It’s good news. Stay tuned.
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and Internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
1. Ezekiel 28:11-19 The Message
2. Isaiah 14:13-17 New American Standard Bible