The Pandemic

                  A couple weeks ago I presented a study of the words the Bible uses to describe sin.  I hope that helped clarify the meaning of sin but we need to remember that “sin,” however it is described, is not a problem other people have. 

Romans 3:23

            During much of 1665 a fire raged across England and parts of Europe. It was not a fire of flames and smoke, although that kind of fire would, according to some, prove to be the salvation of the suffering residents of London.  No, this fire was the fire of agonized breathing and raging fever.  This was the plague, a recurrence of the so-called “Black Death” which had ravaged Europe before.

            The plague of 1665 took an estimated 65,000 to 100,000 lives. 

            Each morning wagons rolled through the streets of the larger cities gathering the dead for mass burials.

            Rich, poor, young, and old all fell prey to the plague.

            At the time, not even the best scientific minds could explain its origin.  Some believed the dogs and cats might carry the disease so they recommended killing them, even if the rats they kept away became a problem.  But, in the end, they  just didn’t know where the plague had come from. (If you know your history you know why this reprieve for the rats was a bad idea.)

            The human race is suffering from another disease, one far more deadly than the plague.

            Where did the pandemic called sin come from?

            Any discussion of sin will ultimately lead to the opening chapters of Genesis.

            If we look at the habitat in which God placed the new Creature, the “crown of his creation,’ it’s evident that what took place could not be blamed on the environment (Genesis 2:4-25)             

            --The man and woman seemed to have the same faculties as modern men and women:  Their nature included a social, spiritual, and volitional aspect.  There is evidence of great intelligence.  Adam and Eve don't appear to have been primitive men and women.

            --They possessed a capacity for fellowship with God which seems to exceed that of the greatest saints. 

            --They possessed a capacity for genuine sexual enjoyment without regret, guilt, and abuse which often mars that enjoyment today.

            --They were granted almost unlimited opportunity to use their intelligence and creativity.

            --The freedom was immense and the restrictions were limited.  In fact, there was only one.  They truly lived in paradise.  How long would it last?

            Not long.  The story of the Fall tells of how sin entered the human race. (Genesis 3:1-6:10)

            The story introduces us to a fourth party in the Garden, the serpent.  Later we will learn that this serpent was somehow the tool of Satan. His origin is shrouded in mystery, but it soon becomes clear that Satan is both the enemy of God and humankind.

            His tactics were those displayed again and again in the Scripture.

            --The Target:  The Woman.  Why did Satan target the woman?  Not because she was innately weaker than the Man.  Satan would have been content to bring down either the Man or the Woman, for he probably knew bringing down the one would bring down the other.  

                 Satan's tactics were the same he is seen to use elsewhere:  (1)  He sought to create doubt regarding the validity of God's word,  (2)  He sought to create doubt regarding the goodness God [God is depicted as holding something good back from Man.];  (3) he promised what he could not deliver, equality with God.

           

                        The Woman made her decision on her own.  So far as we know, she did not consult her husband; she certainly did not consult God, despite having regular, intimate fellowship with Him.  Her's was an early example of secularist thinking.

                        There is some hint that the temptation may have been going on for some time.  She finally succumbed.  The course of the failure can be seen as progress from seeing the beauty of the fruit, reflecting on its pleasant aspects, and finally touching it to consume it.

                        Although she did not immediately die, something inside her must have died.  She must have sensed the effect of her disobedience almost immediately, yet she had the Man join her in disobedience.  In so doing she became Satan's vehicle, a tool more effective than the serpent.

            --The Willful Joiner.  Romantics have suggested that Adam, having seen what the woman had done, joined her in disobedience so they would not be separated.  More likely Adam simply chose to listen to one whom he respected, with whom he had shared joy and pleasure, and who--despite her disobedience--had not died.

                        The act of disobedience was simple but it was enough to be a tragedy of cosmic proportions.

           

            (1) Humankind was left with a sense of guilt and shame (v7). 

Here’s John Davis on the impact of their rebellion:

The tempter promised that eating the fruit would open Adam's and Eve's eyes, but he did not say what they would see.  They saw themselves as sinners devoid of their original beauty.  They saw good and evil only from the standpoint of sinners, from the rock-bottom level of corruption.  They became like God in that their natures were fixed, but God was confirmed in holiness while they were confirmed in sinfulness....Seeing their nakedness in a new light, they experienced shame and disgrace.  In a pitiful attempt to replace the radiant garments of their innocence, they sewed together fig leaves.  Man has ever since attempted to cover his guilt and assuage his conscience.  His efforts...still fall far short of God's demands.

            (2)   Humankind experienced separation from God. Where there was once communion, now there was estrangement. 

Think about this.  Once humankind’s relationship with God was so real that God was a Friend with whom you took walks in the park.  In time, some would deny that Friend’s existence.

            (3)  Humans experienced estrangement from one another.

            Do I need offer evidence for this?  Just listen to the nightly news—stories of war, murder, crime…

            (4)   Humans experienced physical death as the  culminate the experience of spiritual death.

   

           

            The Bible makes it clear that somehow, some way, what happened in the Garden has impacted the entire human race.

            Original sin does not mean that every sinner is original.  No sinner is a wicked as he might be, every sinner is wicked enough to demonstrate the universal presence of sin in the human race.

            I’ve never listened to “country music” that much but even I’ve heard of Hank Williams, heard of his hard living, his drinking, his early death.  A few years ago Hank Williams, Jr. responded to the question “Hank, why do you drink?” by saying he was “Keeping Up an Old Family Tradition.”  When you and I sin, we are keeping up an old family tradition.

           

Just how extensive is the problem of sin? 

            Every man, woman, and child carries the heritage of sin.

1.  Much of the Bible is written with the assumption of the universality of human sin.  For example, the sacrificial system of the Old Testament is predicated on the notion of sin.  Even the high priest must provide an offering for his sins.

            The prophets often indicted nations surrounding Israel as well as Isreal itself.

            The universal calls to repentance imply universal sin.

            --Charles Ryder Smith (1953):  "The universality of sin is taken as a matter of fact.  On examination, it will be found that every speech in Acts...and every Epistle just assumes that men have all sinned.  This is also the assumption of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels...Jesus deals with everyone on the assumption, 'Here is a sinner'."

2.  Let’s look at some key passages establish the notion of universal sin:

            --GE 6: The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. … the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.

            This assessment of the sinfulness of the human race apparently applies to the entire race.  The indictment of the Anti-diluvian age suggests that humanity was manifesting self-centeredness, violence, and impiety. 

            The subsequent failure of Noah is a stark reminder that human sin did not drown with the Flood. 

            --1KI 8:46  "When they sin against you--for there is no one who does not sin--and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to his own land, far away or near;

( 2 Chronicles 6:36 is a parallel passage.)

                        --These passages are from Solomon's prayer for the dedication of the new temple.  With admirable honesty he acknowledges that "there is no one who does not sin"--a statement which would include both the nobility and the commoner.  The great promise of revival in 7:14 is, in part, God's response to this prayer.

                        Solomon--wise observer of life--had concluded that sin was a universal aspect of the human race.

            --PS 53:3 Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

                        This psalm deals with those whose lifestyles are lived as if there were no God.  They are secularists from a pre-secular age.  When an individual or a culture abandons God, the results will be devastating.  Excluding God from their lives does not make them sinners, it reveals their sinfulness.

            --PR 20:9 Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?

                        Passage seems to suggest that the best of us have mixed motives and sullied hearts.

            --ECC 7:20 There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.

                        Although the writer of Ecclesiastes is noted for his dismal portrayal of life, he is simply being a realist.  No hero is beyond the corrupting power of sin.

            --ISA 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

                        In one of the most familiar passages about the Suffering Servant, the prophet lays an indictment against the human race.  We have all willfully abandoned God's will.  We are all sinners.

            --Romans 3:23

                        Probably the most frequently quoted verse on the universality of sin.  The statement comes at the end of a longer passage on the nature and character of sin.  Ralph Earle says, "This is the most definite statement on the subject in the entire Bible."  The language suggests that all have sinned in the past and continue to fall short of "God's glory as he wishes it to be manifested to them and through them."

            A declaration that sin is pandemic, that every person is a sinner, that every culture is in rebellion against God is difficult for some people to accept.  They like to point out that existence of certain simple, loving tribes that don’t share the vices of the West.  These people are considered as proof that sin is not universal.

            Let me try to offer an explanation of what this verse means.

            Maybe you’ve seen the film “The Gods Must Be Crazy”.  The movie introduces us to a tiny African tribe made up of poor but happy, loving men and women.  Their life together is harmonious, free from jealousy and conflict.

            Then, one day, the tribe comes into possession of a strange object:  An empty Coke bottle carelessly thrown out by the pilot of a small plane.

            Knowing nothing about airplanes or litter, the tribe assumes the bottle is a gift from the gods.  The bottle is useful and beautiful.

            Soon trouble begins.  Each member of the tribe wants the bottle for himself or herself.  For the first time jealousy and envy are displayed.  Even though they try passing the bottle around, no one could stand another person having the cherished bottle.

            At last, one of the tribesmen comes to his senses and realizes what is happening.  Concluding that the gods were crazy to give them such a dangerous gift, he resolves to take the bottle to the edge of the world and throw it back to the gods.

            The rest of the movie chronicles his adventures.  As the film concludes, the tribe has returned to normal.

            The film seems to suggest that “things” cause all our problems.  But that interpretation really misses the point.

            What we really discover is that lurking within our souls are monsters like greed, jealousy, resentment, and envy just waiting to be awakened.  Those monsters dwell even in the hearts of those who seem to be the most innocent.

            --GAL 3:22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of  sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

            The "whole world is prisoner to sin" is an indictment of the entire world.         

            In December, 1996, speakers at the World Council of Churches' meeting in Brazil urged Western missionaries to stop their aggressive evangelism techniques because they were destroying indigenous cultures.  As a case in point, the speakers accused missionaries of destroying the native population of Hawaii.

            Such critics do not generally acknowledge the notion of the universality of sin.

            There’s a part of the story they don’t tell.  Hawaii was the first mission field in history where the missionaries voluntarily left because they believed the Hawaiians were ready to take over the work.  The Gospel is often embraced by these non-western peoples with enthusiasm.  The amazing success of the gospel in such cultures suggests that these peoples are keenly aware of their spiritual need.

            The Bible does not call us to deny the good in other cultures or to say that no virtue exists in non-Christian people.  It does demand that we identify sin as sin.  Paul spoke of sin as characterizing both Gentiles and Jews, thus avoiding charges of provincialism.

           

            EPH 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.   All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath).

            These verses open a passage in which Paul describes the work of Christ within the believer.  To underscore the wonder of God’s grace, Paul reminds his readers of their condition before Christ.

REFLECTIONS:

1. The Bible makes no distinction between peoples who possess the Law and those who do not--all are sinners.

2.  Almost every major world religion believes that something is wrong with the human race.  Even new age thinking recognizes that something is wrong, but it does not place it in a moral context.

3.  Honesty demands I admit that even if Adam had not fallen, I am probably fully capable of assuring the presence of sin in the universe.

            A few months ago I was out walking on one of those rare sunny days.  With the sun at my back, I happened to look down.  There, on the sidewalk in front of me, was my father’s shadow.

            When I look at my life in the light of God’s Word, I see Adam’s shadow.

CONCLUSION

            You and I, with nothing more than knowledge gleaned from a high school health class, know more about the spread of disease than the best-trained physician in the 17th century. 

            It would be centuries before science understood how the plague was spread.  We now know the disease was spread from the rats to their fleas and, in turn, to people.  So, when the doctors advised getting rid of the dogs and cats people kept to kill rats, they had no way of knowing that they were aiding in the spread of the disease. 

            Responding to the physicians’ inability to come up with an effective cure, the people tried to find some on their own.  We have a reminder of one of those ineffective cures in a children’s rhyme.

            The original version is a little different than the one we’re familiar with but you’ll recognize it.

Ring a ring of rosies.

a pocket full of posies;

Atisoo, Atisoo,

All fall down!

           

            “A ring of rosies (or roses)” refers to the rash which accompanied the disease.  “Atisoo” refers to the terrible sneezing that overcame the victim just before death.  The deadliness of the disease is recalled in the phrase “All fall down.”

            To what does “a pocket full of posies” refer?  It refers to the belief that a pocket full of flowers would ward off the disease.  It didn’t.

            There have been many foolish and useless attempts to deal with the pandemic we call sin. They have been as effective as a pocket full of wilted flowers.

            The Bible tells us there is only one effective way to deal with sin.  That is through faith in Jesus Christ whose death made it possible for us to experience forgiveness and salvation.