Sin - The Worst Disease Of All time!

It would be safe to say that most people wonder why others are affected by someone else’s sins. The best way to answer that question I believe is to explain it parabolically. One can liken sin to a football game. When one player jumps offsides, is that one player penalized five yards, or is the whole team? We know it is the whole team. Why? Because although the team is made up of many players, they are still one unit. The team wins and loses together.  The point I am making is that sin not only affects the offender, but it also affects everyone around us.

When Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the entire earth because of them. The tragic result of their disobedience is that all of their descendants would be born with the same sinful nature. God imputed the original sin of Adam to all of us (Romans 5:12). The Bible declares we all, that is mankind sinned in Adam. How? Because we were in the loins of Adam when he committed the sin. That makes us guilty by imputation. The sentence of that disobedience was death; death to all of mankind. That is how we know God’s word is true. Every time someone dies it should be a painful reminder of God’s promise to Adam and Eve that death was the penalty for disobedience. “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). At this juncture, someone would declare, “That’s not fair! Why should I be punished for something someone else did?” My reply to that is this, if we were in the garden and tempted by the serpent, we would have committed the same sin.  Here’s why. When Eve was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit, she was perfect. She had never committed any sin prior to that temptation. But, although Adam and Eve were perfect, they were temptable; and they fell into sin. We are sinful and imperfect. Every time we sin, we prove our rebellious nature and our solidarity to our first parents.

Why would God place the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden?

To this question, I will provide two answers. The first answer I will give is that God placing the tree in the garden is none of our business. God never has to provide answers for what He does.

The second answer is I heard one preacher say that God placed the tree in the garden to let Adam and Eve know that although God gave them dominion over the earth, they still had limits because they were human and could not do anything they wanted to do. Back to the writer’s commentary: They had to obey God. So right from the beginning, God was establishing law and order for mankind. Even before man fell into sin, God in His infinite wisdom deemed it prudent to put restrictions on man so that he would understand the need for submission and obedience to God. This was a healthy prohibition so that Adam and Eve could distinguish God’s word from an enemies’ word. They could determine truth from lies. God was testing their fidelity to Him.

Sadly though, they failed.

How can one get cured of this dreaded disease?

Jesus Christ is the only cure for this disease. Romans 6:23 tells us the wages of sin is death. But the gift of eternal life is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Just like a natural disease that spreads and can infect others, sin is a spiritual disease that infects and contaminates the soul of man. Without asking God to remove its deadly effects through genuine faith and repentance along with belief in Christ’s atonement on the cross, man will die not only physically, but spiritually forever separated from God (Matthew 25:46).

Here is the prescription for sin’s disease; Isaiah 53:5-6, “He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement that brought us peace was placed upon Him. By His wounds, we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon Him (i.e. Christ) the iniquity of us all."

Notice the terms, transgressions, and iniquities. Many in the church look at Isaiah 53:5 and conclude that verse 5 is making reference to physical healing which cannot be true. If that were the case, then every believer would have been divinely healed physically at the moment of conversion. No. Verse 5 is making reference to a divine relationship healing. When Christ was punished, bruised and hung on a cross for us, He healed the broken relationship we had with the Triune Godhead due to our sins. This was a spiritual healing. Our sins separated us from God (Isaiah 59:2). We were prior to our conversion cut off from God – completely. The Bible says we had no hope and were without God in the world (Ephesians 2:11-13).

Out of all the marvelous healings wonders and signs that Jesus performed while on the earth to clearly prove He was from God, all of those combined pales in comparison to the healing of one’s soul when they are forgiven of their sins. Jesus is still healing although He is currently not on earth; he is curing believers of sin’s disease, eternal death and replacing it with eternal life (John 3:16).

Sin is an infectious cancer that has no earthly cure. Until man realizes this problem in his life, he will never enjoy true peace. All man is doing now is trying to fix a spiritual problem with human solutions which he can never do. The natural man is spiritually dead in his sins (Eph 2:1; Col 2:13). Yes, he is alive on the outside, but dead on the inside because he is devoid of God’s spirit. And unless he receives the only cure available in Jesus Christ, he will never see life. Rather, the wrath of God will remain upon him (John 3:36).