"Why do I get punished for Adam’s sin? That’s not fair. Adam and Eve sinned, and I get messed up for it, because now I have this sinful nature. Why do we have to get messed up because of someone else's sin?"
Answer from Pastor Daniel Kim at gracepointforums.org
"The answer to this can be very deep, but here’s just one aspect of it.
NATURE OF SIN
Unfairness is a part of the nature of sin. Let’s say suddenly, I go and slap you for no reason. And I say, I did that, because I don’t like your face. Now, probably you’re not going to come to church for a while, and maybe you’ll become bitter against God – why did you allow that to happen, God? By a Christian leader! And you might have to deal with that for a long time. Now, notice: I sinned, it was my choice to sin. But because of my choice, you got a raw deal. That’s the nature of sin. It’s relational, and it damages people.
What if I chose to raise my daughters in an awful way? What if I used them to steal things and manipulate people? It’s my choice. But think about the dire effect that it would have on their lives. They get a very unfair deal. Again, this is the nature of sin.
Well, what should God do then? Don’t allow people to ever sin! Don’t give them an option to sin or disobey God. But there are serious consequences to that request. Do you really want God to fix your choices so that you can’t possibly sin? So even if you want to hit someone, you just can’t. In fact, you can’t even have a mean thought, all your thoughts have been fixed to be always loving God. That will be the same as getting rid of your free will and making you into a robot. Well, you know that if you were wiped clean and made into a robot, then it’s the same as death. Not only that, in such a world, there won’t be any love possible. We would not be able to love God, because love has to be freely chosen.
So we want to maintain free choice. But some people propose to get around the problem by having God allow us to make free choices, but it won’t have any negative effect on other people.
But what will that look like? C.S. Lewis talks about this issue in his book The Problem of Pain. Let's say I want to punch you. And God will allow me to do that, because He wants to maintain free will. But my fist turns into a petal of flowers in mid-air, so that they don’t affect you. I want to say something mean to you. So I say it. But the sound waves, while traveling through the air, gets transformed by God to say something sweet. I give you a mean look, and God bends the light photons to a smile.
In this case, you would realize that your freedom is an illusion. You want to hurt people, but you can’t. You want to gossip and get back at someone, but you can’t. It’s like if I were to give my kids $5 to spend. I tell them it’s yours to spend. So they go and buy candy. I say, no! Not candy. I take the money from the store owner, give back the candy, and give the money to her again, and I say: it’s yours to spend. I give you free choice. So she buys the candy again. I say, “nope, not that.” And then give the money to her again, saying it’s yours to spend. It won’t take long before the kid figures out that this is not really money for her to freely spend. That’s the case with our sins. In order for our free choice to be meaningful, our free choice to sin must have its actual consequences.
So that’s the nature of sin. Yes, Adam and Eve’s sin had unfair consequences on you. But then again, when you lie, when you betray someone’s trust, your sins bring unfairness. It deals a raw hand to people. You’ve dealt that raw hand to lots of people, you’ve freely chosen to bring unfairness into people’s lives. Isn’t that true? How many people in our lives got dealt a raw deal because of our sins? That’s why God says to repent of our sins and sin no more, because it’s this damaging.
NATURE OF SIN
Unfairness is a part of the nature of sin. Let’s say suddenly, I go and slap you for no reason. And I say, I did that, because I don’t like your face. Now, probably you’re not going to come to church for a while, and maybe you’ll become bitter against God – why did you allow that to happen, God? By a Christian leader! And you might have to deal with that for a long time. Now, notice: I sinned, it was my choice to sin. But because of my choice, you got a raw deal. That’s the nature of sin. It’s relational, and it damages people.
What if I chose to raise my daughters in an awful way? What if I used them to steal things and manipulate people? It’s my choice. But think about the dire effect that it would have on their lives. They get a very unfair deal. Again, this is the nature of sin.
Well, what should God do then? Don’t allow people to ever sin! Don’t give them an option to sin or disobey God. But there are serious consequences to that request. Do you really want God to fix your choices so that you can’t possibly sin? So even if you want to hit someone, you just can’t. In fact, you can’t even have a mean thought, all your thoughts have been fixed to be always loving God. That will be the same as getting rid of your free will and making you into a robot. Well, you know that if you were wiped clean and made into a robot, then it’s the same as death. Not only that, in such a world, there won’t be any love possible. We would not be able to love God, because love has to be freely chosen.
So we want to maintain free choice. But some people propose to get around the problem by having God allow us to make free choices, but it won’t have any negative effect on other people.
But what will that look like? C.S. Lewis talks about this issue in his book The Problem of Pain. Let's say I want to punch you. And God will allow me to do that, because He wants to maintain free will. But my fist turns into a petal of flowers in mid-air, so that they don’t affect you. I want to say something mean to you. So I say it. But the sound waves, while traveling through the air, gets transformed by God to say something sweet. I give you a mean look, and God bends the light photons to a smile.
In this case, you would realize that your freedom is an illusion. You want to hurt people, but you can’t. You want to gossip and get back at someone, but you can’t. It’s like if I were to give my kids $5 to spend. I tell them it’s yours to spend. So they go and buy candy. I say, no! Not candy. I take the money from the store owner, give back the candy, and give the money to her again, and I say: it’s yours to spend. I give you free choice. So she buys the candy again. I say, “nope, not that.” And then give the money to her again, saying it’s yours to spend. It won’t take long before the kid figures out that this is not really money for her to freely spend. That’s the case with our sins. In order for our free choice to be meaningful, our free choice to sin must have its actual consequences.
So that’s the nature of sin. Yes, Adam and Eve’s sin had unfair consequences on you. But then again, when you lie, when you betray someone’s trust, your sins bring unfairness. It deals a raw hand to people. You’ve dealt that raw hand to lots of people, you’ve freely chosen to bring unfairness into people’s lives. Isn’t that true? How many people in our lives got dealt a raw deal because of our sins? That’s why God says to repent of our sins and sin no more, because it’s this damaging.
That’s the first part.
The second part to the answer is that the Bible makes it clear that it’s not on account of Adam’s sin that we are considered sinners.
ROMANS 3:23 says:
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” For all have sinned. In other words, we have sinned, and that is what makes us sinners.
Well, we say, I couldn’t help it. I have a sinful nature, and that sinful nature made me.
There’s truth in that. Because at a certain point, we have all recognized that sin, like some kind of addictive behavior or lust, takes on a life of its own, and you realize that you’re helpless. But when we say “my sinful nature made me do it,” is that actually true to your experience? I think we can wax eloquent about the doctrine of original sin, but I think a dose of "reality check" would be good here.
We can say, "I have a sinful nature, so that I can't help it." But is that true to your experience? Is it the case that you really really didn’t want to sin, but something just made you? Like some kind of possession of your body? Or did you actually want to? I think we all know that although sin has a life of its own, we did choose to sin. If I were to ask you to name one incident in your life where you were "made" to sin, you would be hard-pressed to name a single incident.
We want a clean answer - either it's completely my choice, or it's completely forced. But introspection into our own experiences tell us that the truth is a lot more subtle than just saying I have a sinful nature, so it made me do it. You and I know that there's a part of that decision where we chose, because we WANTED to, and therefore we are responsible.
For all have sinned, the Bible says. And I have to admit, yes, I have sinned. And I have to take responsibility over that."
ROMANS 3:23 says:
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” For all have sinned. In other words, we have sinned, and that is what makes us sinners.
Well, we say, I couldn’t help it. I have a sinful nature, and that sinful nature made me.
There’s truth in that. Because at a certain point, we have all recognized that sin, like some kind of addictive behavior or lust, takes on a life of its own, and you realize that you’re helpless. But when we say “my sinful nature made me do it,” is that actually true to your experience? I think we can wax eloquent about the doctrine of original sin, but I think a dose of "reality check" would be good here.
We can say, "I have a sinful nature, so that I can't help it." But is that true to your experience? Is it the case that you really really didn’t want to sin, but something just made you? Like some kind of possession of your body? Or did you actually want to? I think we all know that although sin has a life of its own, we did choose to sin. If I were to ask you to name one incident in your life where you were "made" to sin, you would be hard-pressed to name a single incident.
We want a clean answer - either it's completely my choice, or it's completely forced. But introspection into our own experiences tell us that the truth is a lot more subtle than just saying I have a sinful nature, so it made me do it. You and I know that there's a part of that decision where we chose, because we WANTED to, and therefore we are responsible.
For all have sinned, the Bible says. And I have to admit, yes, I have sinned. And I have to take responsibility over that."
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