Systematic Theology I 6
Fall 2015
Anthropology and Hamartiology — Lesson 4: The Results of Sin
I. The results affecting man’s relationship with God
Genesis 3:8-9 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
“The conclusion, therefore, is that of Augustine, who said that the heart of man was created for God and that it cannot find rest until it rests in his Father’s heart. Hence all men are really seeking after God, as Augustine also declared, but they do not all seek Him in the right way, nor at the right place. They seek Him down below, and He is up above. They seek Him on the earth, and He is in heaven. They seek Him afar, and He is nearby. They seek Him in money, in property, in fame, in power, and in passion; and He is to be found in the high and the holy places, and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit (Isa 57:15). But they do seek Him, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him (Acts 17:27). They seek Him and at the same time they flee Him. They have no interest in a knowledge of His ways, and yet they cannot do without Him. They feel themselves attracted to God and at the same time repelled by Him.”
– Herman Bavinck, excerpt from Our Reasonable Faith, pg 22-23
A. Divine displeasure
1. God is angry with sin.
Numbers 16:19-24 Then Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation. And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?” And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the congregation, Get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
Numbers 25:1-4 While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”
Isaiah 63:3 I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel.
Psalm 7:11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
John Gerstner: Does God Love the Sinner and Hate Only His Sin?
2. The wicked hate God.
Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me
3. The world is hostile to God.
Romans 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Al Mohler: The Way the World Thinks
4. The wrath of God remains on those who do not believe
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
“The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of that just sentence which He passes upon evil-doers. God is angry against sin because it is a rebelling against His authority, a wrong done to His inviolable sovereignty.” - AW Pink, The Wrath of God
Cautions:
1. God remembers mercy in His wrath
2. God’s wrath is not like human wrath
Question: How is God’s wrath different from human rage?
“God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil. God is only angry where anger is called for. Even among humans, there is such a thing asrighteousindignation, though it is, perhaps, rarely found. But all God’s indignation is righteous. Would a God who took as much pleasure in evil as He did in good be a good God? Would a God who did not react adversely to evil in His world be morally perfect? Surely not. But it is precisely this adverse reaction to evil, which is a necessary part of moral perfection, that the Bible has in view when it speaks of God’s wrath.” J.I. Packer, Knowing God, pg 151
B. Guilt: An “objective state of having violated God’s intention, and thus, being liable.” (Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 623)
Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
“You feel guilty because you ARE guilty. The guilt feelings are a warning that you have to attend to your relationship with God and stop doing what rebels against His will. … Yet pop psychology has succeeded in convincing many people that guilt feelings are always a bad thing. Supposedly, guilt feelings are a sign of an unhealthy psyche, and we are supposed to get rid of them at the first opportunity by pumping up our self-esteem. … The sad thing here is that this flight from guilt means not only a life of delusion, but a life of spiritual misery. If you are guilty, you are alienated from God, and you flee from Him. Then you are lonely at a fundamental level, because only God understands you deeply and can supply the deep fellowship that you yearn for.” – Vern Poythress, Feeling Guilty?
C. Punishment
1. Retribution: God gives sinners what they deserve.
Jeremiah 46:10 That day is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour and be sated and drink its fill of their blood. For the Lord GOD of hosts holds a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
Ezekiel 25:14 And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, declares the Lord GOD.
“It is worth observing how many biblical texts relate directly to the subject (of diving retribution). Throughout the Old Testament, the link between sin and calamity is regularly and explicitly emphasized on page after page. … Individuals, families, cities, and nations experience disease, military defeat, flood, famine, plague, exile, and death as a direct result of their rebellion against God. Divine retribution is also taught within the New Testament, albeit less frequently (see last paragraph of sec. 5 here). … If we are to recover an understanding of divine retribution which is faithful to Scripture, we must wrestle honestly and carefully with these biblical texts, not merely follow our current cultural presuppositions.” – Andrew Atherstone
Illustrations in Scripture:
The universal flood in Noah’s day
Judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah
Question: Where else in the Bible do we see retribution?
2. Divine discipline
Psalms 119:71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
Hebrews 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Proverbs 3:11-12)
“It says that God is disciplining us; He is teaching us and correcting us and transforming us. In other words, God has a purpose and a design in what is happening to us. God is the ultimate doer here. Heb 12:6 goes so far as to say, ‘[God] scourges every son whom He receives.’ Who is scourging? Who is whipping? (See Heb 11:36). God is. God is not a passive observer in our lives while sinners and Satan beat us up…God is not coming to His children late after the attack, and saying, ‘I can make this turn for good.’ That is not discipline. That is repair. It’s the difference between the surgeon who plans the incision for our good, and the emergency room doctor who sews us up after a freak accident. This text says, God is the doctor planning our surgery, not the doctor repairing our lacerations.” – John Piper, The Painful Discipline of Our HeavenlyFather
3. Death
Genesis 2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
a. Physical death: the separation of the body from the soul
Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (cf. Genesis 5)
Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment
b. Spiritual death: the separation of the entire person from God
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Isaiah 59:2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
Ephesians 2:12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
c. Eternal death: the extension and finalization of spiritual death
Matthew 25:41-46 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Revelation 20:10-15 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
II. The results of sin affecting the sinner’s person
John Samson: The Fall and Its Consequences
A. Enslavement: Sin becomes an enslaving habit
John 8:34-36 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Titus 3:3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Romans 1:24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves
“In this unregenerate, fallen state, man has no ability to do anything spiritually good. Man is a slave; he is in Satan’s prison house and does not have the key to get out.”
– Ernest Reisinger, Free Will and Man’s Four-fold State
“Everyone is a slave in the spiritual sense. We are either slaves to sin, which is our natural state, or we are slaves to Christ. The writers of the New Testament willingly declared their status as slaves of Christ.” – GotQuestions.org: What does it mean to be a slave to sin?
- Generally: man can keep himself from committing a specific sin, but he cannot keep himself from committing sin.
- Specifically: One sin leads to other sins of the same kind.
Illustration: Feeding a tiger cub.
Ephesians 4:19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
- Sequentially: One sin leads to another sin of a different kind.
Illustration: David and Bathesheba
B. A Deceived Heart: Sin causes man to believe lies about life and God
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?