Lesson 2 Study Notes
Like so many other ministries, the pandemic, COVID-19 interrupted what was our norm at the time. And so the restoration of our Sunday school and other Christian educational opportunities is what we are currently engaged in. I am doing this as a complement to those efforts here in our ministry. And so this is the second of four lessons that I am doing on the topic of Adam and Eve. Now, last time, I simply gave you the story of Adam and Eve. I outlined the narrative that you would find in the first book of the Bible.
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That would be the book of Genesis. And then the first chapter in Genesis, which would be verses 26 through 28. Now, I'm going to refresh your memory with those verses just a little later on in today's presentation as well. But as I promised you last time, in that first lesson, I simply wanted to tell you a story. In this lesson, I want to move just a little bit further and perhaps just a little bit deeper and help you understand that there are some distinct and perhaps even unique beliefs that we have as Christians in general, but Baptists in particular, that's based upon this story of Adam and Eve.
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And one of the reasons that I've taken the time to tell you the story of Adam and Eve is so that you might better understand and even appreciate the particular beliefs that we have that's based upon that story. So today, for the next few minutes, and we'll have study questions and discussion questions that will be available in this lesson a little later on. But today, I want to look at the beliefs we get from the story of Adam and Eve. It's more than just a story. It actually informs what we call doctrines, our theology, and I don't want to use language that's too deep here, but what it is that we believe about God, what it is that we believe about ourselves, what it is that we believe about Jesus, is greatly impacted and influenced by the story of Adam and Eve. So if you're ready, I'm ready to get started.
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So again, in terms of an introduction and an overview, I simply want to say that this is designed to connect some dots. We believe some particular things, but I hope to explain to you why we believe, what we believe based upon the story and watch this, the interpretation that we have to the story of Adam and Eve. The first item that I want to talk about is this whole idea of original sin. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, there was a psychological discipline that was being used a great deal. It was called a transactional analysis, and it was based upon the Rogerian approach to psychology. And it basically said, I'm OK, you're OK. And it was a very optimistic and positive leaning approach to life.
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Well, as Christians, we believe that there is something. Watch this. In our spiritual DNA that we came here with, that we're not OK. And you're not OK. Why? Because the act that I described last time performed by Adam and Eve created what we call original sin. Now, some might want to refer to that as the doctrine of original sin. So, one of the reasons you really have to understand the story of Adam and Eve is because when you go to church and you go to different places, maybe even conventions, and you hear this term, original sin, it's difficult to understand what original sin is if you don't know the story of Adam and Eve. It was the actions and the misbehavior of Adam and Eve that resulted in what we call
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original sin. Now, when we say original sin, friends, we're not being overly specific. been times in our history when people have tried to identify what that specific original sin was. We really can't say specifically what it was, but what we do know is that it had to do with their disobedience to God. God told them one thing and they chose to do something else. Now, why did they choose to do something else? It's because God gave them free will. He gave them the option and the opportunity to choose their own direction and path. And one of the things that we believe here in our church and that we believe here in our faith tradition is that we're not spiritual robots. God does not make us do particular things, but he gives us the choice. And so, original sin was the first time that Adam
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and Eve disobeyed God, and that remained a stain that separated God from man and man from God. Now, that's very important to understand, because when we get to the salvation story, you're going to come back to this original sin because salvation is the attempt to erase that original sin. So now here is the scripture that we've been using for this entire mini course on Adam and Eve and it's from Genesis 1 verses 26 through 28. I read it to you last time. I won't do it again, but I'm going to leave it on the screen for about 10 seconds for you to re-familiarize yourself with what the Bible is saying. The first story in the Bible, found in the first book in the Bible, found in the first chapter of the first
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through 28. Now, let's go back to this.
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You'll recall last time I said that Eve initially was deceived by the serpent and the serpent convinced her
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that what God said would happen would not indeed happen. And in the midst of confusion, and in the midst of being convinced by the serpent, she partook of the fruit from the tree of good and evil. Over the years, people have assumed that it was an apple, that that was the fruit that was eaten. We don't know exactly what the fruit was, but we do know that they consumed something that they should not have consumed. Initially, Eve did that. She shared it with Adam. And so, they were collectively guilty and responsible for not obeying the will of God. That gulf, that gap, that void,
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man would spend the rest of his days trying to erase and compensate for that distance and that separation between God and humanity. So what was the result of that disobedience? What was the result of that separation? Look, when God originally made man, he made him perfect. He made him intended to last forever, to enjoy eternity. But that would not last because of their disobedience, because of that term that I gave you just a few moments ago,
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original sin. And as a result of that original sin and that separation, two items became part of the human experience. One was sin. We were born in sin. We inherited the sin of Adam. And the second was death. Now, perhaps over time you've heard people say,
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we're born in sin and shaped in iniquity. Now, I know current popular culture doesn't necessarily agree with this, because we assume that we are good and then we learn to become bad. But this biblical foundation says that we're born with the stain of sin already on us because we inherited the sin of Adam. We actually refer to that as the Adamic sin or the sin of Adam. So nobody has to teach you to do wrong. Nobody has to teach you to be a backbiter, or any other negative behavior. We come here, we are born with the propensity to do evil and to do wrong because we have inherited which was Adam. And that results not only in the occasion of sin, but also death. Again,
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we were intended to live forever. And one of the things that we hope for eventually is to have eternal life. Now, maybe now you understand that when we talk about life after death and going to heaven and living forever, that is because of what was lost in the Garden of Eden. So when you hear people talk about living forever and seeing their loved ones later on, it is because of their understanding that one of the consequences and one of the blessings that was lost in the Garden of Eden was the arrival of death in the human experience. So both death and sin are the result of that original sin. But it's not only the personal behavior and immorality of the individual that was broken. Sin corrupted man's covenant not only with God, but God's covenant with his creation. So when we look at items like
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decay and suffering and disease and so many of the other societal ills that we come in contact with, it is a result of that broken relationship. So there is a broken relationship between God and what he created. So disasters and storms and hurricanes and suffering and famine, all of this is a result of the broken relationship between God and his creation. Yes, there is a broken relationship between God and man, but there is also a broken covenant and a broken relationship between God and all that God created.
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So, because of the fall,
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because Adam and Eve did not live up to their covenant, their original covenant with God, it resulted, put this down friends, it resulted in the fall. And that fall creates a need for salvation ever since. So if you can kind of picture in your mind that man pulls away from God, God pulls away from man, and that requires now for something to stand in the gap. And what stands in the gap is salvation an
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effort to bring man back to God and to bring God back to man and literally beloved the remainder of the Bible is Dedicated to telling you story after story after story of man's effort to get back right with God. Isaac and Jacob tried to get back right with God. Moses and David tried to get back right with God. Nehemiah tried to get back right with God. So that helps you understand, if you understand this story of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament, the first story in the first book, in the first chapter, it will help you understand why we have a Jesus in the New Testament. Now I'll talk about that in one of my other lessons, but there are a few terms here that I want you to be familiar with. One is incarnation. We believe in incarnation.
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We believe that even though Abraham tried to get back right with God, Isaac and Jacob tried to get back right with God, Joseph and Moses tried to get back right with God, David inherited that sin nature from Adam, they were never able to bridge the gap between God and man. And only God could do that himself. So the whole process, watch where I'm going, I know this gets a little complicated,
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but the whole process says no man could restore man back to God. Watch this. God became a man so that he, God, could restore man back to himself. Now, I know I just said a mouthful, and so I need to say it again. Since no man could restore the relationship between God
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and God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ so that man, that man, Jesus, could restore man back to God. And the process of God becoming a man for the purpose of restoring his creation back to himself is called incarnation. I want you to know that term. It's one of the things that we believe. It's Baptist.
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It's one of the things that we believe. It's Christians. Incarnation. It is the belief and the teaching that since no man could bring man back to God, God then became a man and brought man back to himself. The other term that I want you to know is this term atonement. Now, if you look at that word, it literally is three words, at-one-ment. No other human creature could bring man back to being at one with God. And so Jesus Christ. Incarnate God, God becoming man, becomes the means by which man becomes at one with God. And that is called atonement. So our belief in incarnation, that God has the ability to become a human, our belief that that human could bring God and man back together and put them at one is based upon this story of Adam and Eve because none of this would have been necessary
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if it had not been for man in the person of Adam corrupting his covenant with God and having a need to be redeemed and to be saved. So, friends, I close with this. There is no way for you to understand or even appreciate what we read in the New Testament, if you don't understand the Old Testament, you can't understand Matthew if you don't understand Genesis. The first story in the Bible is where it all starts. Well friends, that takes up just about all of my time and I certainly want to thank you for yours. I am enjoying this time of sharing these Bible basics with you and I pray that it is proving to be a blessing to you as well.
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these Bible basics with you and I pray that it is proving to be a blessing to you as well. I look forward to seeing you next time.