We’ve mentioned before how important it is to take sin seriously, while at the same time not feeling guilty for a forgiven past. That’s a tall order, so Think-Biblically.com decided to take a couple days to examine both those parts to our understanding of sin. Today we take part one: taking sin seriously. There is no better way to show the gravity of sin than to examine a real-life scenario, and there is no better real life scenario than the first sin found in Genesis 3. From this first failure of humanity we learn that sin changes everything.

Before the fall life was fairly simple. Adam and Eve were given a few jobs to do including naming the animals, tending the garden, having children, and reigning over Earth as God’s specially created rulers. Had things gone according to plan, the first family would have continued a special relationship with their creator and ruled an ever-expanding human race from the sanctuary of the Garden of Eden. This was their destiny, until they disobeyed God for presumed selfish gain. Their sin literally broke everything.

• Sin broke their relationship with God, separating them from the Creator in such dramatic fashion that thousands of years would pass before the relationship between God and humanity could be restored.
• Sin broke their perfect relationship with each other, as they attempt to lay blame for their sin onto someone other than themselves. Men aren’t from Mars and Women aren’t from Venus, sin simply erected a wall of hostility between the sexes.
• Sin broke their ability to trust their own sense of judgment, for once sin enters it taints our every thought.
• Sin broke their relationship with the animal kingdom, what once was peaceful turned into tooth and claw (thank you Lord Tennyson for the turn of phrase).
• Finally, sin broke their relationship with the planet as natural disasters threaten life time and again.

Sin broke our world in other ways as well, causing animals to take on predatory behavior toward each other, plants to be overcome by weeds, thorns and thistles, and all of nature became divided against itself. One sin caused millennia of death, destruction, disease and torment. That was one sin. Now imagine the impact every sin of just one life and I think you will begin to see just how serious sin is.

There are no “harmless” sins. Each one works to destroy our relationships – all of them -- at every level.

Remember this the next time you are tempted to compare yourself with the villains of history and proclaim that you are “not that bad”. Thankfully this is only the beginning of the story about sin and not the end. Things do get better from here, and we’ll uncover how… tomorrow.