Bible Study: The Law of Sin and Death

8/22/2021

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"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." - 1 Corinthians 15:56

The Law of Sin and Death is, essentially, the doctrine of sin. The question is: what is sin? Where did sin come from? Is there an end to sin, or will sin exist even in heaven or in eternal life?

In order to answer these questions and really establish a foundation for teaching the doctrine of sin, we must also look to the doctrine of humanity.

What you must understand is that the only thing that makes logical sense is that humanity must have a divine origin. It is the only way to explain the vast complexity of what makes us human beings -- who are infinitely more intricate and detailed than even the very universe we live in.

I mentioned this in the first lesson within our series, but it merits worth mentioning again. It is important to understand that we are God’s highest form of creation (Consider reading Psalm 139:14).

The Doctrine of Humanity

Humans are both natural (or physical) and spiritual beings. We find this in Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

In this verse, the scripture uses three terms to describe the origin and essence of humanity.

The body, which was formed by the hands of God out of the dust of the earth.
The spirit, which was made manifest in Adam when God breathed into him the breath of life.
The soul, which was created by the breath of God, and united with the body.

Now, let us look at these three aspects of man more in-depth:

The body was formed from the dust of the ground. The term “ground” in Hebrew, is adamah, which means red earth, and it is where Adam's name comes from.

This magnificent body that our spiritual being dwells in -- for a time -- will return to the earth upon our death (Genesis 3:19, Job 10:9, 34:15, Ecclesiastes 12:7).

Now, the human spirit is given directly from God. In Adam, it was the very essence that opened his eyes and expanded is lungs in order for him to breath. This is why we live by the principle that upon death every human being will return to the One who gave it life (Ecclesiastes 12:7, James 2:26).

It is the human spirit that the scriptures refer to as the “candle of the Lord” (Proverbs 20:27). And it is what becomes lit by the Spirit of God at the New Birth. In other words, the human spirit is the chamber (or room) in which the Holy Spirit desires to make His dwelling place, His home.

Finally, the soul is the actual person that was/is created by the union of the human spirit -- which came from God at the point of breathing into the nostrils -- and the human body that comes from the dust. Hence, “man became a living soul.”

It is the body that returns to dust upon death. The spirit, however, returns back to the One that gave it life (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Furthermore, it is the soul that lives on after death.

Now, depending upon the spiritual state of the person at death, he or she will either go to hades (unrest) or paradise (rest) in order to await the resurrection and final judgment. With that said, it is the soul that makes up the actual person, his or her essence or personality, if you will.

I said it in the last lesson, but I will say it again: You are a not a human being who might have a spiritual experience every now and then; you are a spiritual being having a human experience.

The Fall of Man

Now, there is more that can be said about the doctrine of humanity, but I want to take this time and fast-forward a bit to what we call the fall of man. At the original state of humanity, before the Fall, God created humans in His image and likeness giving them qualities that He, too, possessed.

But God, in His infinite wisdom and omniscience, knew that Adam and Eve would sin. Therefore, He included in His plan a Savior and Mediator to redeem humanity from the horrible results of their moral failure when they improperly managed the qualities that God gave them.

God created humanity in His likeness at the same point when He created them in His image. In other words, at the same time He gave man a human spirit.

With that said, the fall of man, and sin in all its “sting” could never be stronger than the love of God (Romans 8:39) towards His creation. In other words, not even the curse that came from the Fall could succeed in removing this aspect of the human nature.

You see, humans are, by origin, spiritual beings. You are a spiritual being just as God is a Spiritual being (John 4:24). It is the human spirit that is linked or connected to the Spirit of God.

In addition, God created man in His moral likeness, which is more commonly known as holiness or righteousness. Understand this: Adam, at his original state, was not only made innocent, but created holy as well.

Moreover, despite humanity’s fallen state, there is still a hint or trace of this original morality still evident in the human conscience. In other words, it is still man’s innate desire to do right before God -- we were made aware of this in our last lesson. And the Apostle Paul speaks of this desire in Romans chapter 7.

Finally, it is important to understand that God created humanity with a human will or a power of choice. What is interesting is before the creation of man, when we look to the doctrine and origin of Angles, we find that God apparently gave this power of choice to some angles as well, or the fallen angel Lucifer would have never made his choice to rebel and influence one-third of the angels to side with him (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6, Revelation 12:4).

So understand this, God knew what He was doing when He gave this power of choice (or human will) to Adam. With that said, God, being omniscient and knowing that Adam would sin, prepared a plan of salvation for fallen humanity before He ever created Adam (1 Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8).

With all of this understood, we now know that sin originated with Lucifer, and he was expelled from Heaven for it.

To understand what transpired in the Garden of Eden, between Eve and the serpent, we must understand that Adam and Eve’s “innocence” did not mean that they were created like small children. No, they were created with a high, mature intelligence and moral nature like that of God Himself.

Moreover, they had the mental power to make choices on a conscious and intelligent level toward either right or wrong. In other words, they had a conscience, which is where human intellect, sensibility, and will abound.

With that said, they did not lack the moral knowledge or the ability to perceive that disobedience would ultimately destroy their status and relationship with God.

Neither did they lack the ability to resist the temptation given by the serpent. In short, they had the power to make a moral choice in full maturity and moral conscience.

The Scriptural Record of the Fall

Adam and Eve (Humanity) fell from their original relationship with God through disobedience (Genesis 3:6, Romans 5:12, 1 Timothy 2:14).

What is sin?

In short, it is disobedience to the will of God. It is rebellion against His positive and nurturing commands.

The sin (disobedience) that resulted in the fall of man was of their own free will, just as all sin is. It involved denying the divine will of God and choosing the human will as superior to God’s.

It was the deliberate overstepping of boundaries laid out by God that was an affirmation of rebellion against God and a conscious lack of disbelief in His Word.

The same elements that tempted Adam and Eve were the same elements that Satan attempted to use against Jesus in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11), and are of every temptation since (1 John 2:15-17).

Death That Came Out of the Fall

When God prohibited Adam from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

Notice what God said. He didn’t say, “if” you eat. He said, “In the day that thou eatest…” as if it was inevitable. It was a matter of when, not “if”.

As a result of Adam’s sin (disobedience), Adam died and death came upon his descendants (you and me). It was Paul who said in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death…”.

Paul understood the magnitude of this death that entered into the world at the point of the fall. This doctrine of death is threefold:

Physical death. This kind of death is the separation of soul from the body. Through this death, sickness and disease entered into the world. And because of Adam’s sin, he was refrained from the tree of life (See Number 16:29, Isaiah 38:17-18, Romans 5:12-14, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). And since a day is as a thousand years to God (2 Peter 3:8), we can see that Adam died physically on that very day that he sinned (Genesis 5:5).
Spiritual death. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. This type of death was immediately felt by Adam when he ate of the forbidden fruit. The sense of guilt, pain of conscience, loss of peace of mind, and sorrow of heart all came from spiritual death -- the separation of the presence of God (See Matthew 8:22, Luke 15:32, John 5:24, 8:51, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2: 1 and 5, 1 Timothy 5:6, James 5:20, 1 John 3:14). This is the kind of death Christians are immediately resurrected from (John 11:26) at the New Birth, and as a result will never suffer eternal death (Revelation 20:6).
Eternal death. This kind of death is the ultimate conclusion of spiritual death (Matthew 25:41). It is everlasting separation from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power (2 Thessalonians 1:9). It involves judgment upon the body and soul of the unrepented sinner (Matthew 10:28, Revelation 14:11). It is also called the Second Death (the first being physical death), into which death and hell are cast (Revelation 20:14).

The consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin are drastic and are far-reaching across the entire human race. Man, woman and even creation are affected by it (Genesis 3:16-19).

All Have Sinned and Fallen Short of the Glory of God

Paul said in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

Here are the facts: While there may be a difference between people and the degree or nature of their sin, the fact remains, ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Moreover, Paul was wise to make clear that neither Jew nor Gentile have met God’s standard of holiness throughout life. For it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one" (See Psalm 14, Isaiah 53:6, and Romans 3:9-10, 22-23).

The scripture is clear and plain, Adam chose to reject the sinless nature of obedience to God, and instead, chose the sinful nature of disobedience, and because of this, passed on this curse to all of humanity. Talk about an unwanted inheritance.

As Romans 5: 12 indicates, by ONE man, sin entered into the world, and by that ONE man, we have ALL been made guilty before God.

No one is able to save himself from this curse. Even when Moses came on the scene and the Law was presented to us (humanity) we were still unregenerated and held captive to sin. And, again, this is what Paul was trying to explain to the Jews when they were focusing their faith on their own works.

With The First Adam, Sin & Death Did Enter into the World, But…

What I have just shared with you is the “Bad News."

Now, I would like to share with you the “Good News”: For by One man (the First Adam) we were ALL born INTO sin. Likewise, by ONE man (the Last Adam) we have been given the ability to be born FREE from sin.

In other words, where we "fell" short (and it was a LONG fall, to say the least), someone came to catch us (humanity) and pick us back up.

Understand this: There are many out there who refer to Christ as the "Second Adam", but the truth is that this term is no where to be found in scripture. What is in scripture, though, is the term "the last Adam", which is found in 1 Corinthians 15:45, and reads like this: "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit."

The reason I bring your attention to this truth is because, by referring to Christ as the "Second Adam", that statement or phrasing implies that their could be a third or a forth, or even a fifth.

But we know that there is not another coming after Him. There is only ONE Mediator. And only Christ is able to liberate humanity from the bondage of sin.

You see, before the Supreme sacrifice, and from the moment of the Fall, there was a separation between God and humanity. God, in all His holiness, could not fellowship with man (humanity) in all his unrighteousness. There was a chasm made between us.

However, from the point of the Supreme sacrifice, and as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:39, there is NOTHING that can separate from the love of God. If you have ever wanted to know and understand what the "love of God" is, it is the image of what our Lord did on the Cross.

And that is exactly what He does through the power of His Spirit when we obey the gospel (the Death, Burial, and Resurrection). You see, Jesus died in order to make us free. This is what Paul refers to as The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1-2), which is what we will cover next time.

Now Over to You

Now, we have covered a lot in this article, but now I want to take this time and encourage you to subscribe to our monthly Bible Study Blog and Newsletter so you never miss a beat.

Plus, when you subscribe today, you'll also be given access to a complimentary digital copy of our booklet, "Etiquette: For Apostolic Christian Writers." If you have ever felt called to the Writing Ministry, in any way, then this resource is for you.

Now, I ask you to consider the following questions:

What is The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus?
What is this thing that "hath made us free from the law of sin and death"?
What is this thing that now delivers us from all condemnation?
What is this thing that now cultivates our spiritual mindedness into life and peace?
And, finally, despite our body (or flesh) being dead because of sin, what is this thing that now gives us life because of righteousness?

These are the things that we will cover next time.

Until then, share your thoughts on this lesson in the comments below. I look forward to reading your insights.

William Ballard, MBA
William grew up in church (within the Assemblies of God), but around the ages of 16 to 18, he backslide -- essentially turning his back towards God. However, God never turned His back towards him. As God continued to work on William's heart, the Spirit of God eventually led William to a small Apostolic church in Durant, Oklahoma. It was there that he was introduced to this wonderful Truth -- the Oneness of God and this New Birth experience. William was baptized in the only saving name of Jesus Christ in February of 2007, and in December of that very year the Lord baptized him with Holy Ghost -- with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance.

It wasn't long after that, in the year of 2008, that William felt the call of God on his life to ministry. William has faced a number of battles since his New Birth experience, much heartbreak and despair, but it has only made his ministry that much more powerful and affective for the Kingdom. Many prophesies have been spoken into William's life, and William has been anointed with the heart of a teacher. With that said, his heartbeat is lost souls, and his mission is to teach the message of Jesus of Christ to a dying world -- providing hope wherever possible!

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