Doctrine 5: We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.
Doctrine 6: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His
suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever
will may be saved.
Doctrines 5 & 6 are an important expression of
our understanding of Salvation and what Salvation is all about… getting back to
the Garden. Last weekend we were blessed to be a part of the Summer Rain
Evangelistic Crusade here. Reinhart, Krista, Maryanne and others worked very
hard and long on this event. Thank you. It was a great success. We had 6 people
‘saved’ this weekend.
In the last session of the weekend, Major Stephen
Court led us in some great little tracts from www.the4points.com that give us in
point form what salvation is and why we need to be ‘saved’. This corresponds
nicely to Doctrines 5 and 6 of The Salvation Army.
Point 1: God loves me: God loves us: he
created us innocent, happy and pure (Doctrine 5)
Point 2: I have sinned: this is true,
Doctrine 5, as a consequence of the actions of our first parents, Adam and Eve
Point 3: Jesus died for me. Doctrine 6, the Lord
Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole
world so that whosoever will may be saved.
Point 4: I need to decide to live for Jesus. It is neat that last
weekend when we were all practicing sharing the gospel with each other in the
stands that one person did decide to live for Jesus – so these are proven to be
a good aid.
Today, like I said, we are going to look at
doctrines 5 and 6. Doctrine 5 again:
We believe that our first parents
were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost
their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall, all men have
become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath
of God.
This is our doctrine of Original Sin (or more
precisely originating sin) and that concept goes back at least to Irenaeus and
Augustine, based upon our text today. Reading again from Genesis 2:15-18:
15 The Lord God took the man and put
him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And
the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in
the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly
die.”
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good
for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 3:1-6
3 Now the serpent was
more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to
the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the
garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the
trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not
eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not
touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the
woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your
eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for
food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she
took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and
he ate it
And Genesis 3:21-24:
21 The Lord God made garments of skin
for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And
the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing
good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from
the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God
banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he
had been taken. 24 After he
drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and
a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree
of life.
Some people have explained salvation in terms of
trying to get back to the Garden. The idea of Salvation is certainly about people
and even all of creation returning to our full and proper relationship with God
our creator. In Revelation Chapter 22 it speaks about us being restored to the
presence of the Tree of Life and of God Himself.
Some people have asked do we need to be restored.
Why do we need to get back? Why are we punished for what Adam and Eve did? I
never ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge; how come I suffer the
consequences? I look at the consequences of Original Sin like this: Our lives
are affected by the choices of Adam and Eve, our original parents, in much the
same way that our lives are affected by the choices of our actual parents and
their parents before them. Adam and Eve were evicted and moved from the Garden
of Eden; therefore Cain, Abel, and Seth weren’t born in the Garden of Eden. I
was born and Susan and I were raised on Vancouver Island here – like Adam and
Eve were raised in the Garden. However Heather was born and our eldest two
daughters were mostly raised off the Island. We left the Island before
Sarah-Grace was one year old for our work with The Salvation Army. It wasn’t
sin that caused us to move away – like it was with Adam and Eve –but our
children had no more say over the fact that they were born and raised off the
Island than Cain, Abel, and Seth did that they were born out of the Garden. As
our children live with the results of our actions –both good and bad: a life of
serving the Lord but also growing up without family nearby – so we all live
with the results of our ancestors actions – not just moving from one place to
another – but the results of all kinds of choices they made: our parents, our
grandparents, and their parents, all the way back to our original parents. That
is why and how we are suffering the consequences of originating sin.
Walter Bruggemann, one of the foremost OT scholars
today, has noted that Adam and Eve’s perfect fear here cast out love (Genesis
3:10) and notes that as Jesus sets everything right, perfect love casts out
fear (1 John 4:18-20).[1]
The Bible also speaks about the way that we and our
parents can return to perfect love, to the Garden. In Genesis 15, through the
ceremony of the smoking firepot and the covenant with Abraham we are shown that
God will give up His Life (through Jesus Christ) as a consequence of our
transgressing our covenant with God and as this will lead to our salvation
insofar as Jesus will take the punishment for our sin. [2]
Doctrine
6 of
The Salvation Army reads: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His
suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever
will may be saved.
In The New Testament we are told a little bit about
this. A few people today have some scriptures to read for us:
·
Galatians 3:13: Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is
everyone who is hung on a pole.”
·
1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the
cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds
you have been healed.”
·
Romans 5:6: You see, at just the right time, when we were still
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
·
Romans 5:17-18: For if, by the trespass of the
one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who
receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness
reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one
trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act
resulted in justification and life for all people.
·
1 John 2:2: He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not
only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Again:
§
Galatians 3:13 says he became a
curse by dying on the cross
§
1 Peter 2:24 says that he bore
our sins and we are healed
§
Romans 5:6 says that he who was
righteous died for the unrighteous
§
Romans 5:17-18 says that Jesus’
death and resurrection reconciles us all; undoing Adam’s death and banishment.
And let me read from near the end of the Book of
Books here. Let me read from close to the conclusion of the concluding book in
this more than a Devine anthology. Revelation 22:1-5 speaks about at the end of
our age when God will come down with/from Heaven in the New Jerusalem and there
once again will be the Tree of Life, freely available to all of us:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of
life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2
down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river
stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every
month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No
longer will there be any curse [like Paul said in Galatians]. The throne of God
and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They
will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no
more night [Jesus is the Light]. They will not need the light of a lamp or the
light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign
for ever and ever.
Even though sin and death entered into the world through Adam and Eve and
we have been living life outside of the garden, Jesus is the light and he is returning and bringing in the new city,
back with Him the Tree of Life from the Garden.
Do you want to reign with God forever? Do you want to be in this city,
with the Tree from the Garden with no sin, no hate, no death, no deceit; where
everyone is honest and loving and serving our Lord? Do you want to? You can.
Salvation starts today and lasts forever.
Today, as you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and leader, you can be in
the Garden, in the City of God. If you would like to live forever in this
place, where there is no more pain, no more suffering, no more sin, no more
hate, no more death, no more deceit; where everyone is honest and loving and
serving our Lord, you can. All you need to do is ask. Jesus has done the rest.
Let us pray.
[1] Walter
Bruggemann, Genesis (Interpretation: Westminster John Knox Press,
1982), p 53
[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old
Testament wisdom for our world today, (Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010.
(c) The Salvation Army). Available on-line:
http://www.sheepspeak.com./ptl4covenants.htm
[3] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I:
Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 369.
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