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Bible Question: What
can you tell me about the sin-punishment-redemption motif in the Christian
religion?
Bible Answer: This
question will be answered in three parts.
Sin is the reason that Jesus Christ came to earth. Punishment is what
happens to those who reject Jesus. Those who believe that Jesus Christ
was God born in human flesh, died for our sins, returned to life,
and is the only One who can forgive our sins will be redeemed.
Sin.
Sin
first entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Modern writers
and ancient art depict Adam and Eve eating an apple. Actually, we
do not know what kind of fruit they ate. The furit is not important.
The act of disobedience was the problem. Sometime after Adam and Eve
ate the fruit, God called out to them.
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Then
the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where
are you?" [Adam] said . . . I was afraid because I was
naked; so I hid myself." And [God] said, "Who told
you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which
I commanded you not to eat?" (NASB) Genesis 3:9-11 |
The important statement is "commanded you not to eat." It
did not matter what the fruit was. God adds some information in Romans
5.
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Therefore,
just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death
through sin, and so death spread to all men . . . (NASB) Romans
5:12 |
Adam sinned (disobeyed
God) and as a result the entire human race became guilty of sin. We
are born into this world as sinners.
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For
as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners
. . . (NASB) Romans 5:19 |
We became sinners when Adam disobeyed God. The
proof that we are sinners is the fact that we sin all by ourselves.
We
prove that we are sinners when we do not want to obey God.
Punishment. When
Adam disobeyed God, he caused death to enter this world. Man was designed
to live forever, but when Adam disobeyed, he brought both physical
and spiritual death to all of us.
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