Old Testament

The Need for a Savior

THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT Jesus is the Savior of the world, but that raises an obvious question: Why do we need to be saved? What problem is so significant that God himself had to come to earth to solve it? The problem is sin, and that's the theme of our next five passages.

We'll begin by reading the account of "the first sin," when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. The idea of a talking serpent might seem comical to modern readers. Who's ever seen a talking snake? The reality of Satan and evil is not funny at all.

Next, we'll consider a classic example of how sin spreads from an individual to a community as we read how the people of Israel worshiped a golden calf. We can only imagine how different things would have been if Aaron had responded to the request for an alternative god by saying, "No way!" Simple though it may sound, just saying no is still a good strategy for avoiding sin today.

We'll finish the section by reading a few examples of what the psalmist and the prophets had to say about sin, and guess what? It's not positive; we'll come face to face with God's angry side. He doesn't like sin at all.

Some people wonder if all the talk about sin is unnecessarily negative. Doesn't it just make us feel guilty? Who needs that? Wouldn't it be better to focus on the positive themes in the Bible, like peace and love? Not really. Sin isn't something we can avoid, like a bad hair day, if we're careful. Instead, sin is more like a congenital heart defect; we're born with it.

The good news is that Jesus came to fix our sin problem. Before that can happen, we need to understand our problem. We need to understand why we need a Savior in the first place.

IT IS SIN!

PRAY: Lord God, I'm hungry for a closer relationship with you. Enable me to sense your presence as I reflect on your Word.

READ: Genesis 3:1-24

REFLECT: I grew up as the oldest of four children. That meant I was expected to be a good influence on my siblings. Sometimes it worked out that way, and sometimes, I had a different agenda. So when my mom reached the boiling point with me, she'd play her ultimate trump card: "If you do that again," she'd say with conviction, "it's sin!"

What exactly is sin, and where did it come from? That's the question this passage answers for us. Adam and Eve had a perfect life - no work, worries, and problems. All they had to do was obey one simple rule, and paradise was theirs forever (Genesis 2:16-17). It sounds easy, but it's not. Something about human nature draws us to disobey God's rules (Romans 7:7-25). As a young child, I stomped up the stairs holding my ears, shouting back at my parents, "If you say no, that means I have to do it!"

We tend to think sin is some obvious evil act, like murdering or stealing, and that's part of it, but the whole picture is more subtle and dangerous. Note that the serpent doesn't ask Eve to reject God. He questions God's authority (Genesis 3:1) and contradicts God's Word (v. 4). Honest questions and doubts can help us grow in our faith. Questioning God's authority or living in contradiction to what he says in the Bible is a different matter. That is sin.

Sin has consequences, as we see in this passage–shame (v. 7), fear (v. 10), pain (v. 16), and death (v. 19). The worst consequence is a broken relationship with God; we're banished from his presence (v. 23), doomed to live with a God-shaped hole in our hearts, and unable to reestablish a relationship with him on our own (v. 24). No wonder we need a Savior.

APPLY: How would you define sin? How do you deal with it in your life?

PRAY: Heavenly Father, it's hard to recognize and harder still to admit, but it's true: I need a Savior.