Lesson 2

Where Does Sin Come From?

Genesis 2 & 3

 

If God created a world that was very good, what happened to it?  Why do we have so many problems today?  Why are there many places of the earth that are not beautiful?  Why do people treat other people so badly?

 

The Bible tells us a story that explains it all.  God put Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden.  The garden had many kinds of fruit and vegetables for them to eat.  Many kinds of animals lived in the garden, but Adam and Eve didn’t have to be afraid of them.  The couple was naked but felt no shame.  The couple enjoyed life.  They could do anything they wanted to except one thing.

 

In the middle of the garden were two special trees.  One was called the tree of life.  If Adam and Eve ate the fruit from this tree they would live forever.  The other tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  This was the forbidden tree.  God told Adam and Eve they must not eat the fruit of this tree or they would surely die.

 

Adam and Eve had many things to do in the garden.  They had plenty of fruit and vegetables to eat.  They did not need to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree.  But Satan wanted them to disobey God and eat the fruit.

 

Satan is God’s number one enemy.  God created Satan as a beautiful, good, and powerful angel.  But Satan rebelled against God.  Satan wanted to become greater than God.  Satan has always tried to get people to follow him and turn against God. 

 

Satan came into a serpent and used its body to talk to Eve.  Satan said,  “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

 

Eve said, “No.  God said we may eat the fruit from any tree except the forbidden tree.  God said we must not eat the fruit from that tree, or even touch it, or we will surely die.”

 

Satan said, “If you eat the forbidden fruit you will not die.  God knows that if you eat the fruit you will be like him and know about good and evil.”

 

Eve looked at the forbidden fruit.  It looked delicious.  When she thought about how the fruit might make her wise, she took some and ate it.  She also gave some to Adam and he ate it, too. 

 

Immediately their eyes were opened.  Adam and Eve saw that they were naked and felt ashamed.  So they took leaves from a tree and made coverings for themselves.

 

Vocabulary

Names

Satan

 

Other

treat (v)	plenty (n)
explain (v)	disobey (v)
couple (n)	enemy (n)
naked (adj)	rebel (v)
shame (n)	turn against
except (prep)	serpent (n)
forever (adv)	wise (adj)
knowledge (n)	immediately (adv)
evil (n)	ashamed (adj)
forbidden (adj)	covering (n)

1.  Did Adam and Eve have enough to eat in the garden?

2.  What did God tell Adam and Eve they must not do?

3.  What would happen to Adam and Eve if they ate the forbidden fruit?

4.  Does Satan want people to follow God?

5.  Why did Eve eat the forbidden fruit?

 

Then Adam and Eve heard God coming.  Before they had eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve had enjoyed talking to God.  But now they were afraid of him.  They hid in the trees because they didn’t want God to find them.

 

God knew where Adam and Eve were but he wanted them to come to him.  God called, “Adam.  Where are you?”

 

Adam said, “I heard you coming but I was afraid because I was naked.  So I hid from you.”

 

God said to Adam, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten fruit from the forbidden tree?”

 

Adam did not want to admit that he had done wrong.  He said, “You gave me a wife.  She gave me some forbidden fruit so I ate it.”

 

God said to Eve, “What did you do?”

 

Eve said, “The serpent deceived me so I ate the fruit.”

 

God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this you are cursed more than any other animal.  You will crawl on your belly all your life.  I will make you an enemy of the woman and all of her offspring.”

 

God said to Eve, “You will have pain when you give birth to your children.  And your husband will rule over you.”

 

God said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife and ate the forbidden fruit, the ground will be cursed because of you.  Weeds will grow and you will have to work very hard to make things grow.” 

 

Then God killed some animals and used the skins to make clothes for Adam and Eve.  Now Adam knew what sin was.  Adam had changed.  The whole world changed when Adam ate the forbidden fruit and brought sin into the world.  If Adam stayed in the Garden of Eden he could eat fruit from the tree of life and live forever.  God knew that it would be miserable for Adam to live forever in his sin.  So God made Adam and Eve leave the garden.

 

Vocabulary

admit (v)	rule (v)
deceive (v)	weed (n)
curse (n)	skin (n)
crawl (v)	sin (n)
offspring (n)	miserable (adj)

 

Questions

6.  Did Adam want to admit he had done wrong?

7.  Why did Eve say she ate the fruit?

8.  What would happen to Eve because she sinned?

9.  What did God tell Adam would happen to the ground because Adam sinned?

 

When Adam and Eve sinned they began to die.  All of nature began to die when sin came into the world.  From that time on people had to work hard to raise crops.  People got sick and had pain.  One by one every living thing died.  And today, thousands of years later, people and living things are still dying.  When sin came into our world, it made the world a very different place.  Sin was the thing that made everything begin to wear out. Sin makes people want to hurt other people.

 

Because Adam was the first man, he is the father of all people.  Because he sinned, every other person is born with a desire to sin.  Because of this desire to do what is wrong every person sins.  The Bible tells us that every person sins and does not please God.  No one can be good enough to please God.  (Romans 3:23, 10-13.)

 

But the news is not all bad.  Before God made Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden he promised something.  Adam and Eve had sinned.  They could not please God in their sin.  God knew every other person would sin, too.  God has to punish sin.  But God promised that someday Eve’s offspring would destroy Satan.  That offspring was Jesus.  One day God would send his Son Jesus to the earth.  Jesus would not have any sin of his own but he would die to take the punishment for the sin of all people.  God will forgive the sin of any person who is sorry for his sin and believes that Jesus took his punishment. 

 

The Bible says that because we are children of Adam, we die.  But if we believe in Jesus, he will give us new life.  (First Corinthians 15:22)

 

Vocabulary

raise crops	punish (v)
wear out	destroy (v)
desire (n)	forgive (v)
please (v)	sorry (adj)
news (n)	believe 9v)
promise (v)

Irregular Verbs

Present	Past	Past Participle	Future
Wear	Worn	Has worn	Will wear
Forgive	Forgave	Has forgiven	Will forgive