The Enormity of Sin

Genesis 4:7: If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

If the first sin was disobedience and disregard to God’s word, the results of that sin were so terrible to cause further transgressions by the upcoming generations. The knowledge of good and evil had caused a lot of partiality in the family. The first example is where Eve saying that “I have acquired a man from the LORD” for Cain alone. She might have seen goodness in Cain and nothing in Abel. This is understood because Cain was given the responsibilities which were given to Adam from God. Cain was thought to be the heir. This knowledge of good and evil was not discerned properly. Cain was confident that God will accept him because of his status in the family. This is the reason why he did not give the first fruits. Abel desired God’s approval and that desire had pushed him enough to prioritize God above all his needs.

When Cain and Abel brought their offerings, God’s approval and respect was upon both Abel and his offering. There is no single person who God has approved based on birth or any other parameter than actions. That’s why in verse 7 God asks Cain to “do well”. If we do not act as per God’s desire, all our offering, suffering and earnings become wasted. In Psalms 14:1 we read that corrupt men deny God’s existence because they cannot do good deeds. This is the extremity of sin. Cain did a similar action by just denying God’s personal advice. For Adam, God gave a commandment, but to Cain it was a usable advice that Sin is waiting to consume and he should rule over sin. He simply ignored God’s advice and received condemnation.

The characteristic of sin is that it lies at the door to consume at any given opportunity. God says that if we are deficient in any of the good works, then sin comes forward waiting for the right opportunity to come and cause failure. God points to the problem to Cain which is anger and the facial display. God has also explained to Cain that this rejection is temporary but Cain’s anger created a permanent wound. We need to submit ourselves to God’s wisdom and disciplining. In Numbers 20:12, when Moses strikes the rock for water, the Lord condemns Moses by saying that you did not believe me. When anger came, faith was lost. The next thing that was not done is Holiness to the Lord’s name.

In many stages of life, our small failures cause sin to approach us. During this time, God wants us to rule over sin. This was the initial stage where Sin should be mastered upon. But, now we are in a much worsened earth where sin tries to be a master. In Romans 6:14 Paul advises not to give dominance to sin. We are 2000 years after this verse and we need to understand how sin has taken over the earth. Man after his initial sin, got another opportunity where he could have dominated sin. But Cain’s failure made sin dominate us. Remembering that God cursed the serpent and not Adam and Eve, we should understand the seriousness of sin one after the another which can cause God to say “you are cursed from the earth”. This was much more unbearable than Adam and Eve.

We can see Cain’s family grow with many skills but nowhere it is written how many years they lived which show how God counts a person’s lifetime. But in the next chapter in whole every person’s lifetime is clearly explained. We can see a few names repeating like Enoch and Lamech. These names clearly state how closely related these families were. Even the skills were learned by Noah’s sons so that they are still present until this date. But, Noah even though he was living so close with evil men, he was perfect in his generations. In 4:26 we see that men started calling the name of the Lord. But even this worship did not help anywhere in building righteousness. The Lord saw the wickedness and the evil intentions of the heart and He was sorry and grieved. We always believe that God already knew that man would fail. If God had already known our deeds, He would not grieve. Our actions are not defined by God. But God is very much grieving whenever we fail to fulfill His desires.

It was one single sin that initially started where God was a little upset and gave some punishments to man. But man allowed sin to grow and master him which led to a state where God says that “he is just flesh”. Man lost his original qualification which is a “living being”. Sin always explodes easily if we allow a little bit of sin to succeed. Sin is so severe that God was forced to send His only begotten Son to earth so that we could be redeemed.

Amen.