Here are the full sermon notes for my talk on the Fall and God’s judgement. It’s a big topic and I prepared rather a lot, but I hope there’s some helpful material in here!

Introduction

Welcome to the fifth week of "Mapping the Infinite", a series where we're "looking deeper into God". Over this series, we're going through the basic doctrines of Christian theology.

The word "theology" comes from theos, meaning "God", and logos, meaning "word", and basically means "talking about God". Theology isn't just for pastors, academics or geeks, but something that all Christians do, whether we refer to it as "theology" or not.

The point of theology, of talking about God, isn't to fill our heads with knowledge and ideas. The point is not just to know about God, but to actually know God personally. The point is to love him more, and to grow in faith, hope and obedience. This involves our mind, seeking and learning truth, but also involves our will, acting on the truth in obedience, and our emotions and desires, not just believing the truth, but loving God who is truth.

Theology isn't a set of propositions, either. The Bible tells us about God through what he has done – that is, through stories, true stories. So over this series, we're also following the storyline of the Bible through, from beginning to end. It might help, then, to summarise the story so far:

The Story So Far

From before the beginning…
God is – trinity!
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
One God, in three persons, in relationship.
A community, a family, a dance
of peace and joy and love.
Glorious!

How do we know?
Is this just speculation?
Imagination? Falsification?
No! God speaks – revelation!
The Father reveals himself
who He is, what He's done
by the Spirit, through the Son
to us, for his glory. Amen!

And what does he reveal to us?
In the beginning,
the love of Father, Spirit and Son overflows:
God makes – creation!
The master artist
makes life, the universe and everything.
Full of meaning and purpose.
God makes not-God,
for him to show his glory,
for him to show his love.
And God says it's good.

What next?
The peak, the pinnacle,
the pièce de résistance.
God is love, always loving,
"So God created man, in his own image;
In the image of God he created him.
Male and female, he created them."
He made humanity,
like him, with rationality, morality, creativity.
To love and to be loved,
to join the dance of God,
to the praise of his glory.

And God said, it was very good.

What went wrong?

But this seems a far cry from the world we see around us. We just have to turn on our televisions to be bombarded with images of war and disaster, suffering and injustice, death and disease, wrongdoing and evil. If we believe the headlines, then if the Credit Crunch doesn't get us, then a global flu pandemic will. We just have to look back to recall countless horrors – The Boxing Day Tsunami. 9/11. The Holocaust. The list just goes on and on. What's gone wrong with the world?

But it isn't just the world at large that's broken. In our own daily experience , we know the heartache of failure, the sting of suffering, and the agony of loss. As time marches on and our lives slip away, we feel the ache of decay and see death all around us, creeping ever-closer. What went wrong with our lives?

It is not just what happens to us, but also what is done by us. If we look inside ourselves, to our well-meant plans and best intentions, we see how often they come to nothing. We find it all too easy to pass by on the other side, to simply not care about others. We find ourselves capable of cruelty and selfishness, more than we dare to admit to ourselves, let alone others. What went wrong with us?

Some might say this is just the way it is, just the way has to be, just the way it always will be. But we all have a sense that this is not the way it ought to be. We all long for a better world. We all have an inkling that somehow, somewhere, something has indeed gone terribly wrong.

People suggest all kind of solutions : money, education, freedom, government, recycling, spiritual enlightenment, science, technology. But we need to correctly diagnose the problem to have a chance of discovering the cure.

But the Bible gives us the answer , revealed to us by God. Let's turn to Genesis 3. This is the story of what went wrong.

The Story: Genesis 3

There are three introductory remarks I want to make about this passage. Firstly, it's a true story. Secondly, it's a story about us. And thirdly, it's a story about God.

A story that happened

This story is true. It is not a mere parable or myth, or a just-so story – "How the snake lost its legs", perhaps. Christians disagree on precisely how literally to take the early chapters of Genesis – you don't necessarily have to believe in an actual talking snake, for example.

To understand what this passage is saying and how it is saying it, it might be helpful to compare it to another story, one told in 2 Samuel 12 : David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, murdering her husband Uriah to cover it up. The prophet Nathan came and told David the story of a rich man who stole the one little ewe of a poor man. David was furious – and then Nathan revealed that David was that man. David didn't start arguing about whether he had stolen an actual literal lamb. No, he got the point – he realised the depth and horror of his sin, and repented.

Nathan's story is a story about a real, historical event, told symbolically. Its purpose was not to give a documentary retelling of the exact events, but to convict David of his sin. In the same way, the story of the Fall, while representing a real historical change in humanity's relationship with God, may well be told through a layer of symbolism.

We need to take seriously the question of how the Bible fits together with what science tells us. I f we believe the Bible to be true, to be inspired by God, then we should expect it to fit with reality around us. Many people reject Jesus because they believe science has disproved the Bible. We need to be able to show that there's no real contradiction between the Bible and the evidence of the world around us. I've included some notes and further reading on the Fall and science in the handout.

But all this is not the main point we're meant to take away from this story. The main point is to confront us with the state of our own hearts.

A story that happens

But what does this story have to do with us? Is it just some distant historical event? No, because it happened back then, it happens in our lives every day. The story of the Fall is repeated in our hearts and lives every single day, moment after moment, as we turn away from God in sin. This story describes us. This is our story.

A story about God

Thirdly, the story is about God. Compared to the first few weeks of this series, the focus does shift a bit more to our role – and boy, do we make a mess! But the whole Bible is all about God, and the story of the Fall shows us God's glory and grace, both in judgement and mercy.

When I agreed to preach this sermon, I had in my head all sorts of intellectual ideas about the Fall and science, the Fall and suffering and so on. But in preparing it, I've been deeply challenged. Reading Genesis 3 has helped me realise that I am so often far too complacent about my own sin, about the brokenness of the world around us, and about the reality of God's judgement.

God has really spoken to me about my sins, and challenged me on them, in some cases quite specifically. I haven't got them all beaten, but by God's grace I've started to take more seriously the task of tackling them.

My prayer is that by looking at this story we will be moved to deeper sorrow for our sin, to a greater compassion to those suffering the effects of sin, to a right fear of God's judgement, and to a heightened gratitude for God's grace. I pray that I will preach the Bible faithfully, and God will take my words and speak to you now.

The Problem: Sin

What is sin?

Our culture's view of sin

Most people in our culture misunderstand sin. Two common misconceptions:

• Doing really bad stuff, like rape and murder
• Trivial self-indulgence such as eating chocolate. "So good, it's a sin"

Both of these let us off the hook – we think that we're fine because we're not like those terrible people, or we think that sin isn't really that serious, but is just a bit of fun.

Understanding the background

To grasp the horror of sin, we to remember the background, all the things we've been hearing about over the last few weeks. We also need to try and shake ourselves out of our own selfish perspective on things, and try and look at the Fall from God's point of view.

We need to understand:

• The glory of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit overflowing in love, beauty and goodness.
• The goodness of God's creation, of all that he gave Adam and Eve to enjoy.
• The dignity with which he created us, in his image, for relationship with the living God.

We need to understand God's standard of goodness. Jesus summed up the Law as:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:37-40

Righteousness is a life directed outwards in love for God and for other people , in reflection of the overflowing love of God within the life of the trinity. He made us for worship, to know and love and enjoy and serve him forever. This is how we find true life and happiness and fulfilment, because God is the source of all these things.

As we take a closer look at the Fall, try to think how you would feel if you were God. How would you feel? What would you do?

The anatomy of a sin

1 – Sin distorts and denies God's word ("any tree?", v1)

God doesn't just happen to be truthful, but he is Truth, and true to us. He is the ground of all reality and the source of all truth. And he isn't just Truth in abstract, but faithful and true to us. How terrible, then, to deny him!

Also, Eve adds to what God has said – "You must not even touch it". Setting boundaries to keep us from sin can be helpful – the problem is when we confuse our man-made fences with God's law. Legalism is dangerous because it leads us to reject both our own fences and God's genuine commands.

2 – Sin denies God's judgement ("You will not surely die", v4)

All sin involves a denial of the consequences. When we sin, we say by our action that we think we can get away with it, that God doesn't really care, that he won't establish justice and rule rightly.

3 – Sin denies God's goodness ("God knows…" v5)

God doesn't just happen to be good, but is Goodness itself, and is good to us. Morality finds its definition in the life and character of God, in the self-giving love of the trinity. He had lavished great gifts on Adam and Eve, and he continues to pour ot blessing on the just and unjust alike. Sin is an awful betrayal of His overwhelming goodness.

Look at how Satan deceives here: one of the evil one's most common lies is that the boundaries God puts in place are to stop us enjoying his gifts, rather than to enable us to enjoy his gifts.

For example, saying that sex is a good gift given by God for marriage is seen by out culture as being anti sex. But God isn't out to spoil our fun, but to give us greater enjoyment.

Sin is only ever attractive in the short-term; in the long term, God's way is always best. Are we really convinced that God's way is the best way? Are we really convinced that the happiest life is the life lived for God? Perhaps there's somewhere in your life where you can hear him whispering this lie. Look to God, he is good.

4 – Sin makes false promises ("You will be like God…" v5)

The snake's promise is partly true and utterly deceitful. Adam and Eve do gain a knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:22), but their knowledge comes through the experience of sinning, rather than God's perfect, sinless knowledge of good and evil.

Philip Pullman suggests in his fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials that the story of the Fall shows that God wanted to keep Adam and Eve in ignorance. He praises Eve for eating the fruit as "the first scientist", and says that "innocence is never wise, and wisdom never innocent".

But although Adam and Eve were created sinless, they were not created mature. Had they not Fallen, they would have grown in knowledge and wisdom and learning, yet without sin. Moving into speculation, perhaps if they had they refused the snake, then God would have said "The time has come – you have chosen life. Now, reach out, take the fruit, eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". Adam and Eve's knowledge would have come from rejecting evil and choosing good, not from choosing evil and rejecting good.

5 – Sin elevates God's gifts to an idol (v6)

Sin would have us believe that we can enjoy God's gifts without God. God made us for worship, and if we don't worship God, we will worship something else. Worship is giving worth to someone or something. True worship is saying "Worthy is the Lord God almighty!" – God is what gives us the greatest pleasure, he is our highest delight. That doesn't mean we don't enjoy other things – happiness, family, food, success – but we enjoy them as gifts from him, rather than ends in themselves. And we can enjoy them more as Christians because we know the giver.

But all our actions give worth to something. We are told that the woman saw the fruit was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom. By taking it, she gave greater worth to her stomach, to her desire beauty, and to her desire for wisdom. All of those are good in their place, but became wicked when they were worth more to her than God, leading her into disobedience.

6 – Sin denies Godly responsibility and relationships (v6)

The Fall is a turn away from responsibility and relationships. Adam was there all along, silently. We have a complete inversion of the created order – rather than God at the top, served by Adam, helped by Eve, ruling over creation, we have the snake tempting Eve, who gives the fruit to Adam, in rebellion against God. We are told in verse 13 that the woman was deceived by Satan, but it seems that Adam had no such excuse.

God made us for each other, to love and care for one another. He entrusts us with responsibility, a relationship of care towards others. When we sin, and when we ignore the sins of those around us, we are refusing to take care of those people and things God has entrusted to us.

In eating of the fruit, Adam and Eve were turning away from God and seeking to determine good and evil for themselves. At the heart of every sin is the self turned inwards: "homo incurvatus in se", a metaphor that goes back to Luther and to Augustine. Sin includes our actions and inactions, our intentions, thoughts, desires and emotions – all of these can express our turning away from God, to idols and to our own self.

7 – Sin devalues God's supreme worth (v6)

God doesn't just happen to be beautiful, but is Beauty itself, and is beautiful to us. True worship is delighting in God, not just singing songs out of habit or duty, but taking a deep pleasure in God, because he is the most deserving of praise and adoration in existence. He is more good, beautiful and true than anything else. He deserves our whole-hearted love, praise, adoration and obedience, and we find our true happiness in worshipping him.

8 – Sin betrays God's love

Sin is not about disobeying some impersonal code of conduct. Sin is a turning away from loving relationships, the self turning into itself. Sin is the deliberate and malicious betrayal of the greatest being in existence, who by some miracle of grace loves us deeply. Sin is the rejection by man of the one who made man to know and delight in him.

Sin doesn't just break God's rules; sin breaks God's heart.

How does this affects us personally?

Because Adam and Eve ate of the fruit back then, we now live like this every single day.

Genesis 5:1-3:

When God created man, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them "man". When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image.

Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but we are now born in the image of Adam.

Feel the weight of this: Adam is your Father. Eve is your mother. Like father, like son. Like mother, like daughter.

We born as a copy of a spoiled copy of God, all of us inclined to sin, none of us free from its power.

It's like someone took a photo of me, scrunched it up and tore it, and then photocopied it. You can still make out bits of the original picture, but the whole thing is spoiled.

This is known as original sin. We all inherit a natural inclination to turn to sin, and away from God. David says in Psalm 51:6, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Psalm 58 speaks of the wicked being wayward even while still in the womb. Ephesians 2 says we were "dead in our transgressions and sins… gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."

Sin deprives us of freedom from sin and freedom from misery. Sin does not deprive us of free will – we still have the ability to will and to choose, but we now want to go our own way. We are all from birth, by nature and by choice, sinners, deserving the wrath of God.

Sinful responses to sin

How do Adam and Eve react?

• Sew fig leaves – try to cover up their sin with their own efforts, v7
• Hide from God in the bushes – v8

These reflect the two basic ways in which we respond to sin:

• Being religious – seeking to appease God through our own efforts
• Being a 'sinner' – ignoring and running from God's rules

If you are a sinner , if you know that you are running from God and his standards, you need to repent – turn around, seek God and his grace, love and forgiveness. If you are religious , if you think you've got yourself pretty sorted and are kind of decent, so God will have to accept you, you need to repent just as much, if not more!

Religion – trying to please God through our own efforts and standards – is just as much a way of avoiding God as being an obvious sinner. We set standards for ourselves: if we live up to them, we become proud and think that God owes us. If we fail, we become miserable and despairing. But although we might appear respectable, our hearts are still turned to our own efforts rather than God.

Isaiah 64:6 says: "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags". When it says "filthy rags", the Hebrew here refers to menstrual cloths. Isaiah isn't mincing his words here. Our efforts, our self-righteousness, our respectability – whatever you're relying on, be it tithing, having a daily quiet time, your own doctrinal correctness, being the liveliest singer, whatever – you might as well rummage in your bins, pull out some rubbish, and offer God a blood-stained tampon!

If even our best efforts are repugnant, filthy rubbish to God, then we're in deep trouble. We need help. But we'll come to that in a bit – keep listening, I'm telling you the bad news now, but the good news is coming.

Other effects:

• Sin brings fear (v9) and shame – "they realised that they were naked" (v7, compare Gen 2:25)
• Sin brings accusation and blame-shifting (v12-13):
  • onto other people ("this woman")
  • onto God ("whom you gave me")
  • onto Satan ("the serpent deceived me")
  • onto upbringing, circumstances, nature or nurture – how do you try and avoid responsibility?

What is God's response to sin?

The Bible tells us God is holy and good and righteous. He loves what is right. He created the world good, and us to enjoy it as a gift from him, and to enjoy him. If God is loving, is this what he would say to Adam and Eve at this point?

"You've betrayed me, wrecked our relationship, spoiled this good creation and destroyed yourselves. But hey, that's no big deal. I'm a nice guy, so I'll let this one pass!"

No! God loves, and this is why he judges. He is not indifferent to what we do. He cares passionately about us. Just letting us off wouldn't be love. It would be indifference.

Present judgement

How is God's judgement seen in the present?

Cursed

The curse is more than just consequences. God is the one who curses – "I will put enmity… I will greatly increase your pains…"

• To the snake
  • Animal conflict – enmity between humanity and nature (v14)
  • Spiritual conflict – enmity between humanity and Satan (v15)
• To the woman:
  • Generational conflict – physical and emotional pain in childbearing (v16). We
  • Gender conflict – wives seek manipulative control, men seek violent domination (v16)
• To the man:
  • Nature conflict – work is now hard and frustrating (v17-18)
  • Death – return to the dust (v19). Spiritual death – separation between man and God, as well as physical death – separation of body and soul. We are cast out of the Garden – this is an act of mercy, because it means that we will not live forever as sinful beings, becoming more and more hurt and bitter and corrupt. Would you really want to live forever in our current broken world?

All sin is death in slow motion. If we reject God, the source of all life, then we shouldn't be surprised that we find ourselves unravelling, returning to the animal, and eventually returning to the dust of the ground.

Why does God put creation under the Curse? Is he just a jealous lover getting a petty revenge?

• Romans 8:18-21 – "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us… For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."

The curse is part of bringing us to repentance, to bring us to glory. Perhaps by having the world in rebellion against us, we can learn what it is like for God to have us in rebellion against him. God's plan from the start has been to heal the world, as we'll get on to shortly.

We've already seen that sin affects the whole person, and between the curse of sin and the consequences of sin, all of life is affected and damaged by the Fall.

Cast Out

I remember once in primary school I got in trouble over something – I don't remember what – but I was so worked up about it, in such a tantrum, that I was locked into the staff room by myself. I was bawling and hammering on the door, but I was just left to myself, until I'd calmed down and had time to think about what I'd done.

In a similar way, God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden. Romans 1 talks about God giving men over to our sinful desires, to our shameful lusts. He leaves us to rage, to get on with our sin, to see the consequences of rejecting him. God leaving us alone leads to suffering in three ways:

• The consequences of our own sin the Bible tells us on many occasions, such as Galatians 6:7-8, that we reap what we sow. If you
• The consequences of other people's sin – other people use their free will to do evil and bring suffering. "Some rise by vice, others by virtue fall". We see wicked people prosper through greed and exploitation, while honest and hardworking people are reduced to poverty. Ecclesiastes is a profound meditation on the futility of life without God, of life in this Fallen world.
• The brokenness of the world – as we've seen already, sin brings brokenness into the world through the curse and through the consequences of our sin. This leads to pain and disaster that isn't anyone's fault, and often doesn't seem to have any specific purpose.

But God is also merciful in leaving us alone – he does not condemn us instantly, though we quite deserve to be condemned. He leaves us so in hope that we will see our need for him, and turn to him for help. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that he us patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Specific judgement

Does God judge directly today? We've all heard examples of American televangelists and fundamentalists claiming that the latest disaster is God's judgement, from September 11th to Hurricane Katrina.

The Bible gives numerous examples of God bringing specific judgement on people for their sin:

Old Testament examples:

• The Flood – Genesis 6-8
• The Plagues on Egypt – Exodus 7-11
• The Exile to Babylon

New Testament examples:

• Ananias and Sapphira – Acts 5
• Herod – struck down by an angel of the Lord – Acts 12:23
• Anyone who eats and drinks the Lord's supper without recognising the body of the lord – 1 Corinthians 11:29

But when God judges in a particular and special way, he almost always tells us that this is the case. Unless we have a particular revelation from him about a situation, we should usually conclude that the suffering and disaster we see is part of the general effects of sin, part of the total brokenness of the world. Most of the suffering in the world is not a direct judgement of God against specific sin, but is the result of being part of a Fallen, broken world.

He allows us the dignity of reaping what we sow, whether for good or bad, but does not actively cause such suffering. God holds back and limits the effects of our sin – God's common grace still holds the world together.

Future judgement

The day of judgement

The Bible warns us, time and time again, of coming judgement, of the coming day of the Lord. It will be a day of justice – the time when he will put the world to rights, when every deed, good and evil, will be repaid. It will bring rejoicing to those who know God and are forgiven by him. The Hallelujah chorus in Revelation 19 is sung in celebration of God's true and just judgements.

Revelation 6:16-17 describes the reaction of humanity to this day: "They called to the mountains and the rocks, 'Falll on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

It will be a time of separation, the sheep from the goats, those whose names are written in the book of life from those who aren't. Matthew 25:46 tells us there are only two destinies: eternal life or eternal destruction.

Hell: eternal conscious torment

Many people today pick their beliefs like their clothes or hobbies, because the like them, and reflect on who they are- just another consumer accessory. So to believe in Hell is seen as rather perverse. It's assumed that Christians must choose to believe it, that we want large swathes of humanity to be condemned to eternal torment. Nothing could be further from the truth – we don't believe it because we choose to or like the idea, but because God has revealed it to us.

What is Hell? There's an emphasis these days on it being the end result of rejecting God, the ultimate moral consequence. Archbishop Rowan Williams, when asked "what's hell like and who's going there?" said "Hell is being by yourself for ever. Who's going there? God knows." That's quite a clever answer. CS Lewis said there are two types of people, those who say to God, "Thy will be done", and those to whom God says, "Thy will be done". Eloquent, and partly true, but not the whole truth.

Because of the fearful nature of Hell, it's tempting to soften the blow, to suggest that Hell might have an end, or that people there won't be truly conscious, or that it is more the absence of God than his active punishment.

But the Bible tells us judgement is more than just a moral consequence. Judgement is not just God passively allowing people to suffer the consequences of their sin. God actively condemns and judges sinners to eternal conscious torment, as passages throughout the Bible make clear, such as 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. God is the one who brings down the executioner's axe on sin, he is the one who stokes eternity's fires.

Hell is not just the absence of God, but the presence of the burning anger and holiness of God. Psalm 137 says "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in sheol, you are there". Hell is separation from God in a relational sense, not a physical sense. Revelation 14:9-11 tells us that sinners will be tormented in the presence of the Lamb forever. The difference between heaven and hell is the presence of a mediator, Jesus Christ. The all-consuming furnace of God's love and holiness is agony and torment to those who hate him, but is life and joy and bliss to those who in Christ are reconciled to him.

How can a loving God judge?

But doesn't this make God a monster? How can eternal punishment possibly be fair? Doesn't Jesus himself tell us to turn the other cheek, to forgive our brother who sins against us not just seven, but seventy-seven times? If forgiveness is the moral standard God sets for us, how can he do any less?

God never ignores sin. God is holy and good; he loves justice. He loves the underdog, those oppressed by sin and injustice. The problem isn't that we don't want justice – we all want the likes of Hitler and Pol Pot to get what they deserve. It's when we realise that we are guilty that we begin to get worried.

The Snake-Crusher

God promises to Eve that her offspring will crush the head of the serpent, pointing forward to Jesus. This is known as the protoevangelion, the first promise of the Gospel given in the Bible. Even here, God already had in place his plan to redeem the world, to bring grace and forgiveness.

It's interesting that God makes this promise to the woman, rather than to Adam. Ancient Middle Eastern cultures were patriarchal, being reckoned through the male line, so according to the culture of the day, this promise should have been made to Adam. So this gives us a hunt at the virgin birth, that the saviour would be born of a woman.

Skins

God makes garments of skin for Adam and Eve – v21. Even now, he cares for them and covers their shame. At this point, God hadn't given humanity permission to eat animals for food – that comes later with Noah. So implicit here is the first death of an animal, made to cover our nakedness and sin, which hints at the animal sacrifices, which point forward to Jesus.

Through Jesus dying on the cross for our sins in our place, we can be forgiven for our sin – our sin is counted as his, and dealt with on the cross, while his holiness is counted as ours, given to us as a gift. Adam's story is no longer our story – instead, we are joined with Jesus in his story, in his death and resurrection, dying to sin and rising to God.

The rest of the story…

Today we've been looking at the story of what went wrong. The remaining eight weeks, we'll be looking at the story of God putting things right again, and making them even better than they were to begin with.

• We'll begin next week by hearing about Covenant – how God pursues us, how he made promises to Abraham, Moses, and David, and fulfilled them in establishing the new covenant in Jesus.
• We'll hear about Incarnation, how God came to us in Jesus, fully God and fully human, like us in every way, but without sin.
• We'll hear about the Cross , how Jesus died for our sins in our place. God suffers with us and for us. He didn't remain distant, but took the sins of the world on himself.
• We'll hear about the Resurrection , how he triumphed over the power of sin, death and Satan, and gives us new life today.
• We'll hear about how he established the Church , and that he sends us into all the world to share this good news.
• We'll hear about Worship , how God calls us to love him and to be transformed by him.
• We'll hear about Stewardship , how everything we have is a gift from God, and how we should honour him in every part of our lives.
• And finally, we'll hear about the Kingdom , how God is bringing together all these threads to redeem not just our souls, but all creation, as he brings everything under the kingship of Jesus, now in part, and then in whole in the new creation, where sin will be forgiven, the Fall reversed, death defeated, and we will worship and serve and enjoy him, to the praise of his glory and grace, forever and ever, amen!

What should be our response to sin?

Take sin seriously – fight

Are you weeping for your sin, for the wrong you have done to your loving heavenly Father? Sin is not something to be played with or taken lightly. Just because we have full and free forgiveness in Christ doesn't give us license to treat sin as if it doesn't matter. We need to take seriously just how terrible it is, how much it hurts and angers God, and the love that he has shown us.

How to fight sin:

• Pray. You need God's help – don't believe in yourself, believe in Jesus!
• Flee temptation. What situations do you need to get out of or avoid?
• Fight lies with the truth. Learn and develop a deep understanding of God's ways.
• Remember God's love for you.
• Fight desire with desire – develop a greater longing for God.
• Get help from other people – accountability.

I've put a lot more on this on the handout. Where is God is calling you to repent? What needs to change in your life?

Take judgement seriously – preach

Are you weeping for the millions of souls we are going to a lost eternity without God? Do we just believe in God's judgement in theory, or do we really believe it in practice? Do we really believe that without Jesus, people go to hell?

Often non-Christians see the implications of this far more clearly than us as Christians. At a Grill-a-Christian event put on by Cardiff Christian Union, someone asked why, if we genuinely believe in an eternal hell, we aren't spending devoting every effort every day pleading with people to believe in God. We were stumped – he was absolutely right that we should treat this far more seriously and urgently.

Hell is a staggering and awful reality. We musn't make light of it, or be glib or happy about it. We shouldn't believe it because it gives us a perverse kick to know we're saved and everyone else is going to burn. No, we should believe it because that's what the Bible tells us to be true. Hell is hot and eternity is a long time , and we must try and help, by pointing people to Christ.

Take the Fall seriously – heal

Are you weeping for the brokenness of the world? All around us, people are lost and broken and hurting. The world is filled with injustice and pain and evil. Part of our job as Christians is to work to reverse the effects of the Fall. Jesus didn't just come to make us Christian, but to make us human.

The Gospel is more than just our individual salvation. The Gospel is the restoration of the whole world, all of life and all of creation being healed and put back together, as it is brought under Christ, the light and life of the world.

We need to deal with the root cause – people's individual alienation from God because of sin, and call them to follow him. But on top of that, we need to live the wholeness of life under the Lordship of Christ , and seek to repair the effects of sin, in society and culture and politics and every part of life.

That doesn't happen automatically, and we need to think clearly and carefully to see what damage the Fall has caused to our areas of work and study and life. We need to see how the reality of Christ's kingdom should bring change and transformation, because we are all called – in Christ, by the power of the Spirit, to the glory of the Father – to take part in the great story of restoration.

Rejoice in God's grace

The bad news is that you are more wicked than you ever feared, but the good news is that you are more loved than you ever dared hope. God shows his love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. His love and mercy are astonishing, and should draw us to his praise and worship. I pray that being reminded of the depths of your sin today will help you rejoice in the heights of God's grace.