1.The beginning of sin
Since today, we read Genesis 3 which develops the second episode of creation started in Genesis 2. The man and woman were created and lived with God in Eden. But they were about to be thrown out from the garden because of violating God¡Çs prohibition. They surrendered to the temptation by the snake, the event which is known as Paradise Lost. The story raises the theme of sin to the church throughout the history. We too will reflect on the nature of sin in humans beings by reading Genesis 3.

The snake came in the scene the first. ; - Now the snake was the most clever of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day the snake said to the woman, “Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden?"(Genesis 3:1)

Formally, ; - The Lord God commanded him, “You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!” (Genesis 2:16-17)

God allowed humans to eat fruits freely but with one condition, ¡È Not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil.¡É Gods¡Ç gifts were enough for humans to live on. Fruits in the garden were abundant, even without the forbidden ones. However the snake altered intentionally God¡Çs words to say, ¡ÈYou must not eat fruit from any tree?¡É It meant rather, ¡ÈDon¡Çt you have any right of eating fruits?¡É That way, it indirectly asked if the man and woman were in a miserable condition.

But she said to correct the error, ; -¡ÈWe may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch it, or you will die.¡Ç¡É (Genesis 3:2-3 )

She added one sentence to God¡Çs instruction. Because God didn¡Çt say,¡ÉYou must not even touch it.¡É Hearing the added sentence, the snake gat insight into the woman. She was not happy with the prohibition! So it tried to exploit her feeling and ; - said to the woman, “You will not die. God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree, you will learn about good and evil and you will be like God!” (Genesis 3:4-5)

The snake explained evilly that God intended to prevent humans from sharing wisdom with him. Thus the woman was persuaded that the instruction of God was not fair. Besides, her appetite was strongly provoked. ; - The woman saw that the tree was beautiful, that its fruit was good to eat, and that it would make her wise. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of the fruit to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.(Genesis 3:6)

The episode points to the nature of human beings. At first, they had the restriction, ; -¡ÈYou must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil.(Genesis 2:17)¡É And in any society rules are necessary to keep the community in peace and order. And humans are made to live in human relationship as God said, ¡ÈIt is not good for the man to be alone.¡É Therefore any members of society must respect rules which limit on members¡Ç conducts to a certain degree. For example, without the rule, ¡ÈNot to kill,¡É members¡Ç safety can¡Çt be protected and the society must fall into chaos and terrors. Nonetheless, the desire of violating rules is embedded in human mind. The story of Paradise Lost alludes to that desire. And the fruits which gave the knowledge of good and evil suggest that humans have the tendency to think in dualistic way. We separate easily the good from the evil or bad, the superior from the inferior, or winners from losers. And that way of thinking should feed social gaps and discrimination. In such a society, exploiters exploit and scorn socially weak persons.

In Samuels and the Kings, David was praised as he was ¡ÈLike an angel of God, you know what is good and what is bad.¡É (2 Samuel 14:17) And Solomon too is called ¡ÈMy son¡É by God in the Bible. (2 Samuel 7¡§14)

It seems that the kings of Israel were considered to be deities when those books were written. Nonetheless the writers of Genesis 3 thought that humans must not pretend to be as wise as God. God alone must know Good and Evil. They criticised the deification of humans as the core of sin, which generated human domination over other humans.

2.The essence of sin
The woman surrendered to the temptation of the snake. She couldn¡Çt resist desire of knowing good and bad. She wanted to enter into a new world of knowledge. Then both man and woman ate the forbidden fruits. The man too ceded to the fruit handed by the woman without saying anything. He did nothing to prevent her from violating the prohibition. Thought the tragedy of Paradise Lost was triggered by the weakness of the woman to the temptation, the man¡Çs indifference to the wrongdoing worsen the situation. Two of them are equally responsible for the act.

And their first reaction was this; - Then, it was as if their eyes were opened. They realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made something to cover themselves. Then they heard the Lord God walking in the garden, and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees. (see Genesis 3:7-8)

After eating the fruits, they gat aware of being nude. It means that their attention deviated from God to themselves. And they tried to hidden themselves from God¡Çs eyes.

To those humans, ; - the Lord God called to the man and said, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) God knew that they didn¡Çt respected his instruction, so ; - God asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?"(Genesis 3:10)
The man responded to the indirect accusation of God without showing sincere regrets. ; - ¡ÈYou gave this woman to me and she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.¡É (Genesis 3:12)

His answer implies that she was to be blame for the act, not he. He had rejoiced in her presence as ¡Èsomeone whose bones came from his bones, whose body came from his body.¡É Nonetheless, facing God¡Çs accusation, he tried to make her responsible. He might even mean that God must be blamed for creating such a woman. As for the woman, she took the similar argument to the man. She said to God, ¡ÈThe snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit.” She also implied that God shouldn¡Çt have created such a wicked snake.

Their answers portray a new stance of humans fallen from faith in God. Since then, humans always seek scapegoats to deny their culpability to their own wrongdoings. Genesis tells us that the freedom for humans signifies such a way of living. That is the very sin.

If ever the man and woman had admitted their misconducts and repented, what God should have done? There¡Çs no doubt that God would forgive them. If so, humans could have remained in Eden. In other words, ¡ÈLost Paradise¡É shouldn¡Çt have taken place. As we understand now, the essence of sin didn¡Çt consist in eating forbidden fruits, but in rejecting responsibility for bad behaviors. Humans¡Ç are so egoistic that they always intend to attribute the responsibility to others to protect themselves.

After recent accidents in nuclear generators, leaders of TEPCO said, ¡ÈThe situation prevailed over our capability of simulations.¡É They pretended in that way that the violence of earthquake and tsunami put conditions beyond human power. But obviously they had been capable to simulate that stage. But they didn¡Çt do so in order to keep costs of maintenance low. They are attributing the human cause of calamity to the Nature.

3. Emancipation from sin
Today¡Çs invocation verses are Psalm 51:3-4, ; - I know about my wrongs, and I can’t forget my sin. You are the only one I have sinned against; I have done what you say is wrong. You are right when you speak and fair when you judge.

The poem is said to be written by David when he prayed God for forgiveness. David¡Çs sinful conducted was reported in details in 2 Samuel chapter 11-12. Under the rule of David, united Israel enlarged the territory and was on the way to prosper. One evening, David was on a roof from which he saw a woman bathing. She was very beautiful. She was the wife of Uriah, one of David¡Çs soldiers. David sent for Bathsheba to have a sexual relation with her. As a result, Bathsheba became pregnant. So David sent a message to the field to get Uriah back. When Uriah came to him, David said, “Go home and rest.” In that way, David tried to make Bathsheba¡Çs pregnancy seemed to be with her husband. However Uriah did not go home. Uriah said to David that he won¡Çt take rest at home while other soldiers were staying in tents. Then David wrote a letter to Joab, Uriah¡Çs commander, and sent it by Uriah. The contents of the letter was the instruction which must make Uriah die in a battle. The writer of 2 Samuel finished the passage with this. ; - After she finished her time of sadness, David sent servants to bring her to his house. She became David’s wife and gave birth to his son, but the Lord did not like what David had done.(2 Samuel 11:27)

The whole story continues. God sent the prophet Nathan to David to accuse him. When he came to David, he told a conte to the king. ; -¡ÈThere were two men in a city. One was rich, but the other was poor. The rich man had many sheep and cattle. But the poor man had nothing except one little female lamb. The lamb was like a daughter to him. Then a traveler stopped to visit the rich man. The rich man wanted to feed the traveler, but he didn’t want to take one of his own animals. Instead, he took the lamb from the poor man and cooked it for his visitor.¡É(see 2Samuel 12:1-4) Hearing the conte, David became very angry at the rich man. He said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this should die!¡É Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!(2 Samuel:12:7)

Then Nathan transmitted God¡Çs words, ; - ¡ÈI appointed you king of Israel. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you even more. So why did you do what he says is wrong? You killed Uriah to take his wife Bathsheba!¡É (see 2 Samuel 12:8-10) So, ; - David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.¡É(2 Samuel 12:13)

Psalm 51 is said to be the prayer for forgiveness of David at that time. ; - God, be merciful to me because you are loving. Because you are always ready to be merciful, wipe out all my wrongs. Wash away all my guilt and make me clean again. (Psalm 51:1-2)

Today¡Çs invocation verses the following part. David¡Çs conduct was apparently an offense to Uriah and Bathsheba. But its real nature was a sin against God. Therefore he confessed to God, ¡È You are the only one I have sinned against.¡É And God forgave him and made him remain on the throne. The people adored David because he was sincere and faithful to God, not because he made the kingdom flourish. He admitted humbly his sin and repented before God, regardless of his royal power, .

Genesis 3 describes the real nature of sin. It is the attitude of denying culpability and refusing repentance. The violation of the prohibition wasn¡Çt the most important factor. The faithful and the unfaithful, by which criterion are they distinguished ? Both of them commit sins. However, Christians should admit their wrongdoings before God. All humans must be judged by God and condemned. But the repentance must invoke the mercy of God. Thus they will be saved from wreck. I contrast, those who don¡Çt know God seek scapegoats to conceal their misconducts. For that reason, real and direct causes of failure are often hidden, though temporarily. In Godless society, there is no real judgement, nor repentance, nor forgiveness. But only throughout judgement and forgiveness of God, we can find peaceful mind. The Bible teaches us repeatedly that the first step to blessings of God is recognition of our sin. No body can be sinless. But when we admit our sin then repent, we will be set free from sin.