The Song Beneath the Stories Part Three : Fall

Our Fall Learning Cohort is a six-week exploration of the overarching theme of all of Scripture: The Gospel of Jesus Christ!

We’re offering the cohort in two ways:

  1. In-Person, Sundays at 9am

  2. Online via Facebook Live, Wednesdays at 7pm. These will be taught live, but will remain available for streaming afterward.

We’ll be posting the hand-outs for the sessions here on the blog. This week’s is The Song Beneath the Stories Part Three: Fall.

For a downloadable PDF version, click here!

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God created all things good, making human beings in his image, with inherent dignity and with a calling to copy Him in bringing order and abundance to our world. We were made to flourish in our relationship with him, with one another, with creation, and with ourselves.

However, history and experience tell us that these relationships have been broken. Scripture tells us that the root of this is called sin. Through sin, the image of God in humanity has become a shattered mirror that only reflects him in partial and broken ways. That’s why we call this second movement of the Biblical symphony Fall. Sin has caused creation to Fall from its original purpose.  

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Scripture uses many images to describe sin: idolatry, corruption, transgression of God’s law, rebellion, an enslaving power at work in the world, and darkness. These images combine to show us the depth of the misery that sin has brought. There is no part of creation that sin has not marred.

The effects of sin are wide-reaching. Because of sin we have a guilty record, a corrupt heart, broken communities, and a chaotic world. Things are not the way they are supposed to be! Death, sickness, injustice, and violence are not natural. 

But sin will not have the final word.

God promises to provide a Redeemer to destroy sin and restore relationship with humanity. As he says throughout Scripture: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” ** Yet the presence of sin and our ongoing rebellion and violence seem to make this an impossibility. How can God rightly deal with our sin without us being swallowed up and condemned in the process? We’ll look at that next week, when we see the third movement of the Biblical symphony: Redemption

** Genesis 17:7-8; Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 7:23; 11.4; 30.22; 31.1; 31.33; 32.38; Ezekiel 11.20, 14.11, 36.28, 37.23, 37.27; Zechariah 8.8; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Hebrews 8:10; Revelation 21.3, 7. 

Questions for Reflection

  1. What are some of the effects of sin in our community?

  2. What are some of the effects of sin in your own heart?

  3. What can we do about sin?

Tim Inman