What to do when Sin Enters the Home
I look at the homes in our city this morning, and nearly every one of them is on fire.
Flames are burning, spreading. We’ve seen it. We see it everyday. We see it in your own homes. We walk by the fire. We feel the heat from the flames as we sit on our couches. And, we ignore it. We do nothing to put it out. In fact, some of us are daily throwing kindle on the fire, further igniting it, allowing it to spread to more and more rooms. Eventually, it will destroy our homes.
So what do we do? Do we continue to ignore it? Do we continue to ignite it? Or do we turn to Christ so that our family will be saved from the destruction that sin inevitably brings?
When I see the fire of sin demolishing homes and families, I wonder, “How does Sin enter the home?”
I remember being locked out of my house once and using hedge clippers to destroy the lock on the garage door so that I could break into my own house. Hedge clippers! It took me about two hours, but I made it in.
Far too often, sin doesn’t have to break into our homes. It just has to knock. We let it in. We let sin into our homes when we exchange truth for lies (see Genesis 3:1-5). Romans 1:24-25 reads, “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.”
Imagine a bottle of poison. On the bottle is a label with bold, red letters. The label simply says, “Poison.” Imagine you cover that label with another label. Maybe your label says, “Caution,” “Dangerous,” “Moderation,” “Drink at your own Risk,” or, maybe your label says, “Fruit Juice,” “Delicious,” “Sugar,” “Satisfying,” “Sweet,” “Honey.” When the label is changed, we drink the poison, not knowing the danger involved; not knowing that the outcome will be death.
When we exchange God’s truth for the enemy’s lies, we justify our sin, we give it a mild, acceptable label, and we forget how poisonous it is.
We also open the door to sin when we serve creation rather than the Creator (see Genesis 3:6). Adam was to have dominion over creation, over all creatures, over the serpent. But instead, here we find this family submitting to the serpent, giving undeserved attention to creation rather than due worship to the Creator. As Romans 1:24-25 says, “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie…and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”
So, what do we do when sin has entered our homes?
Genesis 3 lends us examples of what not to do. Don’t try to cover the sin yourself (see Genesis 2:25; 3:7). Adam and Eve use leaves to try and cover their shame, and their attempts are insufficient. So, God covers their sin (Genesis 3:15, 21). Let us trust in Christ & his cross. Allow the sacrifice of Christ to bring freedom, forgiveness, healing, and restoration, rather than trying to cover it ourselves.
As soon as sin enters, God unveils His plan for redemption. Genesis 3:15 is the first Good News, for this is the first proclamation of the Good News of a coming Redeemer. Once this promise is given, you can almost feel the Biblical narrative waiting for this seed, this descendent of the woman who will come and crush Satan. When Cain & Abel are born, we wonder, will it be Abel? Will it be Seth? Noah? Abraham? Isaac? Jacob? Judah or Joseph? Moses? Joshua? Samuel? David?...Jesus.
Jesus is the one who comes to redeem and destroy the enemy.
1 John 3:8—“Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
Hebrews 2:14—“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.”
So we trust in Jesus because he is the one who can overcome our enemy.
The consequences of sin in Genesis 3 are shame and death. The punishment for sin is pain for the woman’s childbirth and thorns for the ground the man will work. So, the four consequences of sin are (1) shame, (2) pain, (3) thorns, and (4) death. We all experience the weight of these for we are all sinners. But God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to bear the weight of our sin with all of its consequences.
Jesus bore our shame, he endured our pain, he took the crown of our thorns, and he died our death.
Our shame, pain, thorns, and death were placed on Jesus on the cross.
Because Adam ushered in death, Jesus will bring forth life.
Because Adam broke intimacy with God, Jesus will reconcile sinners to God.
Because Adam ate from the tree, Jesus will hang from the tree.
What do we do when sin enters the home? Don’t hide from God (see Genesis 3:8-10). Instead, let us run to & rest in the Lord. After all, Jesus calls the sinful family to repentance. As Luke 5:32 reads, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
As we come to Jesus in a spirit of repentance, let our families spend time together praying for Christ to rescue us from evil. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
What do we do when sin enters the home? Don’t play the blame game (see Genesis 3:11-13). When your house is on fire, the first concern cannot be blaming the person who lit the match or the one who added kindle or the one who ignored it. It’s time to let the Spirit reveal the sin in our heart and lead us toward confession. It’s time to be comforted by the truth of 1 John 1:9—“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Jonathan Williams is the founder of Gospel Family Ministries and the Senior Pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic church of 44 nations located in Houston, TX.
