“Our Sin and God’s Grace Part 1: The Origin of Sin” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, February 22, 2026, Year A / Lent 1 – Romans 5:12-21 ¨ Genesis 2:15-17 and 3:1-7

THEME:   Lent is the journey back to faithful obedience to God through nurturing humility, reflection and repentance.

Have you heard the old joke about the very first computer? The oldest computer can be traced back to Adam and Eve. It was an apple, but with extremely limited memory. Just 1 byte.  And then everything crashed. It’s funny, but it also reveals the assumption most of us have about the fall of Adam and Eve. We see this story as a metaphor for human sinfulness and divine punishment.  We have a hard time seeing it any other way.

The simple version goes like this. Adam and Eve had it good in the garden of Eden. But then they sinned by disobeying God’s command.  God punished their disobedience by expelling them from the garden.  Ever since, humanity has continued to sin by rebelling against our creator. For the Israelites who first heard this story, it represented more than that. It explained the challenges of living in the world around them. It answered questions like why is childbirth so difficult and dangerous to both mother and child? Why is it so hard to get crops to grow? Why are snakes so deadly? Why are we ashamed of our naked bodies?

On a metaphorical level, why is it that we do not do what we know we should do? As the apostle Paul put it, why do I do the very thing I hate? But we do God a deep disservice if we focus solely on human sin and divine punishment. This story tells us more about God’s grace than our sin. Let’s remember how Adam and Eve got there in the first place. After God created everything else, he created Adam from the dust of the earth.  He placed Adam in a gorgeous garden, with every plant, tree and animal he could possibly desire.  Then he gave Adam a mission to till the land and he gave him Eve as his companion and helpmate.

They were doing fine until they ran across the two things in that garden that could harm them. The first was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The second was the wily serpent who tempted them to eat from it. And they did. And, by the way, let’s be clear about something. Eve gets a bum rap here.  Throughout history, she has been blamed for human sin.  But Adam was right beside her. When she started to reach for the fruit of the forbidden tree, why did he not stop her? He is every bit as much to blame as she is. Even then, God spared them the penalty of death. God responds to their disobedience not with the full weight of punishment, but with unexpected mercy. The message for you and me is that God’s grace is always greater than our sin.

As Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”  Never was that more clear than when Jesus died on the cross so that you and I might have new life in him. The surprising message of the story of Adam and Eve is not the terrible wrath of God’s judgment. It is the unmerited mercy of God’s grace. Even when we rebel against God, and inevitably suffer the consequences, God does not leave us to flounder in our misery. He loves us and he wants us to flourish. In the midst of our suffering, he holds out his hand and invites us to return to a life of faithful obedience. It is up to us to accept his gracious invitation and make the journey back to him.  Friends, that is the journey of Lent. On this journey back to God there are three milestones. They are humility, reflection, and repentance. 

Our return to a life of faithful obedience starts with humility. When the crafty serpent tempted Eve, he appealed to her desire to become like God by obtaining God-like wisdom. We have been trying to be God-like ever since. This is the temptation of pride, and as C.S. Lewis tells us, pride is the most dangerous sin of all. Ben Franklin famously said, “There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”     

If anyone ever had a claim to God-like wisdom, it was Albert Einstein. Einstein is widely considered the most brilliant scientific mind of the 20th century. His discovery of Relativity and Quantum theory revolutionized physics.  His ability to reimagine space, time, and gravity redefined the universe. He remains an icon, the poster child of genius. But for all of his brilliance, Albert Einstein remained remarkably humble. He understood that God was God, and he was not. He once answered a letter from a 6th grader asking if scientists pray. He responded, “everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe—a Spirit vastly superior to that of man.” Albert Einstein, unparalleled genius though he was, had profound humility. How much more should you and I be humble? That is how we begin our journey back to God.

As important as humility is, Lent calls us to go further. It calls us to engage in intentional, honest self-reflection. This is not narcissistic introspection. The objective of reflection is to see ourselves as God sees us. Thomas Merton, the great 20^th century writer said that we humans have two selves, the True Self and the False Self. The false self is a product of our ego. It is our social mask. It is the front that we put on in public, the image we project to others. The True Self, on the other hand, is who we are in God’s eyes. It is the image of God that we all bear. The objective of Lenten reflection is to reclaim our True Self by dismantling the False Self. 

That means we have to embrace silence. We have to let go of our illusions.  We have to identify those parts of ourselves that are contrary to the image of God. Reflection is like performing a spiritual audit with God looking over our shoulder as we evaluate our hearts and minds, our thoughts and our desires. This is the crucial, inward spiritual journey of Lent.  I invite you to join Lisa and me on Wednesday evenings beginning March 4 to experience different spiritual practices of discernment.

In addition to the inward journey of humility and reflection, we also have to make an outward journey. This is repentance. Repentance means actually changing how we live.  We consider God’s commands and we follow them in daily life. When it comes to faithful obedience to God, Jesus is our model.  So, if we want to be more like him, then we need to spend more time studying what he taught and how he lived. Your homework assignment today is to go home and read Matthew’s gospel.  Let’s start at the beginning and read it through to the end. This is the best way to understand Jesus’ life and ministry.

The best resource for this is a good study Bible. The best one I know is called The New Interpreters Study Bible. It has text notes and excellent articles that explain the context and significance of the scripture. It is $25 on Amazon. If cost is an issue, please come see me. I have two copies in my office right now for exactly this purpose. Matthew’s picture of Jesus is the very embodiment of God’s grace triumphing over even the greatest human sin. Never was that more clear than on Good Friday. Jesus was hanging on the cross, beaten, bloody, and barely breathing. On either side of him were two criminals, suffering the same fate.  One mocked him. The other had faith. He said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  A desperate plea from a dying man. He had been humbled and humiliated. He reflected on his life, and he repented. He wanted to change whatever little of his life he had left.  That was enough for Jesus.

Jesus answered him with a promise that echoes down through the ages to you and me.  “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  That is the power of God’s grace to overcome human sin. Friends, if God’s grace could erase the sin of a dying criminal on the cross, it can do the same for you and me. We just have to return to a life living in faithful obedience to him. It requires humility – understanding that God is God, and we are not. It requires reflection – embracing our True Self, the image of God within us. It requires Repentance – living more like Jesus did. These are the milestones of our Lenten journey back to God.

The question is will we make the trip?

May it be so.