Sin, Brokenness, and the Life Jesus Brings

In week one, day four of In Light of the Cross, we kept exploring sin through the lens of the cross, focusing on how sin doesn’t just break God’s commands—it also forfeits the life God designed for us. Using Genesis 3, we talked about death as being cut off from the source of life, and read John 10:10 to see that Jesus came to give life to the full and undo the thief’s work. We unpacked four dimensions of brokenness caused by sin: our relationship with God, with others, with ourselves (shame), and with creation (the curse), tying this to creation’s groaning in Romans 8. We ended by reflecting on where we’ve experienced and contributed to this brokenness, then prayed the Lord’s Prayer together.

00:00 Week Four Welcome

01:02 Sin Forfeits Life 02:14

Life to the Full 02:52

Sin as Deadly Error

03:52 Fourfold Brokenness

07:38 Cosmic Reconciliation

08:19 Creation Groans

11:06 Reflect and Pray

12:10 The Lord's Prayer

Alright, we are back and this is week one, day four of the

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podcast In Light of the Cross, and

this week we've been exploring sin in

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light of the cross and the idea being

that we don't really grasp the beauty

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and wonder of our salvation until we

see the ugliness and deadlines of sin.

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So let's begin with a moment where

we're just gonna pause and center

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ourselves and ask God to help us to

receive what he wants us from this.

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So.

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Wherever you are, if you're able,

just pause a minute and pray.

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Thank you, father.

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Now, so far we've talked about sin

being a breaking of a command of God,

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betray our relationship with God.

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And then also siding with God's enemy.

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There's one more aspect

we want to talk about.

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Sin is not only those things, but it's

also forfeiting the life that God had

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designed for us to have forfeiting

the life that God wants us to have.

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So how does that work?

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Well, again, in Genesis three, what

had God told them at the beginning?

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If you eat of this, the day

you eat of this, you will die.

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Now.

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Did they die?

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Well, yes and no.

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They didn't fall down dead that

particular day, but think of a branch

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of an apple tree early in the season.

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It's got the buzz, it's got the leaves.

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They're gonna develop into

that, and then someone comes

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along and cuts that branch off.

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Is that branch alive or dead?

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Well, it's kind of both.

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There's still life in it, but it's a

life that will soon pass away because

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it's been cut off from its source.

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So the alienation from God that

we talked about last time leads

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to this lack of life, this death.

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that's why in Romans chapter three

we're told the wages of sin is death.

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It's not just our physical death that

we experienced, but it's a denial

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of the life God wanted us to have.

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Where we would be his partners

in reigning over creation.

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So I'm gonna ask Nathan as we

unpack this to read John 10 10.

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Nathan Beasley: John 10.

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10 says, the thief comes only

to steal and kill and destroy.

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I have come that they may have

life and have it to the full.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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That's why Jesus has come.

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He's come as one, John three says

to undo the works of the evil one,

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the thief as he calls him here.

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And that includes bringing us

this life, life to the full.

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It's not just the kind of life that we

have here extended through our eternity.

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It's a completely

different quality of life.

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So one of the ways then to think about

sin is that it's simply a giant mistake.

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It's an heir.

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It's an error because it's a mistake.

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It leads us not to fulfillment

in life, but away from it.

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in the middle of the ocean and

they get thirsty in a life wrapped.

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So what do they do?

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They start drinking the salt water.

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It seems like a good idea, but

it's actually a deadly mistake.

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That's one of the aspects of sin.

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Nathan, I think you, uh, had some thoughts

about how we see this in the alienation.

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That sin brings the alienation

from God and, and in other ways.

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You wanna talk about that?

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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So going back to Genesis chapters

one, two, and three, we know

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God created everything and

created it to be good, right?

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And called it good.

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when we get to what we call the

fall in Genesis chapter three.

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We see that Adam and Eve make the

decision to choose to eat the fruit,

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which is what God commanded the not to.

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We talked about this a couple days

ago, I want to talk about the different

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dimensions that they have felt the

consequences of sin, in particular,

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four different dimensions of brokenness.

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The first being brokenness between

their relationship and God.

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sin causes this

relationship to be severed.

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We talk about how it's a betrayal of

the relationship, and now we experience

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that as we feel disconnected from God,

not in harmony as it was intended to be.

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Before that Adam and Eve were walking

with the Lord and the coolness

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of the night, and now oftentimes

God feels distant or unknowable.

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Daniel Jepsen: Right.

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They were hiding from God after that.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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Hiding from God.

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That's a scary thing.

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Daniel Jepsen: Mm-hmm.

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Nathan Beasley: But in addition

to just this vertical relationship

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with God that's broken, we also see

that there's a brokenness between.

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Each other.

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Daniel Jepsen: Mm-hmm.

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Nathan Beasley: So Adam actually

went questioned by God if he ate

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the fruit, he actually betrays his

wife who was given to him by God.

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Daniel Jepsen: He totally

throws her under the bus.

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Nathan Beasley: He throws her under

the bus saying, God, this woman

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that you gave me caused me to send.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: And so actually

you see right there, a betrayal

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of Eve and a, a blaming of God.

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Yeah.

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This woman that you gave me.

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It caused me to eat the eat the

fruit or told me to eat the fruit.

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Uh, but it even goes deeper

than that, right before they

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are tempted by the serpent.

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It says in chapter two, verse

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naked and they felt no shame.

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and if you recall, after they eat

the fruit in chapter three verse

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seven, it says, then the eyes of

both of them were open and they

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realized that they were naked.

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They realized they were naked.

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The New Living Translation

says they both felt shame.

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And so they sewed fig leaves together

and made coverings for themself.

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So there's a deep brokenness between

their relationship with themselves.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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At

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Nathan Beasley: first they felt no

bodily shame, and then they begin

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to feel shame and embarrassment.

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Uh, something that they didn't experience

when life was lived in harmony with God

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and with each other and with themselves.

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But it even goes farther

than that and deeper still.

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Because we see that because of this,

they get banished from the garden and

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as God is explaining what is going to

happen because of their sin, he says

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that all of creation gets cursed.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: the good soil

that was supposed to only produce

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good fruit begins to produce

thistles, and the serpent is cursed.

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Above all livestock and wild animals.

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So they all are going to

also experience the profound

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brokenness that's caused from sin.

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So there's this fourfold

brokenness that is sin.

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It is brokenness between relationship

with us and God, us and each other.

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Us and ourselves and us, and creation.

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So when Jesus says that he has come to

give life and to give it to the full,

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Daniel Jepsen: yeah,

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Nathan Beasley: what he's talking about

is an undoing of these four dimensions,

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That all of creation can begin to

be good again, and relationships can

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be reconciled and our relationship

to ourself can can be healed.

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But all of that begins with our

relationship to God being reconciled,

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Daniel Jepsen: right?

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Nathan Beasley: And so as we continue

to think about sin in light of the

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cross, we need to recognize what sin

is, that it's breaking the command.

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It's betraying the relationship.

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It's siding with enemies, and

it's forfeiting this life.

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What Jesus has done in the cross

has opened up this ability to be

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reconnected with God so that he can

bring about his healing in the world.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah, it's cosmic.

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What happened on the cross is not

just for you and I, it's cosmic

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healing, cosmic reconciliation.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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And we'll continue to lean into that,

but just now we want to reframe that

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the problem of sin is not just between.

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Me and God,

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Daniel Jepsen: right?

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Nathan Beasley: It is that.

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It's not less than that, but it also

is way broader and deeper than that

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all of creation groans because of

the decision that Adam and Eve made.

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Daniel Jepsen: Right?

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Romans chapter eight, I have that

here if you want me to read it.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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Daniel Jepsen: Well, Paul talks about

the suffering that we face, and he

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says it's part of this broken world.

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Verse 18 of Romans eight.

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I consider that our present sufferings

are not worth comparing with the

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glory that will be revealed in us.

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Interesting in us, not to us, for the

creation ways and eager expectation

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for the children of God To be revealed

for the creation was subjected to

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frustration, not by its own choice, but

by the will of the one who subjected it.

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In hope that the creation itself

will be liberated from its bondage

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to decay and brought into the freedom

and glory of the children of God.

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We know that the whole creation has

been groaning as in the pains of

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childbirth right up to the present time.

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And not only so, but we ourselves

who have the first fruits of

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the spirit groan inwardly as we

wait eagerly for our adoption to

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sonship the redemption of our body.

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For in this hope we are saved.

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Nathan Beasley: So creation ought

to have us jump back in our minds

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to Genesis chapter one, right?

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Everything that was created days

one through six, us included,

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there is a groaning that life

is not as it is supposed to be.

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And anytime we feel that, anytime

we feel the uh, shame or depression

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or anxiety or physical pain.

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Anytime we experience relational

tension or strife or argumentation or

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gossip, anytime we experience the broken

consequences of creation, either through,

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pain from creation or the effects of

this cosmic and global decay or pain

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in our relationships with God when we

feel like he is absent or inaccessible.

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But Jesus comes to bring

a different kind of life.

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He brings healing across all four of

these relationships of brokenness,

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Daniel Jepsen: right?

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Yeah.

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As we looked at these four, there's

that breaking of the command.

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That's what sin is.

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It brings guilt and condemnation,

and Jesus brings us justification

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through what he does there is that

betraying the relationship and the,

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enemy it brings between us and God.

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And Jesus brings a reconciliation between

us and God siding with the enemies.

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And yet Jesus brings victory over the

enemies and freeing us from the enemy's

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grasp, and then this forfeiting of life.

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And Jesus comes to bring

that life again to us.

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He's undoing the works of the evil one.

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He's undoing sin.

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Nathan Beasley: Amen.

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So let's move to a time of reflection

here as we seek to apply this, and I

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like this four full paradigm because it

gives us a little bit of a way to reflect

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where have I experienced the consequence

of brokenness in my relationship to God?

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Where have I experienced the consequence

of brokenness in my relationship with

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others, with myself, and with creation?

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So take a minute or two and reflect

on where you've experienced this

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and bring these before the Lord.

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And then reflect on the ways

in which you've participated in

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brokenness with God, with yourself,

with others, and with creation.

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Daniel Jepsen: And now we're going to

conclude as we do with our Lord's Prayer

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from Matthew chapter six, where he

says This then is how you should pray.

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Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

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Your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us today our daily bread and forgive

us our debts as we have also forgiven our

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debtors and lead us not into temptation.

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But deliver us.

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Deliver us from the evil one.

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Amen.