"What Sin Deserves"

Genesis 6

Psalm 14

2 Peter 2

What does sin deserve?

From childhood we learn Romans 6:23

"For the wages of sin is death,

but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord"

Every sin deserves death.

Our Shorter Catechism summarizes this nicely in question 84:

Q. 84. What doth every sin deserve?
A. Every sin deserveth God's wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come.

Having come to the end of the Ten Commandments,

we might be tempted to prioritize:

Well, murder is really bad,

but lying-that's not so terrible, right?

What's wrong with a little, white lie?

If the Ten Commandments were in fact ten different, unrelated commands,

then perhaps we could talk about different punishments for different sins.

But the Ten Commandments are not ten different, unrelated commands.

James tells us that "whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point

has become accountable for all of it."

Why?

Because "if you do not commit adultery but do murder,

you have become a transgressor of the law." (James 2:10-11)

Ultimately, the law is one.

That is why Jesus could summarize the law,

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

and with all your mind, and with all your strength.

This is the first and great commandment."

All of the law comes down to "love God and love your neighbor."

But what if you don't?

What if you sin?

The wages of sin is death.

It's not that the wages of lying is death; or the wages of Sabbath-breaking is death.

Those particular commands are simply expressions of God's law-

of his character.

You were created to look like God.

That's what it means to be created in the image of God.

And the one who reflects the image of God,

the one who looks like God,

lives forever-because God lives forever.

So what happens when the image of God ceases to look like God?

When man rebels against God,

and sets his heart on the creature rather than the Creator,

then man forfeits his right to the inheritance: eternal life.

Or, as Romans 6:23 puts it, "the wages of sin is death."

1. Sin and Death in the Flood (Genesis 6)

Genesis 6 tells the story of the first time that God demonstrated this truth.

A few weeks ago we read the story of Cain and Abel from Genesis 4.

Cain murdered his brother,

but God did not immediately put him to death.

Instead, God protected Cain.

He wanted to show us what happens to the wicked.

So while every sin deserves death,

not every sin immediately results in death.

The sons of Cain continue their father's ways.

In Genesis 4:24 we hear that Lamech boasts that he is greater than Cain.

Wickedness is increasing in the land.

But the sons of Seth are not providing a very good alternative.

They are the godly line-the seed of the woman-the sons of God,

but they are increasingly looking like the sons of Cain-the seed of the serpent.

In fact, at the beginning of Genesis 6,

we hear that the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive.

This echoes Eve's response to Satan's temptation in Genesis 3.

She saw that the tree was good to eat.

Now the sons of God (the line of Seth) saw that the daughters of man were "good"

(The same Hebrew phrase: she saw the tree was good

they saw that the daughters of man were good)

What happens when the holy line proves to be just as wicked as the wicked line?

What will God do with this rebellious race?

"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,

and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth,

and it grieved him to his heart.

So the LORD said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land,

man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens,

for I am sorry that I have made them."

Notice that God does not say "oops, I shouldn't have made man in the first place."

No, instead he says that he is sorry that he made man.

He doesn't say, "Whoa! I never saw this coming!"

No, rather he is grieved to the heart by the rebellion of man.

All of you have made decisions in your lifetime that brought grief to your heart-

and yet you knew when you made that decision that that grief would come.

Paul tells us that God purposed our salvation from before the foundation of the world.

He has fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass.

But he still grieves over sin.

And in his grief over man's rebellion,

God's judgment falls upon the earth.

And notice that in his judgment upon man, the whole created order is included.

Why?

Because God created man to be his vicegerent-his steward-

who would rule the creation on behalf of God.

And as goes the ruler, so goes his realm.

When God's judgment falls upon man, all creation suffers.

Truly, Paul says, the creation itself groans awaiting the revelation

of the sons of God.

The creation longs for the day when man will rule wisely and well.

Since the fall we have used the creation selfishly, for our own pleasure,

rather than for God's glory.

And so God's curse upon man results in the bondage of creation as well.

But the reverse is also true.

When God's blessing comes upon man, all creation rejoices.

When God destroys the world in the flood, all creation suffers with man.

When God delivers Noah and his family, he also delivers the creation with him.

God tells Noah to bring two of each kind of animal,

along with great store of food, in order to preserve not only humanity,

but the created order-

because the flood is portrayed not simply as a devastating flood,

but as a cosmic flood.

For thousands of years people have debated the extent of the flood.

Was it universal or local?

I won't try to solve that debate here.

Suffice it to say that scripture portrays it as functionally a new creation.

God starts from scratch with a new humanity,

cleansing the earth with water in a baptism of cosmic proportions,

God delivers his people and destroys the wicked,

and establishes the new creation.

Noah is portrayed as a second Adam,

with the call to succeed where Adam failed.

God blesses him with the blessing of Adam: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."

(Gen 9:1)

But Noah starts out with a handicap.

While he is declared to be a "blameless man" in 6:9,

that does not translate into "sinless."

Even before anyone sins, God declares that murderers shall be put to death,

as God says in 8:21, when Noah offered a sacrifice to him,

"I will never again curse the ground because of man,

for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth."

If God continues to bring judgment whenever man sins,

then God would have to destroy his creation continually.

Because we are all sinners.

As we sang in Psalm 14,

"The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of man,

to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God." (14:2)

But the Psalmist's answer is unequivocal:

"They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;

there is none who does good, not even one." (14:3)

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Apart from God's grace, no one seeks for God.

Because a genuine seeking for God would mean that we were perfectly obeying him.

After all, one sin is all it takes to become a law-breaker.

One sin is all it takes to turn away from God.

As our catechism puts it:

Q. 82. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?
A. No mere man, since the fall, is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed.

Every day we find some way either to do that which God forbids,

or we fail to do that which God has called us to do.

(And more commonly, both!)

But in the flood God has demonstrated what sin deserves.

In the flood he has provided for us a picture of the final judgment.

But he has also demonstrated for us the model of salvation:

Only God can save.

And he will provide a way of salvation, through a blameless man,

and that way of salvation will be through water

(as Peter says in 1 Peter 3-the flood symbolizes baptism).

But the flood also teaches us that water alone cannot save.

It is through water that God saves his people,

but water is not an unmixed blessing-it brings judgment upon the wicked as well!

We need not only water, but also the Spirit of God-and fire.

2. Sin and Death in the Fire (2 Peter 2-3)

Peter tells that as the world began in water, so it will end in fire.

Genesis 1 tells us that God formed the earth and seas

and all that they contain out of water (the deep).

But Peter declares that the movement of history is from water to fire. (2 P 3:5-7)

The destruction with water is the protological judgment (the first judgment).

The destruction with fire is the eschatological judgment (the last judgment).

Why does he say this?

In 2:6 he suggests that Sodom and Gomorrah experienced a type of the final judgment.

At Sodom and Gomorrah, God destroyed these cities by fire from heaven,

because of their wickedness.

He saved Lot and his family, in a manner similar to how he saved Noah.

One family was delivered out of destruction by God.

Peter says that this is what God is doing in Jesus Christ.

When God works to bring salvation,

He saves one man and his family through fire.

Jesus says in Luke 12:49-50-

"I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!

I have a baptism to be baptized with,

and how great is my distress until it is accomplished."

Jesus was baptized with water and the Spirit at the Jordan River.

Why does he say that he has another baptism to undergo?

Because while he has received the sign of the flood in his baptism,

he has come to bring the final judgment.

He has come to bring fire upon the earth.

He does this in his death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God,

where he pours out the Spirit and fire upon the church at Pentecost (Acts 2).

But the eschatological judgment is not like the protological judgment in every respect.

Because whereas the water of God's wrath destroyed only the wicked,

the fire of God's wrath will consume the Son of God himself.

The flood destroys the wicked, but does not change the hearts of the righteous-

and God must say that the intentions of Noah's family are no better than before.

But notice how differently Peter speaks to us: (2 Peter 3:11-13)

Because Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father,

we have a better hope than Noah.

Because Jesus has borne the fire of God's wrath,

your sins are forgiven.

If you trust in Jesus Christ, then God sees you in him.

And if you are in Christ,

then his Spirit now dwells in you.

God looks at you-and Peter speaks of you-as those who are forgiven,

as those who living lives of holiness and godliness,

reflecting the glory of God.

It is not because you are perfect.

It is because Jesus is perfect,

and therefore you are being conformed to his image.

"Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him

without spot or blemish, and at peace." (2 P 3:14)

3. Aggravated Sins (2 Peter 2)

We've seen that all sin deserves death.

But even within our passage we can see that Peter does not view all sin equally.

He exhorts Christians to faithful obedience, with the implication that we do fail.

But he speaks differently of certain sins.

He opens with a condemnation of false prophets and teachers

who bring destructive heresies, "even denying the Master who bought them."

Through them, "the way of truth will be blasphemed"

and in the end they will be destroyed.

Listen to his description of them in 2:14-19 (read)

The sins of these false teachers are worse than ordinary sins.

Why?

Our shorter catechism is useful on this point:

Q. 83. Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?
A. Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.

Peter says that the sins of false teachers are aggravated sins

because they lead others astray.

The Larger Catechism goes into more detail on this point:

Q151: What are those aggravations that make some sins more heinous than others?

A151: Sins receive their aggravations,

1. From the persons offending: if they be of riper age, greater experience or grace, eminent for profession, gifts, place, office, guides to others, and whose example is likely to be followed by others.

2. From the parties offended: if immediately against God, his attributes, and worship; against Christ, and his grace; the Holy Spirit, his witness, and workings; against superiors, men of eminency, and such as we stand especially related and engaged unto; against any of the saints, particularly weak brethren, the souls of them, or any other, and the common good of all or many.

3. From the nature and quality of the offense: if it be against the express letter of the law, break many commandments, contain in it many sins: if not only conceived in the heart, but breaks forth in words and actions, scandalize others, and admit of no reparation: if against means, mercies, judgments, light of nature, conviction of conscience, public or private admonition, censures of the church, civil punishments; and our prayers, purposes, promises, vows, covenants, and engagements to God or men: if done deliberately, wilfully, presumptuously, impudently, boastingly, maliciously, frequently, obstinately, with delight, continuance, or relapsing after repentance.

4. From circumstances of time and place: if on the Lord's day, or other times of divine worship; or immediately before or after these, or other helps to prevent or remedy such miscarriages: if in public, or in the presence of others, who are thereby likely to be provoked or defiled.