Our lesson on Sin started with the reading from Genesis 3, the story of the "Fall of Man".
What is Sin? Students had the chance to answer and then also talk about the difference between sins and Sin like cancer and the symptoms of cancer. We do sins because we are infected with Sin. Only grace througn Christ can get rid of the "cancer" (sin). We still do sinful things but now we have the power through the Holy Spirit to start being returned to the image of God we were originally created to be.
Who in the Bible and other faithful people have sinned?
Moses - murdered an Egyptian but was still called to do great things for God (Exodus 2 & 3).
David - was an adulterer but was still one of God's most faithful servants (2 Samuel 11)
Peter - denied Jesus but was one of his most faithful disciples (Luke 22: 54-62)
Paul - persecuted Christians but God called him to spread the gospel (Acts 9)
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church - banded a girl that he was in love with from taking communion when she married another man but he still went on to be the founder of Methodism.
Besides looking at individuals who sinned, corporate sin (which is groups of people or communities who can be guilty of sin) was addressed. The book of Jonah talks about the city of Nineveh as being a "wicked city" who's wickedness has come up before God (Jonah 1:2). * In Amos 5:21-27, God scolds the nation of Israel for injustice and idolatry. In Paul's letters to the churches, he holds Christian communities accountable for their behavior. The United Methodist Church has a history of focusing on both personal and corporate sins. We challenge individuals to be disciplined and avoid "doing harm" which is the first of John Wesley's General Rules, and hold the church to a standard of justice.
Sin distorts God's image in us. Grace through Christ restores the image.
*Credo Curriculum
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