The Beginning of Sin: Refusing to Worship and Give Thanks to God
Romans 1:21a (NLT)
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.
I. The Beginning of Sin: Refusing to Worship and Give Thanks to God
Paul declares that all humans know God (21a, Romans 1:19-20). The problem was that even though they knew Him, they would not worship Him as God or give Him thanks. It is like a son who does not treat his father as a father, nor show him gratitude. In the book of Romans, the sin begins from refusing to worship (or glorify) God and not giving thanks to Him.
II. Genesis and the Origin of Sin: The Fall through Moral Independence
Genesis is the first book of the Holy Bible, and also called the book of beginnings. How does Genesis explain the beginning of sin?
God created human beings (Genesis 1:27a, Genesis 2:7) in His image (Genesis 1:27b) so that they would reign over his creatures (Genesis 1:26b). God planted a garden in Eden (Genesis 2:8a). The garden was a paradise (Genesis 2:9a, Genesis 2:10-14). God placed the first man there (Genesis 2:8b). He could live there forever, as there was the tree of life in the middle of the garden (Genesis 2:9b). He was to tend and watch over the garden (Genesis 2:15). God allowed him freely to eat the fruit of every tree in the garden (Genesis 2:16a) except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16b). As the name indicates, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil causes one who eats it to decide what is good or evil by himself without referring to God’s word or inquiring of God. This moral autonomy causes spiritual death and subsequent physical death. Therefore, this tree is the tree of death. Despite God’s warning, “If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” (Genesis 2:16c), the serpent, representing the devil, deceived the woman (Genesis 3:1-6a) and then the man broke God’s command not to eat from the tree (Genesis 3:6).
This independence—the moral autonomy—explains why, as written in verse 21b,
“they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.”
Isaiah 53:6a describes them:
“All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.”
