Sin and our need of salvation

3 Now the snake[ref] was the craftiest of all the wild animals that Yahweh God had created, and one day he asked the woman, “Did God really command you to not eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

2 “No,” answered the woman, “we can eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden, 3 except from the tree that is in the centre. He commanded us to not eat that fruit or even touch it, because if we do, we will die!”

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “It’s not definite that you’ll die. 5 Actually, God knows that as soon as you eat fruit from that tree, you’ll understand new things, so that you will know what’s right and what’s wrong just like God does.”

6 The woman saw that the tree’s fruit looked good to eat and that the tree itself was very attractive, plus she wanted to eat the fruit so that it would make her wise. So she picked some of the fruit and ate it and she also gave some of it to her husband who was there with her, and he ate it too. 7 Immediately they both had new understanding and they felt their nakedness. So they sewed some fig leaves together and made skirts for themselves.

8 Late that afternoon, during the cool time of the day, the man and his wife heard Yahweh God’s voice as he walked in the garden, but they hid from him behind some trees in the garden, 9 so Yahweh God called out to the man, “Adam, where are you?”

10 “I heard you walking in the garden,” he replied, “but I was scared because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

11 “Who told you that you’re naked?” Yahweh God asked. “Have you eaten the fruit that I told you not to eat?”

12 “The woman that you put here beside me,” answered the man, “she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.”

13 Then Yahweh God asked the woman, “What did you do?”

“The snake tricked me, so I ate some of the fruit,”[ref] the woman replied.

14 Then Yahweh God said to the snake,

“Because you’ve done this you’ll be cursed more than all the livestock,

and more than every wild animal.

Now you’ll move along on your belly,

and you’ll eat dust all the rest of your life.

15 I’ll put hostility between you and the woman

between your descendants and hers.[ref]

He will crush your head

and you’ll strike his heel.”

16 To the woman God said,

“I’ll sharply increase your pain in childbirth.

You’ll produce children in pain.

Your desire will be for your husband

and he will rule over you.”

17 Then God said to the man,

“Because you did what your wife told you

and ate from that tree

that I’d told you not to eat from,

then the ground will be cursed because of you.[ref]

You’ll have to work hard to get food from it

all the rest of your life.

18 It’ll produce thorns and thistles for you

although you’ll eat the crops from the countryside.

19 You’ll eat bread with sweat drops on your nose

until you return to the ground

because you were taken out of the ground.

Yes, you were created from dust,

and you’ll return back to dust.”

14 Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) called out to the crowd, “Everyone listen to me carefully: 15 Nothing that enters your mouth makes you guilty in God’s eyes. It’s what comes out of you that demonstrates your culpability.”

16 ◘ 17 When Yeshua came back inside, his apprentices asked him what he meant. 18 “Can’t you understand something so simple,” he scolded them. “Can’t you see that anything from the outside that enters your body doesn’t make you guilty in God’s sight, 19 because it doesn’t enter your mind but merely goes into your stomach and ends up in the toilet.” (By saying this he clearly showed that it was ok for Yehudim (Jews) to eat any food.)

20 “It’s what comes out of you that makes you guilty in God’s eyes,” he continued.21-22 ⇔“That’s because evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, arrogance, lust, slander, pride, and foolishness all come from inside people’s hearts and minds. 23 So it’s the evil that’s inside a person and comes out that makes them guilty in God’s eyes.”

59 Listen, don’t think that Yahweh can’t rescue you,

≈ or that he won’t be able to hear you.

2 However, your disobedience causes separation between you all and your god,

≈ and your sins have made him turn away from listening to you,

3 because your hands are defiled with blood,

≈ and your fingers with sin.

Your lips spew out lies

and your tongue works against justice.

4 No one stands up for justice,

and no one pleads their case truthfully.

They rely on being meaningless, or fancy words of no value—

conceiving mischief and advancing wickedness.

5 They hatch vipers’ eggs

and weave spiders’ webs

Anyone who eats any of their eggs will die—

when they’re cracked open, a viper will be hatched.

6 Their weavings aren’t for clothes,

so they don’t cover themselves with their products.

Their products are products of wickedness,

and their hands are involved in violence.

7 Their feet run towards evil,

and they’re quick to shed innocent blood.

They’re always thinking about wickedness—

they walk the paths of causing ruin and destruction.

8 They don’t know the way of peace,

and there’s no justice on their tracks.

They’ve make their paths crooked—

none of those who tread on them will experience peace.

9 What then? Do Yehudim (Jews) have any advantage? Definitely not, because we showed earlier that both Yehudim and other nationalities are all under sin’s shadow, 10 just like it was written long ago:

‘No one is guiltless,

not even one person.

11 No one understands,

there’s not even one person trying to find God.

12 Everyone has turned away,

it was a waste of time.

No one is being kind,

Not even one person.’[ref]

13 ‘Their words lead to death,

their tongues are deceptive.’[ref]

‘Their lips spray out poison.’[ref]

14 ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’[ref]

15 ‘They rush off to go and shed blood.

16 They leave trails of destruction and misery—

17 they don’t know the path that leads to peace.’[ref]

18 Revering God isn’t at the front of their minds.[ref]

19 We know that whatever the law says, it’s for everyone that the law applies to, so that no one can speak against it, and the whole world will be bound by God’s judgement. 20 No human will be declared guiltless in front of God by their keeping the law,[ref] because it’s the law that teaches what sin is.

21 But now God has revealed a way to remove guilt that’s not by rules—a way that Mosheh (Moses) and the prophets wrote about. 22 We can be made right with God through faith in Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) Messiah.[ref] This is for everyone who believes, because there’s no distinction between Yehudim (Jews) and others, 23 because everyone has sinned and is unable to be honoured by God. 24 But even without deserving it, we can be declared guiltless by God’s generosity, by being bought out of slavery to sin by Messiah Yeshua, 25 who God placed on the altar as a sacrifice for sin. This happens through faith in his blood, which was a sign of his sinlessness.

(God hasn’t yet judged those who sinned in the past, 26 because of his patience, waiting for the present time to show his righteousness and to be fair, and to remove the guilt of those with faith in Yeshua.)

12 Sin came into the world through one man,[ref] and death came as a result of sin, so death spread to everyone because everyone has disobeyed God. 13 Sin was in the world before Mosheh’s (Moses) law, but it wasn’t being charged against them, because the law had not yet been given. 14 But death reigned from Adam’s time until Mosheh’s time, even over those who didn’t sin in the way that Adam did—Adam[fn] who was a pattern of the messiah who would eventually come.

15 But the gift is not like the disobedience, because if the disobedience of one man introduced death for many, God’s generosity and the gift that comes from that generosity is much more. That gift is the one man Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) Messiah, who’s been given to very many people. 16 It only took one man who disobeyed to lead to condemnation, and one act of disobedience to lead to judgement, but the gift is to bring guiltlessness despite many acts of disobedience. 17 Because if the disobedience of one man led to death reigning over us through that one man, how much more will the ones receiving an abundance of generosity and the gift of righteousness be reigning in life through the one man Yeshua Messiah.

18 So just as one act of disobedience led all people to condemnation, so also one action brought all people to guiltlessness and hence to life. 19 The disobedience of one man caused many people to be made sinners, so also the obedience of one man caused many people to be made guiltless.

20 The law was introduced so that acts of disobedience would be plentiful, but where sin has been plentiful, generosity has overflowed, 21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also generosity now reigns through righteousness, leading to eternal life through our master Yeshua Messiah.

For the musical director: a song by David from when the prophet Natan had gone to him after David had committed adultery with Bat-Sheva.

1 Have mercy on me, God, because of your loyal commitment.

≈ Blot out my disobedience, because you’re so merciful.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity

≈ and make me clean from my sin

3 because I’m aware of my transgressions,

≈ and my sin is always on my mind.

4 It’s you and only you that I’ve sinned against,

≈ and done what’s evil in your sight.

You are right when you speak.

≈ You are correct when you judge.

5 Yes, I was born in iniquity.

≈ As soon as my mother conceived me, I was in sin.

6 You desire integrity in my inner self,

≈ and you teach me wisdom in the secret place within.

7 Purify me with blood (applied to the doorway with a sprig of hyssop), and I’ll be clean.

≈ Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness

→ so that the bones that you’ve broken can be happy again.

9 Look away from my sins

≈ and blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create a clean heart in me, God,

≈ and renew an unwavering spirit within me.

11 Don’t drive me away from your presence,

≈ and don’t take your holy spirit away from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

≈ and sustain me with a willing spirit.

2 You all were dead due to your disobedience and the path of sinning[ref] 2 that you once walked along when you followed the trends of this world which in turn come from the ruler of the invisible powers—he’s the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. 3 In the past, we also lived like them inside our fleshly lusts and then living out those desires and fantasies, and so we were children deserving strong anger just like everyone else.

4 But God was generous with his mercy because of the great love that he loved us with, 5 so although we were dead as a result of our disobedience, he make us alive along with the messiah. Yes, we have been saved by God’s grace. 6 And God lifted us up and sat us together with Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) the messiah in the heavenly domains 7 so that for the ages to come, he could display the overflowing riches of his grace through his kindness to us via Yeshua the messiah. 8 It’s God’s grace that allows you all to be saved through faith. That grace doesn’t come from you, but rather it’s a gift from God—9 it doesn’t originate from your actions so no one can brag about it. 10 We are God’s workmanship and he’s created us to do good things by following Yeshua the messiah. God has already planned these things for us to do.

5 This is the message that we heard from him and which we are declaring to you all: God is light and there is no darkness in him—none at all. 6 If we say that we and him are relating well together and yet we’re walking in the darkness, then we’re lying and not living the truth. 7 But if we’re walking in the light, just like he walks in the light, then we’ll get along well with each other, and his son Yeshua’s (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) blood is removing the consequences of all our sins.

8 If we say that we don’t have any sin, then we’re just fooling ourselves and haven’t embraced the truth. 9 But if we admit our sins, Yeshua is trustworthy and totally sinless, and he will forgive us for our sins and remove all of our guilt and consequences. 10 If we say that we haven’t sinned, then we’re making a liar out of Yeshua and we haven’t internalised his message.