I had several people ask me to post the “sin list” that I shared this past Sunday during my sermon from Ephesians 1:2 – “Grace and Peace.” Here is a snapshot that shows the implication of our sin from the book of Genesis.
1. Sin results in hiding- keeping your faults and failures from the One who matters most. (Gen. 3:8)
2. Sin leads to throwing those you love under the bus (with destructive words of blame, pointing fingers, dodging responsibility) (Gen. 3:12)
3. Sin fosters passivity and causes people to back down when they should be standing up (Gen. 3)
4. Sin drives destructive wedges between husbands and wives- bringing division where God has intended oneness. (Gen. 3:15)
5. Sin brings about pain- both physical pain and emotional pain. Sin hurts (Gen. 3:16)
6. Sin causes innocent things to die when they don’t have to. (Gen. 3:21)
7. Sin causes work to be harder than it needs to be- filled with challenges of thorns and thistles (Gen. 3:18)
8. Sin leads to rifts between siblings that are marked by endless comparison, vicious jealousy, and anger (Gen. 4:6)
9. Sin results in displacement from God’s protection and provision (Gen. 3:24)
10. Sin leads brothers to tear their households apart in strife (Gen. 4:8).
11. Sin leads to murder – people killing other people to secure their selfish ways (Gen. 4:8).
12. Sin leads to the crushing weight of guilt and shame (Gen. 4:13).
13. Sin causes people to run away and abandon relationship for the sake of self-protection (Gen. 4:14).
14. Sin brings about insecurity, paranoia, and unexplainable fear (Gen. 4:14)
15. Sin leads to the perversion and destruction of the basic family roadmap- one husband and one wife (Gen. 4:19).
16. Sin expresses itself with greater and deeper sexual perversion that dehumanizes the image of God (Gen. 6).
17. Sin leads to separation and distance between family and friends.
18. Sin stirs up depression and despair.
19. Sin causes sorrow and grieves the heart of God (Gen. 6:6)
20. Sin results in the destruction of plants, animals, and the rest of the created order (Gen. 7).
21. Sin leads to drinking too much, living in drunkenness, and making foolish choices. (Gen. 9:21)
22. Sin results in confusion, disharmony and futility (Gen. 11:7)
23. Sin stirs up a web of lies that entangles not only the liar but all those involved (Gen. 12:19).
24. Sin leads to regret for things done that can’t ever be undone (Gen. 16).
25. Sin prods us to find our value and worth in our performance (Gen. 16)
26. Sin prods us to find our value and worth in our outward beauty and despair when we find that we don’t measure up.
27. Sin prods us to find our value and worth in our motherhood and our parenting … and despair when our children fail us (Gen. 16)
28. Sin causes spouses to kick each other to the curb- saying harsh words that trash the emotions and spirit of others (Gen. 16)
29. Sin causes us to doubt God even when the given promise is trustworthy and true (Gen. 15:2)
30. Sin leads us to pretend to be something that we know that we aren’t (Gen. 27)
31. Sin causes us to steal things that we have absolutely no right to (Gen. 27)
32. Sin leads us to exchange what is good and right in the long run for the payoff of immediate gratification (Gen. 25:32)
33. Sin causes us to laugh at the promises of God (Gen. 18)
34. Sin stirs us to satisfy our sexual urges and cravings with no thought to the impact it is having on others (Gen. 19)
35. Sin leads to the destruction of cities (Gen. 19:24)
36. Sin provokes elaborate schemes to ensure that we get what we think we need (Gen. 19:31)
37. Sin causes us to repeat the stupidity of our sin even though we are already well aware of its harm (Gen. 20:2)
38. Sin leads to deception- to intentionally misleading others for the sake of our agenda (Gen. 20)
39. Sin leads parents to enable their children in sinful ways (Gen. 27:6)
40. Sin stirs us to compete with others to have a sense of self-worth (Gen. 30)
41. Sin causes us to trust in idols (Gen. 31:34)
42. Sin results in paralyzing fear (Gen. 32:7)
43. Sin causes a man to forcibly destroy a woman through rape and abuse (Gen. 34)
44. Sin leads people to seek revenge and take matters of justice into their own hands (Gen. 34:25)
45. Sin results in a parent showing preferential treatment to one child over another in their family- thereby sowing seeds of resentment (Gen. 37).
46. Sin causes a person to boast and live out of a place of superiority (Gen. 37).
47. Sin turns families into battlegrounds (Gen. 37).
48. Sin leads to prostitution and promiscuity (Gen. 38).
49. Sin leads to false accusations and imprisonment (Gen. 39).
50. Sin brings about elaborate tales of distortion and cover up that are hard to keep straight (Gen. 43).
51. Sin results in tears of regret (Gen. 50).
52. Sin leads to slavery (Exodus)