Sin and Grace

• The Father - in the story of the Prodigal son, represents God
• God - the source of all blessings in His domain or kingdom
• Youngest Son - represents many of us who after squandering the blessings of the Father through mundane ventures and pleasures find himself empty and isolated
• Elder Son - who with his father all his life seemed aloft, isolated and so detached from his father
• Moral Authority - God's command to us: "Do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge"
• Temptation - not a sin in itself but an occasion either to sin or not
• Disobedience - human beings' response to God's love
• Sin - turning away from love and the result is very devastating
• Shame - Adam and Eve realized they were naked so they covered their bodies
• Fear - Adam and Eve hid when they hear God calling out to them in the garden
• Lying - Adam and Eve lied to God by telling him they hid because they were naked
• Blame - Adam blames Eve for eating the fruit, and Eve then blames the serpent
• Sin resulted due to lack of discernment
• Before we decide and act, we have to discern first
• When God created the world, everything was "very good"
• Evil - is the absence of goodness; a lot like darkness and cold
• Felix Culpa - the sin of Adam is viewed as receiving a greater merit, that is from being His creatures, we are elevated as adopted sons of God, through Jesus
• Knowledge of Good and Evil - in Hebrew, it refers to a whole, an entirety to everything
• Events leading up to the fall: Serpent introduced, Temptation, Sin
• Results of the Fall: God's pointed questioning, Curse of Sin, Coats of Skin, Banishment from the Garden
• Knowing - committing into actions
• Eating - refers to our basic human desires, our passion, our appetites