When a person (before true conversion) realizes that, because of sin, he or she is alienated from the true God, abandoned, and in a state of spiritual death, it can hardly be good news for anyone. Yet it remains a fact, whether one believes it or not, because humanity has sinned against God.
What is sin?
Sin is the transgression or non-fulfilment of God’s law, according to 1 John 3:4:
“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”
And the law of God is summarized by the Lord Jesus in Mark 12:29–31 as follows:
“The first of all the commandments is: ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE. AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.“
God’s law is therefore love. This means that all loveless behaviour toward God and neighbour is sin. Yes – every loveless action, thought, and attitude toward God and neighbour is sin.
Loveless behaviour, thoughts, and attitudes toward God and neighbour are essentially selfishness. The first humans’ loveless – indeed selfish – action toward God (disobedience and a self-centered attempt to become like God under the serpent’s – Satan’s – incitement) was therefore the first sin. Likewise, every selfish and loveless action of every human being remains a violation of God’s law and is therefore sin. Sin is selfishness and self-interest, an excess of self-love in place of love for God and one’s neighbour.
The fall of man
God placed the first humans in a wonderful environment where they enjoyed a special relationship with Him and experienced His special presence. God gave humanity – equipped with free will – the mandate to rule. They loved God and therefore initially obeyed His commands. But under Satan’s incitement, they began to act selfishly and lovelessly by ignoring God’s commands and attempting to become like God.
God forbade them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He warned that on the very day they ate from its fruit, they would die (Genesis 2:17). Satan, however, convinced them that “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, …” (Genesis 3:5) if they ate the forbidden fruit. This possibility appealed to them (Genesis 3:6), and they ate. This was an act of lovelessness toward God – not only because it was disobedience, but because they attempted to become like God.
Eating the fruit was essentially an occult act: an attempt to become like God, to obtain supernatural knowledge and power. It was about self-exaltation. Just as power-hungry people today still pursue supernatural power through occult practices, the first humans likewise “ate this forbidden fruit” in their attempt to become like God. The sin was not merely the act of eating; the motive was a deliberate attempt to become like God. The first humans loved themself more than God and, for the first time, placed their own interests above His.
God had warned them, and they did indeed die that same day – a spiritual death – when they were driven out of Eden (God’s special presence) into a world now cursed (Genesis 3:17) and under the power of the Evil One. After the fall, humanity was alienated from God, dead in sin, without hope and without God in the world. To be abandoned by God is, in biblical language, to be dead. Paul writes to the believers in Colossae in Colossians. 2:13:
“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,”
See also Roman. 5:17; Ephesians 2:1–5; 5:14. Paul describes the Ephesians’ lost condition before conversion in Ephesians 2:12:
“… at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
Although the first humans did not immediately die physically, they immediately entered into eternal death and condemnation – a state defined in Scripture as being abandoned and alienated from God. This is the condition in which every human being is born after the fall: a state of spiritual death, abandonment by God, and alienation from the only true God. When a person enters this world—which is cursed and lies under the power of the Evil One – he is, by nature, cut off from God and condemned to eternal destruction, unless God Himself intervenes. This is a death worse than the physical death of true believers, because it means total and eternal separation from God for those not reconciled to Him.
Because God is love, lovelessness, selfishness – sin – cannot exist in His special presence. Therefore, a person living in sin and persisting in it cannot be reconciled to God. According to Scripture, sin always creates separation between God and humanity. Even in His relationship with His covenant people, God warns in Isaiah 59:2:
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”
Humanity cannot, by any means, return to God’s special presence or to a state of reconciliation with Him. Humans do not possess the ability to return from this state of death in sin to God and to live again. This inability is symbolized by the cherubim with the flaming sword in Genesis 3:24 guarding the way back to the garden (God’s special presence).
Power of the Evil One
In this state of spiritual death – dead in sin, abandoned by God, and without hope – human beings live and children are born. Everyone born into this world is, like their parents (before true rebirth), naturally lost, dead in sin, and heading toward an eternity without God.
This world, after the fall, was in such chaos that the very first human born was so self-centred and jealous that he murdered his brother. Cain killed Abel (Genesis 4). Why was Cain angry? Abel brought an offering that God accepted (Genesis 4:4), while Cain’s offering was not accepted (Genesis 4:5). Cain was stubborn; he wanted to serve God in his own way, seeking God for the benefits it might bring him. The apostle John wrote in his first letter (3:11-12):
“…, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.”
The world became so utterly wicked that after about 1,500 years “… the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Genesis 6:6). Humanity was doing its own will, against God’s will. During all the time from the fall up to Noah, the Bible mentions at most ten individuals who were truly believers, including Abel, who is described as righteous, as well as Enoch and Noah himself, who walked with the Lord. Noah is considered righteous (Genesis 6:8–9). God decided to destroy humanity and save only Noah (and his family for his sake).
After the flood, almost 400 years passed before God found in Abram someone obedient and righteous enough to use. Reading the Old Testament’s accounts of the world’s wickedness – and Israel’s unfaithfulness – it is clear that the world was under the power of the Evil One. What grip must the Evil One have had if even God’s chosen people would not listen to Him? According to Isaiah 65:2:
“I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in a way that is not good, According to their own thoughts;”
In the New Testament, the world is still under the power of the Evil One. Three times the Lord Jesus refers to Satan as the ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Jesus teaches His disciples in Matthew 6:10 to pray:
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
God’s will does not primarily happen on earth because the world is under the Evil One’s power. Jesus also teaches them to pray in verse 13: “But deliver us from the evil one.” This would not be necessary if the Evil One posed no threat.
In His prayer in John 17, Jesus distinguishes between “this world” and His disciples, as though their citizenship is elsewhere. He prays in verses 14-15:
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.”
Their citizenship is in God’s kingdom, under His rule, while they remain physically in a world under the Evil One’s power.
When Satan tempted Jesus in Luke 4, he claimed that all the kingdoms of the world belonged to him because they had been handed over to him (verses 5–6). Jesus did not dispute this but simply affirmed that only God must be worshipped.
The apostles agree that the world is under the Evil One’s power. Paul explains in Acts 26:18 that Jesus gave him this mission:
“… to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”
Concerning believers, Paul writes in Colossians 1:13-14:
“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Paul therefore makes a clear distinction between the darkness of this world and the reign of God (the kingdom of Christ).
In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul writes that unbelievers:
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
Satan does not blind these people’s minds in a supernatural way; rather, through his lies and deception – just as with the first humans – he succeeds in leading them to focus so willingly on themselves and their own advantage that they do not see the glory of Christ.
The true Christian believer’s citizenship is in the kingdom of God (under His rule) through His Holy Spirit. Paul affirms this as well in Philippians 3:20.
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”
The heroes of faith from the Old Testament, according to Hebrews 11:13:
“… confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
They sought another homeland—the heavenly one (Hebrews 11:14–16). This “homeland” is the life hereafter in God’s kingdom. Peter likewise refers to believers as strangers and sojourners (1 Peter 1:17; 2:11).
John (1 John 5:19) is equally certain that the world is in the power of the evil one:
“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
The Lord Jesus said about some people according to Mark 4:15:
“When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.”
Paul warns in 2 Corinthians 11:14–15:
“For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.“
Despite some believers – and even Christian teachers – denying that believers are engaged in a struggle against satanic powers, Paul warns of this struggle and includes himself as someone needing prayer. From Ephesians 6:11 he urges believers to put on God’s armour to “… be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”. He describes this struggle and the Armor in Ephesians 6:12–17:
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;”
Paul himself experienced opposition from the Evil One. In 1 Thessalonians 2:18 he writes:
“… but Satan hindered us.”
James instructs believers in James 4:7:
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Peter warns in 1 Peter 5:8:
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
Can there still be any doubt that this world is under the power of the Evil One? Satan’s power operates mainly through human will and consent – people voluntarily yield to his lies and deception for supposed self-advantage, just as Adam and Eve did.
To be dead in sin in a world under the power of the Evil One is truly bad news – but the Bible contains very good news. God desires to deliver humanity from this death-bound existence and reconcile them to Himself, because God is love.