‘Original Sin’

Week 1: Discovering the Character of God through Adam

1.1. Invite the group to discuss the nature/definition of a crisis.

• What crises have they undergone in their lives?
• What national/global crises can they think of?

1.2. Invite the group to guess the first crisis in the Bible.

1.3. Read Genesis 2:1-24. Briefly recap Genesis 1 before encouraging the group to compare the two passages. The key observation to make is that Adam’s ‘Aloneness’ displeased God in contrast to the Lord’s pleasure at the rest of creation. This was a crisis in God’s eyes. He views our aloneness as catastrophic as we view things like 9/11 or the Asian Tsunami… yet it was a crisis that He was quick to rectify. Re-read 2:18 (you could also check out John 11:44 for a New Testament picture of this).

1.4. Get the group to imagine that they are Adam and Eve and discuss what life would have been like for them from before sin entered the world, right through to God providing a covering for them.

• What do you think it would have been like to witness the first ever death? (compare with Romans 6:23)
• How would Adam and Eve have felt to know that God still wanted them in spite of their sin, but that an animal had to be killed for them to be put right with him?

Week 1: Summary

Three characteristics of God that we can learn from this week’s study include:

• God wants us to have relationships with each other
• When God isn’t pleased with something, he puts it right
• God provided the necessary sacrifice for Adam and Eve to be made right with Him

…by the way, look again at that animal sacrifice… who/what does that remind you of?