Joyfully Spreading the Word E-Book

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 265

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

You can be a part of the spread of the gospel in the world.  Here are theological reflections and real stories from women from across the world who are eagerly sharing the good news of Jesus wherever God has placed them—showing us just how possible it is to follow Jesus's call to evangelism in our ordinary, everyday lives.

Leseprobe

Thank you for downloading this Crossway book.

Sign up for the Crossway Newsletter for updates on special offers, new resources, and exciting global ministry initiatives:

Crossway Newsletter

Or, if you prefer, we would love to connect with you online:

“Read it and weep—joyfully! This book on evangelism for women, by women, carefully interweaves biblical exegesis with moving stories of gospel transformation and rejection from the diverse experiences of humble sisters in Christ. We are reminded that time is short, our mandate is clear, and King Jesus is glorious—yet we are weak and fearful, preoccupied, and inward looking. I love the book’s insistence on prayerful dependence on God to work, and the soul-burning witness to his answers to these prayers. We are repeatedly encouraged to know our Savior better, that we may proclaim the riches of his grace more fully and with greater nuance and sensitivity to context. It’s a book I want every Christian woman I know to read—because nothing matters more!”

Fiona Millar, Lecturer, Queensland Theological College

“Each and every day the Lord sends his people out all over the world with the same glorious commission: ‘Go and make disciples.’ Joyfully Spreading the Word shares faithful examples of disciple making in places of employment, universities, neighborhoods, and homes—rightly reminding us that wherever we are, we have the privilege of sharing the Word with others. This book will encourage and inspire you to see the mission field in your own backyard.”

Melissa Kruger, Editor, The Gospel Coalition; author, Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood and In All Things

“Have you been longing to share the gospel with your friends and neighbors but have been hesitant to initiate? If so, Joyfully Spreading the Word is the perfect place to begin. We all know that we should evangelize, yet most of us feel guilty that we rarely do it. This winsome collection from various writers reminded me of the daily opportunities I have to share my faith and gives me courage and tools to follow through. These women offer practical examples from everyday life, which makes this book so helpful. Read it—you’ll be stirred afresh to share the best news in the world!”

Vaneetha Rendall Risner, author, The Scars That Have Shaped Me

“This great book was written by women, but its content is for everyone. The authors truly understand what the Great Commission is all about. It is about not only proclaiming the gospel message, but about living it out every day and in every place. ‘The ambassador for Christ is never off duty,’ to use one of the many gospel phrases found in this book. By this, the authors mean that, regardless of where you live, work, or even visit, as a redeemed person, you are expected to live and share the good news of our Redeemer. Jesus said to go and make disciples, but if we are to live the gospel in everyday life, then we never stop going. That is the challenge in this book. Please buy, read, and apply this book. It is worthy.”

Miguel Núñez, Senior Pastor, International Baptist Church, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; President and Founder, Wisdom and Integrity Ministries

“Joyfully Spreading the Word is refreshingly rooted in delight rather than duty. It is a clarion call compelling all women to go, make disciples, and teach his commandments, coupled with the gentle reminder of the great comfort that he is with us always, to the end of the age.”

Karen Hodge, Women’s Ministry Coordinator, The Presbyterian Church in America; author, Transformed: Life-taker to Life-giver

“Biblical teaching, combined with personal examples and stories, make this book a warmhearted challenge for women to engage their everyday worlds with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Be encouraged by it, then take a risk and share your faith with someone around you.”

Mack and Leeann Stiles, authors, Mack & Leeann’s Guide to Short-Term Missions and Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus

“At heart, I’m a hesitant evangelist—and I don’t like that. ‘What should I say? How should I say it? Who would listen?’ That’s why I can heartily recommend Joyfully Spreading the Word. This theologically sound, guilt-free book answers those questions. Through a collection of stories and a variety of role models, it inspires readers with both the privilege and the urgency of the biblical mandate to go and share ‘the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus’ (2 Tim. 3:15). Read it, use it, and see if God won’t indeed prove through your life that his Word will not return empty, but will accomplish that which he purposes (Isa. 55:11).”

Jani Ortlund, Executive Vice President, Renewal Ministries

“A desire to reach the lost has often been the gate through which all sorts of unhelpful things have gained entrance into the church. And so I am grateful that Joyfully Spreading the Word is what so many books on evangelism are not: engaging and humane while still clear and faithful. I found each chapter to be thought provoking, challenging, and full of insight. As I read it, I found myself both scheming about ways to share the gospel in my circles, and also making a list of other people I wanted to point toward this resource. I recommend it wholeheartedly.”

Mike McKinley, Pastor, Sterling Park Baptist Church; author, Church in Hard Places; Am I Really a Christian?; and Church Planting Is for Wimps

Joyfully Spreading the Word

Other Crossway titles by The Gospel Coalition

Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day, edited by Kevin DeYoung (2011)

God’s Love Compels Us: Taking the Gospel to the World, edited by D. A. Carson and Kathleen B. Nielson (2015)

The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices, edited by D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller (2012)

Here Is Our God: God’s Revelation of Himself in Scripture, edited by Kathleen B. Nielson and D. A. Carson (2014)

His Mission: Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, edited by D. A. Carson and Kathleen B. Nielson (2015)

The Scriptures Testify about Me: Jesus and the Gospel in the Old Testament, edited by D. A. Carson (2013)

Word-Filled Women’s Ministry: Loving and Serving the Church, edited by Gloria Furman and Kathleen B. Nielson (2015)

Joyfully Spreading the Word

Sharing the Good News of Jesus

Kathleen Nielson and Gloria Furman,editors

Joyfully Spreading the Word: Sharing the Good News of Jesus

Copyright © 2018 by The Gospel Coalition

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Connie Gabbert

First printing 2018

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ASV are from the American Standard Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked CSB are from the Christian Standard Bible®. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.

Scripture references marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the authors.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-5943-3ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-5946-4PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-5944-0Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-5945-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Nielson, Kathleen Buswell, editor. | Furman, Gloria, 1980- editor.

Title: Joyfully spreading the word : sharing the good news of Jesus / Kathleen Nielson and Gloria Furman, editors.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, [2018] | Series: The gospel coalition | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017048084 (print) | LCCN 2018015600 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433559440 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433559457 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433559464 (epub) | ISBN 9781433559433 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433559464 (ePub)

Subjects: LCSH: Witness bearing (Christianity) | Women in Christianity.

Classification: LCC BV4520 (ebook) | LCC BV4520 .J69 2018 (print) | DDC 248/.5--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017048084

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2021-06-03 09:57:42 AM

To the women in this volume whose names have been changed or left out to protect their privacy—

those who have received the gift of faith in Christ Jesus, and those we pray will yet believe,

those who have been spreading the good news for years, and those who have only just begun.

Oh, the stories of grace being woven around the globe, stories we shall spend eternity unraveling, with joy, together giving glory to our Savior.

Contents

Introduction

Kathleen Nielson

Part 1

CORE CONCERNS

1  The Glorious What of Evangelism

Becky Pippert

2  The Heart of the Evangelist

Megan Hill

3  The Cultural Mandate and the Great Commission

Camille Hallstrom

4  Mercy Ministry and Proclamation Ministry

Eowyn Stoddard

Part 2

REPRESENTATIVE CONTEXTS

5  Spreading the Word in Everyday Life

Gloria Furman

6  Spreading the Word among Children

Jamie Love

7  Spreading the Word among University Students

SharDavia Walker

8  Spreading the Word in the Workplace

Happy Khambule

9  Spreading the Word among Friends Identifying as LGBTQ

Rosaria Butterfield

10  Spreading the Word in Diverse Contexts

Women All around You

Appendix: Representative Resources for Evangelism

Contributors

Notes

General Index

Scripture Index

Oh, magnify the Lord with me,

and let us exalt his name together!

Psalm 34:3

Introduction

Kathleen Nielson

This is a book by women and mainly for women—but certainly not all about women. It’s about the gospel and sharing the gospel—making known the good news that God has redeemed us sinners through the death and resurrection of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we are called to believe and find life. As women in the church learn and grow together, following Paul’s instruction to Titus that older women should teach the younger ones “what is good” (Titus 2:3), a call to evangelism must be a crucial part of the good things passed on. Although it is clearly the concern of the whole church, the subject of sharing the gospel is one that women will do well to consider deeply together. Let me suggest three specific reasons why.

1. Evangelism Turns Us Outward

First, believing women need to hear voices calling us to a gospel-centered outward focus—rather than a self-centered, inward one. Especially in Western contexts where many Christians have lived comfortably for a long time, there is often a lack of passion and clarity about communicating the gospel to those who don’t know Christ. I regularly find a great deal of passion among women for personal issues, amid the challenges of relatively well-to-do lives that can leave us stressed or lazy or worried about physical appearances or tempted by easily available, ungodly entertainment. It is easy for many of us to focus on inward-oriented questions that are important but that can fill our thoughts: questions about self-image and identity, emotional health, finding just the right work and finding satisfaction in that work, etc. When we do turn outward toward social issues and actions—and, happily, we increasingly do—the temptation is to turn with passion to the physical and emotional needs that move our hearts. Why are we not equally moved, or even more moved, to share the good news of Jesus and how he can meet the greatest and eternal needs of every needy human being?

Questions concerning sharing the good news of Jesus need not cancel out other, more inward questions. A focus on the gospel and the power of the gospel inevitably feeds our own souls in remarkable ways. At the Gospel Coalition’s 2016 National Women’s Conference, a workshop panel assembled to discuss the topic, “Evangelism: Sharing the Reason for Our Hope.”1 The panel brought together women who minister in universities and neighborhoods and cross-cultural settings—but, most important, it brought together women on whose lips is regularly the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Their hearts for the gospel came through, not in a theoretical way, but with loving care for the people around them who have not received the gift of eternal life in Christ. Their hearts for the Lord himself came through; it was clear that in sharing the Lord Jesus, they had come to know and love him even more deeply and securely. We heard these voices on the panel calling us to evangelism, and we knew it would be good to hear more.

2. Evangelism Thrives on Role Models

We’re already talking about the second reason women should be considering together the subject of personal evangelism: there are great role models who can teach us biblically and well. For many years, Rebecca Manley Pippert has served as a wonderful public role model; with her classic book Out of the Salt Shaker, Becky helped shake many of us awake to the beauty and the real possibility of talking with people about Jesus and seeing them drawn by God to faith. What confirms the goodness of Becky’s model is that she has continued powerfully to inspire many on this subject, serving in recent decades more internationally than in her native United States. I’m grateful she has agreed to join us in this volume on a subject she has lived out personally and with faithful perseverance.

Such role models, of course, speak not only to women. And, indeed, such public role models must join a host of private ones, so that we will all know we’re part of a family enterprise, a whole prayerful purpose of the body of Christ to see the church grow by adding new believers. But it is true that women can play a significant part in this enterprise in a myriad of ways—and one way is through offering role models to the next generation, to help them envision just what a woman with a heart to share the gospel looks like in action. We’re hoping that the voices in this book will offer some helpful role models and inspire a whole lot more.

The contributors are women simply serving in the places where God put them, showing and sharing the good news of what God has done to save us through his Son. Many of these women juggle a variety of contexts, mixing home and work and friendship and hospitality and mercy ministry in that sometimes-chaotic combination that makes up many women’s lives. We hope the multiple involvements highlighted by these women will spur others on to see that we can share the gospel from any and every life context, from a kitchen table to an office desk to a podium in front of thousands. We hope these women’s stories will stimulate creative thinking concerning the possibility of reaching out not just to people across the globe but to neighbors across the street and people across town. Speaking of stories—we hope you enjoy them; there are a lot of compelling stories in this book, and just telling them turned out to be one of the most effective means of lighting up the subject of evangelism in a most personal way.

We also hope these voices will spur us on to increasingly careful, consistent study of God’s Word—not simply in order to feed ourselves, but also to feed others with the Word of truth. The contributors to this volume are women who have immersed themselves deeply in the Scriptures. Their thoughts and words are full of God’s Word. Their articulations of clear gospel apologetics grow from the very logic and flow of the Old and New Testaments, with Jesus at the center of the story. They would remind us that it is the Word of God that makes people wise for salvation (2 Tim. 3:15). They call us to trust this Word as the sword of the Spirit, and they provide heartening examples of what it looks like to wield this sword with excellence, humility, and trust in God alone for the salvation of those he calls. Hearing these women’s voices will help transform our picture of Bible study from that of a routine meal to an ever-larger table where we get to share an amazing feast.

3. Evangelism Is Urgent

Third, and finally, women should be considering deeply together the subject of personal evangelism because we sense the urgency of teaching each other this part of “what is good.” The paragraph immediately following Paul’s instructions to Titus concerning the various groups within the church gives the big reason for all his instructions:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:11–13)

The emphasis in this passage is God’s redemptive work through Jesus Christ that has come for “all people,” and that happens in a certain time frame—a time frame that will culminate in the second coming of the Lord Jesus to earth, in all his glory.

What Paul calls the “present age” is the same period also referred to in Scripture as the “last days” (Acts 2:17; Heb. 1:2). These terms describe the time in which we now live—the time between Jesus’s first and second coming. It’s a time of taking salvation to all the nations, as believers spread the good news, until Jesus’s return. According to his clear command before he left the earth, Jesus’s calling of believers during this time is to “go . . . and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:18–20).

That command was given to Jesus’s disciples and is passed on through them to the church, with its preachers and teachers and evangelists who lead the church in making and teaching disciples both near and far. This volume’s contributors love and depend on the context of the church, and specifically local congregations, for the work of the Great Commission. (Watch for how many of their stories make local churches a part of the action!) This book celebrates participation in the Great Commission by every single church member, under the leadership of pastors and elders. And this book in particular encourages women to feel the urgency of this call, just as did the women in the early church. Just think of all those fellow female workers mentioned by Paul: Phoebe, Prisca, Mary, Junia, Tryphaena and Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus’s mother, Julia, and Nereus’s sister (see Romans 16).

Among people who enjoy all the economic progress and technological enlightenment of the twenty-first century, rather than urgency there can be even a slight embarrassment about the simple truth that the Bible lights up the way to salvation through Jesus. That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who died for us, bearing our sins and suffering the wrath of God in our place; that he rose from the grave, providing eternal life for all who believe in him—this is indeed the good and relatively simple news the Bible teaches and Christians get to share. We share it today in a time when the church is growing fast all over the globe, even in nations that are politically “closed” but where King Jesus is at work through his people and his Word (and through some of the women writing here). It is urgent news indeed, as the hope of Jesus’s coming draws ever nearer.

Called to Faith and Called to Share It

Co-editor Gloria Furman and I are praying that this book will further the conversation among women concerning this call to share the good news of Jesus. We all need voices calling us to a gospel-centered outward focus. We need strong, Word-filled role models. And we need a sense of the urgency of this message, this message that calls people from death to life through the power of the gospel. This is the bread of life that lasts forever, and we need to share it.

The women writing in this book have greatly encouraged me, and I hope they will encourage you. They come from different cultures, denominations, age groups, family situations, and backgrounds. And from all those spots where God has placed them, they are reaching out with the gospel. I can do this too, and so can you, by God’s grace. God has reached into the life of every believer, calling each one to himself by the Spirit, through faith in Christ—and then calling each one to give testimony to that faith to those around them, until Jesus comes again.

These women all celebrate the fact that it is God who does the calling, from start to finish. That is the joyful confidence these chapters exude. God calls us by his Spirit and according to his Word, to faith in Christ—who is with us always, to the end of the age.

Part 1

Core Concerns

1

The Glorious What of Evangelism

Becky Pippert

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most glorious, liberating news that has ever graced our weary, battered planet. Just before the resurrected Jesus ascended into heaven he commanded his disciples to share this good news, and that command extends to all of his followers—in our towns, our communities, and to the ends of the earth. His instructions have nothing to do with our gifts or personality types! He simply commanded, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19 NIV; cf. Acts 1:8). The best decision anyone anywhere can ever make, in response to God’s grace, is to become a disciple of Jesus Christ—by faith in his death on the cross in our place and his resurrection from the dead that promises eternal life. Nothing is more important. Nothing.

The cultural landscape can seem daunting to those who would share this good news—especially those in the Western world. Many pundits and analysts say that America in particular is moving in the direction of secular Europe. The Christian church is growing dramatically in other parts of the globe—but not so much in the West, where, with the impact of advanced modernity, influential voices are becoming increasingly hostile and antagonistic to true Christian faith. Today any statement of biblical truth about God is often seen as arrogant, intolerant, and politically incorrect.

But a truth-denying culture doesn’t have the power to take away people’s longing for meaning and worth. If anything, it exacerbates it. God has placed in all human beings the longing for identity, purpose, and relationship, even if people can’t quite articulate what they feel they are missing. Yet how will unbelievers know where to look unless Christians both live and tell the good news of what God has done for us in Christ?

Still, our present culture poses increasing challenges for the gospel. For example, I recently had a conversation with a woman who said, “I believe we must honor the god who dwells within our psyche and trust our hearts to guide us—and Oprah really agrees with me!”

A “New Age” devotee1 told me she no longer believes in the Christian God (if she ever did) because God hadn’t answered her prayers for her sister’s recovery from cancer: “When she died, I knew I had to find a belief system that deifies the human self, so I could exercise greater control.” I asked her if she was experiencing any challenges in her NewAge faith: “Well,” she said, “I haven’t quite grasped how to fully apprehend my deity—I think that’s why I’m not seeing the answers I want.”

Another woman told me that she was a convinced atheist and that life had no meaning: “Human beings are nothing more than meaningless pieces of protoplasm. There is no God—which Darwin has so clearly proven.”

Christianity, of course, says something altogether different. Even though a great deal of the Christian message runs counter to our culture, we can still respond intelligently, persuasively, and winsomely to people with very different views. However, if we don’t understand what we believe, we won’t be persuasive in communicating our faith to others.

In my years as an evangelist, and as my husband and I have given evangelism training to believers all over the world, we have learned that the deepest motivation for witness comes by first understanding what we believe. It is our theology that must impact our methodology.Not to overlook the importance of the how—but it’s absolutely vital that we begin with the what. Never has this been truer than today, for in a truth-denying world, even Christians are tempted to lose confidence in the powerful truth of the gospel. This truth is personal truth: in understanding the what of our faith, we come to know more deeply and speak more clearly about the one in whom our faith rests.

How do we discover truth about who God is and what he has done for us in Christ? The Judeo-Christian faith is based not on what we think about God, but on what God has revealed about himself: Christianity is a religion of revelation. God has made himself known in many ways, but his primary revelation is through his written Word, the Bible, which reveals the Word made flesh: Jesus the Son of God. When we give testimony to our faith, we are sharing not just our own experience but our experience of God’s life-changing revelation to us in Christ.

So let’s follow the biblical storyline of that revelation: Creation—Crisis—Christ’s Redemption—Christ’s Return.

The Creator God and a Good Creation

In a world filled with multiple-choice starting points, we must start where the Bible starts: “In the beginning God . . .” (Gen. 1:1). In Genesis 1–2, we discover a great deal about who God is:

God is eternal and sovereign: God is without beginning or end, having no peer or competitor. God has absolute authority. He commanded and it was accomplished.God is the Creator:He created all things out of nothing; he needed no help. That God created the world means he is above and beyond all he has made, and is distinct from it.God is good: His character is righteous and holy, loving and merciful, trustworthy and faithful.God is personal and communicative:God is not some distant, impersonal power—or a detached mind—or an energy field. God is a loving, personal God who delights and shows parental, nurturing concern over what he creates.

This God created human beings as the apex of his entire creation—all finally declared by him to be “very good” (Gen. 1:31). What made human beings unique from all the rest of creation is that only humans were created in the image of God. Adam and Eve were given language, creativity, love, holiness, immortality, and freedom (within divine limits) to choose their actions. They were created to love and know God, to live in harmony with him and the rest of creation, to reveal God to the rest of his creation, and to rule the world as God’s stewards, under his sovereign, loving rule. This is our crucial starting point as we interact and share the good news with others: every single human being is created by God in the image of God.

Everything God created was made for God’s glory and for human benefit. Adam and Eve had an open, intimate relationship with God; a loving relationship with each other; fulfilling work to do; and a world full of pleasures, tastes, sights, and smells! They were created to enjoy God’s goodness and submit to God’s gracious will. All of Eden was given to them with only one restriction: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Gen. 2:16–17). God placed the tree in the center of the garden and clearly warned Adam and Eve of the consequence if they willfully chose independence instead of God-dependence: They would surely die.

But the principal feature of life—life as God intended—was a lavish gift. The gospel message from start to finish is God’s personal offer of amazing grace!

Crisis: The Fall and the Mess We Made of Things

People around us today often scoff at the notion of sin. Our world has new names for what ails us: poor self-esteem, neurosis, addiction, anxiety, psychological wounding, etc. It isn’t that these issues are not a reality; it’s that such analysis does not go deep enough to reveal the root cause.

Yet for all the protest that sin is an old-fashioned, outdated concept, nearly everyone agrees that something has gone terribly wrong and must be made right. We see the wrong in world wars, racism, genocides, terrorism, human trafficking, exploitation of children—and in our own personal battles evidenced in broken relationships, anger, addictions, and on and on.

What happened that caused our planet to go from paradise to our present brokenness? In Genesis 3, we discover that, though Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, they rejected God’s rule and chose to be self-ruled when they disobeyed God’s command not to eat the fruit of that tree. As a result, sin entered the human race: there is now no area of human personhood that is not infected by sin—even though we still reflect, however dimly, the image of God in which each human being is made. But the perfection God had established was broken, and human beings have been in the grip of sin ever since, as Genesis 4–11 so chillingly describes. Sin is such an all-inclusive reality on our planet that Paul says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Like Adam and Eve, all humans have chosen self-rule instead of God-rule.

That means that everything we see around us and in us that is so tragically wrong—natural disasters, famine, genocides, and all forms of personal brokenness—can be traced back to the time when human beings first rebelled against God. Into that garden came the evil Serpent, whom Revelation identifies as “that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan” (Rev. 20:2). The Bible reveals the reality of Satan and other supernatural beings who have rebelled against God and who do their best to tempt human beings to sin. Although the Bible reveals various forms of evil, such as corporate systemic evil and Satan and his demons—the Bible is clear that at the heart of sin is personal rebellion against God.

Genesis 3: Sin’s Essence and Sin’s Outcome

Over dinner, a skeptic psychiatrist friend described the typical problems that drive people to seek her help. Then she said: “But you’re a Christian, so you think the problem is that we’re all sinners!” I asked what she thought the biblical understanding of sin was, and she answered, “Oh, something along the lines of drugs, sex, and rock ’n roll?”

What my friend didn’t grasp is that from the biblical perspective, sin at its core isn’t just misdeeds. The Bible locates sin at the very center of human personality.