The Majestic Mystery of Great Salvation, Part 3
Consequence of sin
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-“(Romans 5:12)
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
God created man and placed him with perfect order in a garden to enjoy perfect peace, joy and happiness. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed, they were at once stricken with guilt and they hid themselves with shame. Guilt and fear replaced the peace and happiness they knew. Here was the beginning of a troubled world- and a troubled mind. Like Adam and Eve, when you are out of tune with God, fears and anxieties crowd into your life. When you focus your attention on the uncertainties of life, on a changing, decaying world, your security and confidence are shaken. Your peace is disturbed. Sin has separated man from God. “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6).” “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Guilt, fear, irritation, resentment, selfishness, and other hostile impulses plague man wherever he goes. They bring weariness and mental exhaustion. The love of self was at the root of the first disobedience of man. It continues to be the one of the first basic evil inclinations that takes you down the path of despair and heartache. The longer you travel the path of self-centeredness, the more troubled you become
The accounts of the first sin, which we find in the third chapter of Genesis, acquire a greater clarity in the context of creation. It begins with the conversation between the tempter, presented under the form of a serpent, and the woman. This is something completely new. Until then the Book of Genesis had not spoken of the existence in the created world of other intelligent and free beings, apart from the man and the woman. The description of creation in chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis concerns the world of "visible beings." The tempter belongs to the world of "invisible beings,” even though for the duration of this conversation he is presented by the Bible under a visible form. The human sin at the beginning of history, the primordial sin of which we read in Genesis 3, occurred under the influence of this being. The "ancient serpent" tempted the woman: "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'" She replied: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman: "You shall not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:1-5). The tree "of the knowledge of good and evil" denotes the first principle of human life to which a fundamental problem is linked. The tempter knows this very well, for he says: "When you eat of it...you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
The tree therefore signifies the insurmountable limit for man and for any creature, however perfect. The creature is always merely a creature, and not God. Certainly he cannot claim to be "like God," to "know good and evil" like God. God alone is the source of all being, God alone is absolute Truth and Goodness, according to which good and evil are measured and from which they receive their distinction. God alone is the eternal legislator, from whom every law in the created world derives, and in particular the law of human nature. As a rational creature, man knows this law and should let himself be guided by it in his own conduct. He himself cannot pretend to establish the moral law, to decide himself what is good and what is bad, independently of the Creator, even against the Creator. Neither man nor any other creature can set himself in the place of God, claiming for himself the mastery of the moral order. This is contrary to creation's own ontological constitution which is reflected in the psychological-ethical sphere by the fundamental imperatives of conscience and therefore human conduct.
God who as Creator is the sole source of the good granted to all creatures, and especially to spiritual creatures. They had contested the truth of existence, which demands the total subordination of the creature to the Creator. This truth was supplanted by an original pride, which led them to make their own spirit the principle and rule of freedom. They were the first who had claimed the power "to know good and evil like God." They had chosen themselves over God, instead of choosing themselves "in God," according to the demands of their existence as creatures, for "who is like God?" By yielding to the suggestion of the tempter, man became the slave and accomplice of the rebellious spirits!
We read in Genesis 3: "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate" (Gen 3:6).So detailed in its own way, what does this description reveal? It attests that the first man acted against the will of the Creator, under the influence of the tempter's assurance that "the fruits of this tree serve to acquire knowledge." It does not seem that man had fully accepted the totality of negation and hatred of God contained in the words of the "father of lies." Instead, he accepted the suggestion to avail himself of a created thing contrary to the prohibition of the Creator, thinking that he also “could be "like God, knowing good and evil."
Consequently Sin separated man from God and Man’s basic crisis is Separation from God. Those who break God’s law will have to pay a heavy price. Because you are a sinner, you are condemned to death. Paul says, “For the wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23). Even those who escape the consequences of sin in this world will have to face God at the judgment. There, they will not be able to escape. We already know from scripture that Satan fell into sin prior to the work of God beginning in Gen. 1:3. He was a beautiful angel originally, rejoicing at God’s Creation (Job 38:4-7), but he sinned and was judged by God (Isa. 14:12-17; Ezek. 28:11-19). Note that Satan came to Eve in the appearance of a serpent, for he is a deceptive spirit and seldom appears to people in his true character. In Gen. 3, Satan is the serpent who deceives; in Gen. 4, he is the liar that murders (John 8:44).John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” We must take care to avoid his deceptive ways.
The very first way Satan attacked the mind of man, is still his favorite tactic today:“Did God really say…” When Eve began to doubt what God had said, or more specifically, when she began to question if He really meant it – Satan had his foot in the door. If Satan can get us to question God’s Word – to begin to doubt what God has already said – or to ask ourselves did God really mean what He said – then He has the door wide open in our minds. And he is cunning – crafty – and our minds are no match for his schemes.
Unfortunately it is not an isolated event at the dawn of history. How often is one confronted with facts, deeds, words and conditions of life in which the legacy of that first sin is evident! Due to the sinful nature of our attitude, we tend to blame everyone for our own misfortunes and for the evil in the world. We point our finger at our parents, our teachers, politicians but almost never at the target that we should. Yet the habit of blaming others did not begin with modern trend. Already in the Garden of Eden Adam blamed Eve and she blamed the serpent. Since then everyone has blamed everybody else, and there seems to be no end in sight for this blaming mania. However, Chesterton advices us that to take a good look at ourselves in the mirror.
This is why we need to assimilate and apply God’s Word –Psalmist says: “Thy words have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against thee.” John says, “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4). (Sin is Willful breaking of law or transgression.) “All wrongdoing is sin….” (All unrighteousness is sin) (1 John 5:17). Paul says, “….. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” (Rom. 14:23). Then James declares, “So any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to him it is sin...” (James 4:17). Sin is also defined to be that of missing the mark. In other words, God’s law is there, but when one does not live according to it or when one breaks it, he misses the mark – that is SIN.
One of man’s greatest desires is to live in peace, or the absence of war and conflict. However, hostilities are the result of man’s sinful nature and will never be abolished on this sin-cursed earth. Bible says. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”(Jeremiah 17:9-10)
Although our soul longs for God, our sinful nature rebels at His ways. Part of us yearns for God and part of us reaches for fleshly desires. Our hearts are a battleground of continual conflict. This inner struggle causes tension and excessive strain. Without God we are “like troubled sea. “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, for it cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked” (Isaiah 57:20)
There can be no peace until all of life- mind, body, and spirit- are coordinated by the One who made us and understands us. He is not only master of the world but knows your life and mine from the beginning to the end. He was thinking of us when He came into the way of peace. “Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:79)
God’s Love is so magnificent?
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”(John 3:16)
The very reason for creation, the purpose for which God made us and the most complete life, is found in the Holy Scripture. God created the world for His glory. He created it to make His glory known. Or in other words, He created the world in order to display the infinite worth of His attributes. He wants to show how beautifully perfect He is, to begin looking into this; we need to go all the way back to Genesis 1:26-28. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
God created man in His image. That means that God created mankind in such a way that they will reflect God's image (His glory). To reflect God's image is to reflect His greatness, His excellence, His beauty. He then commands Adam and Eve to "Be fruitful and multiply." He wants them to fill the earth with His image. So then, the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. Isaiah 43:7 very bluntly states why Israel was created. It says, "Everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, even whom, I have made." We were created for God's glory. Genesis 5:3 says that the first man Adam later "begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth." So God was essentially reproducing Himself through humanity. Hence “We are the offspring of God." Therefore God’s purpose goes far beyond the creation of mortal, perishable human beings. He is in the process of fashioning and forming "a new creation" fathering His own spiritual children—immortal and incorruptible children instilled with His very nature and character. The more we understand just what that means, the more spellbound we will become—at not only the majesty of God's salvation and mystery of his purpose but at what this bring about for each of us personally. Psalm 8:3-4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? .
This desire and love in God's heart not only moved Him to create us. It also urged Him to go through a process so that He could enter into us and make us His expression. He, the infinite God, humbled Himself to become a finite human being named Jesus Christ. In Him, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt, and through Him, all the fullness of the Godhead was expressed. Everything He did, said, and thought was a pure expression of God in humanity. This brought the highest delight to God, for in Jesus Christ, His eternal purpose began to be fulfilled in that a man was fully expressing God. Then the Lord Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified on a wooden cross in order that through death, the God-expressing life that resided within Him could be released and made available to us. He then resurrected from the dead to become the life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, God is able to dispense everything that He is and has into us so that we can become exactly what He is—the expression of God in humanity. Unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing himself to us.
God is constantly initiating and seeking man to come to him. Malcolm Muggeridge, socialist and philosophical author, wrote, "I had a notion that somehow, besides questing, I was being pursued." C.S. Lewis said he remembered, "...night after night, feeling whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England."Lewis went on to write a book titled, "Surprised by Joy" as a result of knowing God.
God created us with the intention that we would know him. He has surrounded us with evidence of himself and he keeps the question of his existence squarely before us. Hence nobody can really escape thinking about the possibility of God. God's first question asked in Genesis 3:9. Adam and Eve had just eaten some fruit from the forbidden tree and, sensing God's presence in the Garden of Eden, they hid among the trees. While they were hiding, God asked Adam a one-word question “Where are you?" It is a really great and short question, but in order to apprehend its greatness we must first get beyond the initial and justified reaction that this is a simple question. How, we have every right to ask, is it that the omniscient Lord of the universe, the One who spoke and the world came into being, the One who set the stars in their places and the sun in its course, the One who said to the ocean, this shall be your boundary, the God of all vision-how could it be that such a God had to ask Adam where he was?
The first question in the Bible teaches us that God seeks to ask His people questions. The Lord God asked, “Where are you, Adam?” It is a question that echoes through history, “Where are you?” A question asked of every human being at every time and in every place, “Where are you? How did you get there? What have you become?” The answer added nothing to God’s knowledge, but it helped Adam understand where he was and it made clear his predicament. We need to know where we are. We need to know the difference between our illusions and His reality. God asks the deep questions because we avoid asking them. Where are you? I was hiding behind a tree because I knew my nakedness. We have learned to hide behind so many other trees.
The whole Bible is the story of God seeking man. Man is on the run before God because he knows that he is guilty before God. However, God comes and seeks us and wants to reestablish a relationship of mutual love. It is God who takes all necessary steps to make this possible again. That is the story of the Bible from the first to the last book where we finally read about the new heaven and the new earth: "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God." (Revelation 21:3)
The questions that God asks are not so much for His sake as they are for us.
God wants to draw us near to Himself, and to search and know us. God delights in His children coming to Him and hearing Him as He speaks by His Spirit through His Word. He wants to speak to us, and for us to learn to listen to Him (Deut. 6:4; Prov. 2:1ff).When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they had gone their own way. They had lived according to their own plans, and done what was right in their own eyes Gen. 3:1-7. They had willingly broken fellowship and communion with God. Rather than truly listening and learning from their wonderful Creator and LORD, they chose to do their own will. Yet God graciously came to our first parents, and sought them out, even when they were not looking for Him! The Bible tells us that God came “walking in the garden in the cool of the day”(Gen. 3:8). Rather than join God for fellowship as would have been their normal practice and delight, Adam and Eve actually sought to hide from God because of the fear and shame that sin produces. Sin may cause us to hide from God, but in His mercy God seeks after His own.
Adam’s reaction to sin is the same reaction of man today. The moment an individual is out of communion with God, he/she wants to hide from Him. When God originally placed Adam and Eve in the garden, they were in communion with their Creator. Moses writes that God talked with Adam. But now that he has fallen, Adam has no desire to see his Creator; he has lost communion with his God, he cannot bear to see Him, and he runs to hide from God. But to his hiding place his Maker follows him. “Where are you?”
Several thousand years have passed away since the creation of the heavens and the earth, and yet this text in Genesis 3:9 has come rolling down the ages. This verse has resonated through the ages, especially the question that God asked Adam: “Where are you?” It is well for individuals to pause and to ask themselves the same question that God asked Adam and Eve. Where do you stand in your relationship to God? One must come to grips with his/her spiritual status. Have you asked yourself the question that God asked Adam? If not, why not? Whether you are an old man or young, you will soon be in another world. Since this is so, then one must reconsider his or her life by confronting the question head-on: “Where are you?”
Satan, sin and shame may drive us away from God, but God intends by grace to draw His dear children near to Him! (John 6:37, 44; James 4:8).John Calvin wrote: “No one will dedicate himself to God until he be drawn by His goodness, and embrace Him with all his heart. He must therefore call us to Him before we call upon Him; we can have no access till He first invites us…allured and delighted by the goodness of God.”What grace we behold in God coming to speak to the hearts of our first parents- -and to our hearts today!
God comes to us and asks us the question “Where are you?” so that we can see our need for Him and turn to Him and be restored from our sinfulness. God graciously promises His people that if we will turn to Him, He promises that He will have mercy on us and forgive us. God desires to restore His relationship to mankind that was broken by the fall. God desires to restore you to communion with Him right now. God asks us the question “Where are you?” so that we will be brought to see our sins and repent of them, finding grace in our time of need (Heb. 4:14-16).
Love is what we all want. To be loved is the most amazing thing that can happen to you. Where can you go to feel completely accepted? Where can you look to find unconditional love? There is only one place where love never disappoints. The picture of pure, passionate love is caught in the frame of Jesus loving you while hanging on the cross. God made His love visible in Christ. And Jesus showed that love is measure not merely by feeling, but by sacrifice. How can you know pure love? Imagine asking Jesus, “How much do you love me?” He would stretch out His arms, with His nail-pierced hands, and say, “This much”. You can experience His pure love. You can’t deny it or make up for it. So how do you get free from your guilt? Can anyone help? Your sin and guiltiness had to be punished and paid for. That’s how serious God is about your guilt. Jesus was brutally beaten and killed because that is what it took for us to be forgiven of our sins. It was an enormous cost that He was willing to pay for you.
Ask to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift that Jesus freely extends to you- but you must accept it for it to be yours. You can experience complete forgiveness. Where can you turn to experience ultimate wholeness? What has God done to make it possible for one to be saved from sin: God seeing that man was in sin, lost, and without hope, then He sent His Son into this world to die on the Cross that man might be saved.
No one who is not saved from sin here can be saved from hell hereafter. No one can see the kingdom of Heaven above, unless the kingdom of God be in him below. Whoever will reign with Christ in heaven must have Christ reigning in him on earth. Therefore let our whole life flow out in a trend with the word of God, until it wears a channel in holiness and Divine communion and character. If you are born of God, if God has planted in you divine life, which, in theology is called regeneration. If there has been a birth from God, there will also be growth from God.
To be continued….
