Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: sin

  • Disaster From Disobedience, A Savior From Before Eden – 5

    Temptation: “Did God really say…?”

    Genesis 3:

    The Temptation and the Fall
    3 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

    Here it begins, original sin.

    I might have easily named this series, ‘Temptation Before Disobedience,’ yet we shall not fall into this pit. Rather than taking the more traveled path of placing blame on the already-fallen Satan, we shall examine the progression of our own disobedience to God.

    Genesis 2:17 .. but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

    One point of my previous post, knowledge of good and evil comes to man with overwhelming responsibility, as well as consequence for sin. Returning to Genesis 3 and Satan’s temptation for man’s disobedient fall:

    “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:5 

    So yes, we know of good and evil independently of obedience to God. Yet are we like God?

    In so many ways this frail, fallen flesh created in God’s imagine no longer reflects the Lord’s righteousness. Each reflection of our sin clouds the clarity of the Lord’s gleaming glory.

    And the Lord said of creation, “It is good;” yet in so many ways since man’s temptation to judge good and evil, it is not so good.

    Before we proceed past original sin, let’s briefly consider the relationship between Adam and Eve with the Lord prior to their temptation.

    God in the Garden Paradise

    No one has ever seen God. – John 1:18

    Image yourself as Adam if you are a man, or as Eve if you are a woman, walking in paradise with the Living God. (You have not yet sinned.) 

    Can you describe your personal relationship with the One who has created you and walks with you in Eden? What is the Lord like? 

    He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. – John 1:2-3

    In this paradise of Eden, the Person of the Lord seems to nurture a newborn existence in a vast and wonderful place. 

    Colossians 1:

    15 He is the image of the invisible God,
    the firstborn over all creation.
    16 For everything was created by Him,
    in heaven and on earth,
    the visible and the invisible…

    17 He is before all things,
    and by Him all things hold together.

    John 1:1

    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

    How would Adam or Eve described God before the fall?

    The Creator walks with us! He IS the image of the invisible God in whose image we are also created. The Lord is not an angel (though some later descriptions call Him ‘The Angel of the Lord’). God is a loving Person, a Father if you will, to both of us.

    But then… we both sinned…

    7 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened,” Moses records. It’s not that they were literally blind, but by their new-found knowledge they now saw, heard and realized things they never needed to know.

    Eyes Opened to our Sin

    We heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and we hid  from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. We were naked. Although we had always been naked, something told us that no one else should see us that way, so we clothed ourselves with leaves.

    We heard the familiar voice of the Lord:

    “Where are you?”

    We had never hidden from Him. Adam called out from behind the trees for both of us:

    10 And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

    “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

    Of course… we had.

    And somehow we knew that it was wrong. Never before had we ever considered that anything we had done had been either right or wrong. We just did it and lived with great joy in paradise.

    Well, you know the rest. Excuses, punishment for our disobedience… 

    We then began our schooling in the differences between blessing and curse. But now it was too late, for we could not go back to the Paradise where we had lived in overflowing joy with the Lord God.

    When the Lord had blessed us He had commanded, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.” Now beyond Eden these words to fill the earth, and subdue it seem burdensome rather than a blessing. And the Lord has said that we now have only a lifetime to begin that which once seemed timeless.

    The Lord says that we now have eyes to see and ears to hear what is good and what is evil. Be careful to do all that is good and shun what is evil He has said. 

    How long, O Lord, until you will return us to your glory? More than a lifetime? 

    And what must it be like to first return to the dust…

    To be continued…

     

     

     

  • Disaster From Disobedience, A Savior From Before Eden – 4

    He was in the world,
    and the world was created through Him,
    yet the world did not recognize Him.

    John 1:10

    What did God intend for man in paradise (Eden) in the beginning?

    Creation of Adam

    Genesis 2:

    7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

    This then, is really the beginning as far as man is concerned; but we must ask more. Man, we ask: what did Moses mean to say about the first man of flesh created by God?

    Genesis 1:26-27 KJV excerpt

    And God said,

    Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…

    1:27 וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָֽאָדָם בְּצַלְמֹו בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתֹו זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָֽם׃

    So God [‘elohiym] created man [adam] in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

    • References to God are plural, not singular. Yet the One God is not consulting with other gods (a concept we shall not explore here).
    • We are like God, not like the animals of God’s creation.
    • Creation references to man, translated from ‘adam’ include male and female.

    God creates a perfect world, giving men and angels the freedom to obey and serve. But we don’t obey and therefore no longer live in a perfect paradise.

    What is paradise?

    Paradise would be a place where all men and women, all creatures of earth and all angelic beings live together in harmony with God. We take our cultural meaning of paradise from the Greek word παράδεισος, but in the definition of Eden differs. 

    Adam in Eden

    Continuing in Genesis 2:8

    The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. 9 The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food…

    Do you know what it means, ‘Eden,’ that is?

    Pleasure. And man’s role was to care for the garden of our pleasure.

    Garden of Eden Jacopo Bassano, 1570-73 Oil on canvas; Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome

    15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

    Yes such a pleasurable work, tending the perfect place where the Lord walked with man. Follow the Lord’s command and have eternal life (although in Adam’s bliss he knew of no alternative.)

    16 And the Lord God commanded the man,

    “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

    A Helper

    Moses then continues with the separate account of the creation of woman from man; that is, Eve. Much is made of her, ‘the female of the species made in God’s image.’ For as Moses testifies:

    18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.”

    v.22 KJV And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

    Think of it dear brother, the Lord filled our emptiness of existence without a ‘helper’ at our side with one like us and for us. Therefore she is created as our ‘better half,’ as we become one.

    23 And the man said:

    This one, at last, is bone of my bone
    and flesh of my flesh;
    this one will be called “woman,”
    for she was taken from man.

    24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

    The Knowledge of Good and Evil

    Paradise, an illustration of Eden: man, woman, plants and animals, food and meaningful work. The created heavens above and bountiful beautiful earth in every direction. The Lord walked and talked with them! 

    Genesis 1:28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.

    Paradise but for one generation due to just one bad decision.

    One command from God to man and everything else filled with the freedom of eternal joy in Eden on earth. Paradise.

    Again, recalling from Genesis 2:17 “..but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…”

    Why not, you ask? Ah, but we are already sinners questioning God every day.

    For Adam did not have to ask what to do, just obey the Lord’s one command. Think about it, the definition that he did not need was that of good and evil.

    God’s simple command to Adam could easily be defined:

    “Good is to obey God, evil is to disobey God.”

    Why would anyone disobey the all-powerful, all-knowing, compassionate and gracious Lord, who created us to be a human image of Him?

    But of course, we all do… and it is sin, by definition, evil.

    The moment Adam and Eve made their decision to disobey God, the moment Adam and Eve knew that that had chosen evil over obedience; our lives and existence began to overflow with needless questions and numerous wrong answers. 

    Do not blame the serpent or others, demons or even your parents and our first parents, Adam and Eve.

    We were created for obedience to God who defines good. Yet we all choose to go against God of our own free will, just as Satan and various angels had disobeyed.

    God IS God! And we are not.

    Original and Continuing Sin

    In Disaster From Disobedience – 3 we examined the fall of the Tempter and will not dwell on his role in Eden. We now carry the burden of the knowledge of good and evil, we carry the burden of our own sin.

    Next we will examine the progression from Adam’s one command from God to the man’s disobedience through the generations. Evil and sin will lead us to the requirements of the Law and convictions of our disobedience.

    To be continued…

     

     

     

  • Crushed

    Crushed

    Let’s get something straight:

    You are not good enough for Heaven. I am not even good enough for my church, my wife or my child.

    If we cannot do enough good works to earn our place with a Holy God, how will we ever pay what we owe for our many sins?chained to sin

    Answer:

    We can not.

    No work we can do is good enough to pay the high price of our sins.

    Five hundred years ago Martin Luther and many others sought to reform church leadership. Those protesting rejected sacramental penance of man for the true repentance of a man’s heart won back to God.

     

    For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

    Ephesians 2:8

     

    Why did the LORD send Jesus to the Cross for my sins?

    A most unattainable thing about goodness: We cannot attain it. We will always trespass. We will always sin.

     

    Romans 7:

    crushed by guilt15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

    18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

    19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

     

    The Scriptures foretold of the coming of the Christ, who IS in the Person of Jesus.

    Around 700 B.C., the Prophet Isaiah [in chapter 53] described the Savior of Israel, the Redeemer of the world:

    He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
    and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
    Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
    yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.

    But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
    upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.

    All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
    and the LORD has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

    Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;

    when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
    the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

    Isaiah 53:10

    What good work will your soul offer for your guilt?

    Mark 10:

    17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone…

    “… come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

    “Then who can be saved?”

    27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

     

    Are we good enough for Heaven?

    NOT without the grace of God by faith in Christ Jesus, alone.

    The generous philanthropy of the greatest foundation for charity to all the causes of good can not buy Heaven and eternal life for even one unrepentant sinner without the grace of faith in Jesus Christ.

    GOD gave breath to your spirit, formed you in your mother’s womb and calls you to a life by faith in the Spirit.

    Fellow sinner, when will you repent of your many sins?

    Are you not crushed by your sins when your mind is convicted in guilt and no good work will lift the burden from you? Do you still consider that another good work will pay the price of the Lord’s piercing and death for you?

    Confess your sin before Almighty God! Bow down your selfish will before Christ Jesus. Repent once more, dear fellow sinner. Turn back to the righteousness of our loving Father.

    For God intends for your brief journey here beneath the immeasurable heavens and timeless creation to glorify your Lord. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

    Let us confess that we among many cannot do good without the grace of God.

    We are saved by faith alone: in Christ Jesus, the only Son, One with the Father.

    Humble your failing flesh to guidance of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus, eternal Judge of all mortal souls.

    crushed by guiltREPENT! Self-righteous sinner.

    Turn back to the LORD by faith in Christ Jesus,

    While it is yet today;

    Before you are crushed

    By sin and death,

    Before your good legacy becomes

    Another forgotten rotting vanity.