It was at the very beginning where our problems began. The story of man started in the Garden of Eden. It was there that God created Adam. Adam was made in the image of God. God said about him, “It is good”. There were no imperfections in him. The same was true of Eve. Adam and Eve were perfect; they lived in the perfect environment in the Garden of Eden. No sin was to be found anywhere in the garden; there were no imperfections of any kind to be found there. There was nothing that would cause them to turn their backs on God. Enter Satan, the enemy of man and God.
Until then, Adam and Eve had a perfect fellowship with God. It was a fellowship that can only be envied and imagined by us today. They knew who God was and had a good perception of Him. Then Satan entered and sowed a seed of doubt, which caused Adam and Eve to question who God was. Did He really have their best interests at heart? From that moment until now, it has been a downward spiral for mankind, adopting Satan’s agenda: “I will be like the most high.” Since then, mankind has tried to rise above God, replacing Him with their own efforts and high opinion of themselves and their abilities.
Adam and Eve did not have learned knowledge, they had God-given knowledge. Adam would have had to be very intelligent to name all the thousands of animals. Think about it. To name thousands of animals without duplicating any names and to remember them all would be far beyond most, if not all, people’s capabilities today.
However, there was certain knowledge that God did not give them, such as the knowledge of good and evil. God did not want them to experience evil.
When God said that Adam and Eve would die if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He was not referring to physical death. Because of sin entering the world, mankind would now have a physical death, rather than live forever. Adam and Eve would have lived forever in the Garden of Eden had they not sinned. God created man in His image. He looked at what He created and said it was very good. He had not created man to die.
While a physical death is bad, a spiritual death is much worse. Because we live in a physical world, we tend to think of everything in the physical, therefore we tend to believe God was speaking of a physical death. He may have been speaking of both.
As hard as it is sometimes, we must always remember that the physical is now temporary, but the spirit is eternal. It is our spiritual souls that will live forever.
It was the spiritual death of Adam that broke the relationship between God and man. God could no longer have fellowship with man because there was now something that hindered that relationship. That something was the sin, the disobedience of Adam. If this had only involved Adam and Eve, that would have been bad enough, but it didn’t end there. Because Adam would be the father of the human race, his descendants would be born into sin. Because of this, we are all born with a sinful nature. One that we can never overcome while on this earth. We can battle it, and we should, but we will always be sinners while in this world. It is only by the grace of Jesus Christ that we will one day be able to leave this earth and our sinful nature behind. What a day that will be!
It is the blood Jesus shed on Calvary that covers our sin, making us pure and spotless, as white as snow, as we stand before the Father.
When we get to heaven, we will be returning to the relationship with God that man had in the beginning in the Garden of Eden. A perfect relationship, without a hint of sin.
Taken from “Delighting in the Lord.”
Books by Jerry, many of which you may read for free on Prime. All are priced as low as possible: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jerry-Blount/author/B06XK4GJT1
- Things You Probably Didn’t Learn in Church
- Basic Christianity: Living a Joy-Filled Life and Making a Difference
- The End Times: Signs and Prophecy
- Noah and the Great Flood: Proof and Effects
- Following Jesus and Fishing Along the Way: Stories of God’s Great Outdoors
- The Rapture: Coming Soon
- Delighting in the Lord: Enjoying a Close Walk with Jesus
- Evidence of God: Proof beyond Doubt
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