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NDwhen the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (Gen 3:6-7)
There is never a reason to disobey God. Today we have Ten Commandments by which we know sin and error; but in the Garden at Eden, our first parents, Adam and Eve, were given only ONE commandment, and this one commandment they failed to obey. “16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen 2:16-17)This first transgression has brought the fatal blood disease of sin and death upon the progeny of those first two parents. None can escape the taint of sin.
Adam was not deceived, but the woman, Eve, was deceived in the Garden. “14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (1 Tim 2:14)It is a good thing to have a trusting heart, but it is a bad thing to put one’s trust in any other than God. (see Ps 118:8 & Acts 5:29).
So, if Adam was not deceived, why did he partake of the forbidden fruit knowing he would surely die? I believe that Adam, being a type of Christ, ate of that fruit out of love for Eve. Adam is a type, though in the anti-type set, of Christ in that he is the father and progenitor of the human race. Christ is the firstborn of the heavenly race in the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as Christ was willing to die for His Bride, the Church, so was Adam willing to die for Eve his bride. But the main point of this is SIN has infected the entire human race, and indeed the world, through Adam’s Fall.
What was the fruit of the union of Adam and Eve? They had two sons – the first Cain, and the second Abel. The first man born upon the earth was a murderer of his own brother. Abel was a prophet, and was obedient to God in worship. “That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.” (Luke 11:50-51)Abel knew that there could be no covering for sin without the shedding of blood. “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Heb 9:22)You will recall that Abel brought a worthy sacrifice of his flock – a lamb; but Cain brought an offering of the product of his labors in the earth – a cursed source since the earth had been cursed by Adam’s sin. “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake.”(Gen 3:17)
The stage is now set for the spiral into the abyss for which sin is most noted. Cain, in a rage of jealousy, murdered his brother in the field.
The Lord asked three probing questions of Cain:
1. Why art thou wroth?
2. Where is Abel, thy brother?
3. What has thou done?
There are people in the world who resent your joy and happiness as a Christian; i.e. the politically correct crowd that would stifle your prayers, your Bible reading, and your righteous living. They are infuriated at your invoking the name of the God in whom they claim they do not believe. Why would they be so outraged, as was Cain, simply because we worship aright if they do not believe that your God exists? In fact, deep within their souls is a conviction that God does, indeed, exist; but, if they acknowledge His existence, they realize they are faced with the dilemma of either accepting His sovereign rule, or else being damned in the fires of Hell. They do not want to accept His rule. Like Cain, they wish to do everything according to their own discretion and not God’s.
“WHAT HAS THOU DONE?” God never asks a question for which He does not already know the answer. In fact, there is no unanswered question with God – nothing is hidden from His knowledge!
No one, either, escapes the eyes of God Almighty. His eyes are especially upon His beloved people: “15 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” (Psalm 34:15-16)But the wicked neither escape the notice or the hand of judgment of the Lord God. “. . . . they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” (Zech 4:10)“Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth.”(Amos 9:8)
Seeing that our primitive parents fell into the snare of sin by their failure to keep ONE law of God, what chance do you feel you have in keeping TEN, and that through a foundation of love of neighbor more than the love of self? Can we be so obedient that never a sinful act, a sinful thought, or a sinful wandering eye would ever disgrace our souls? If we could have kept the Commandments perfectly and without a single failure, we would not have needed a Redeemer. But we cannot, and we have not!
So, when we have made our calling and election sure through the gift of grace of our Lord, can we then live a sinless life? No, we cannot. It is true that the sanctifying graces of the Holy Ghost will enrich our love for God and neighbor so that we live remarkably in greater obedience than before coming to the Throne of Mercy and Grace; but we sin yet, and often.
In the economy of God’s Kingdom, not even a sliver of sin can be accepted. He is a God of Love, but He is also a God of perfection and judgment. Two great truths may bewilder our minds to consider:
1. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
2. For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)
So what is our case before the bar of judgment when we are subpoenaed to stand before that great Bar of Justice?
For the benefit of drawing us out into the bright Light of God’s truth, I purposely left out a part of each of those stunning great truths listed: Those parts omitted are: 1) “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” (Romans 3:24-25)You will note the precise legal terminology of this second part of Truth #1 – ‘justified freely by His grace.’ What a difference that addendum means to us! We are not innocent, but we are accounted righteous by the purchase of Christ with His own blood. We are not righteous, but we are ACCOUNTED righteous by having the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. We did NOTHING to deserve that privilege – it is a free gift! What of that second great TRUTH? It is, by nature, the same as the first: “For the wages of sin isdeath; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23)Note the gift of God is eternal life (a totally free gift) but with a stipulation. What is it? That gift is granted in only ONE way – “through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We all, in some way or another, bear the marks of Cain upon our stained souls, but God, in His Prescient Mind, made provision for our salvation by providing a means of redemption through the sacrifice of His only Begotten Son before the worlds were made. Adam and Eve were given the promise of that redemption in more ways than one. The foot of her seed (Jesus Christ) would one day crush the seed of the serpent’s head. The skins that the Lord used to cover the nakedness (sin) of Adam and Eve came from the death of an innocent animal – a foreshadow of the Lamb of God to be sacrificed some 4,000 years hence to cover our own sin and nakedness.
Abraham was given that greatest of all promises of a coming Savior, and not seeing its fruition, yet believed. And many others through the annals of time have clung to that promise in belief even though many in Israel did not believe. The true children of Israel were not those who rejected the promised Messiah, but those few of all races who believed. Job, too, believed: “23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! 24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! 25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” (Job 19:23-27)
Are you a child of God and of the family of Abraham, or do you belong to that other family headed by your father the devil, seeing there are only two families in all the world?
