THE HUMAN BEING IS SINFUL
Through the
first Adam the humanity fell from the grace of God. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Christ Jesus our Lord" - Ro. 6:23. "As it is written:
There is none righteous, no not one" - Ro. 3:10.
Righteousness
through Faith
"But now a righteousness from God, apart
from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus"- Ro.3 :21-24
We find in
Genesis chapter three, described how the human being listened to the serpent
and decided to go after its own way. You know what it means to be a
sinner? To sin according to the
dictionary in its original text means "to miss the target". The human
being missed the target for which God had created him, as he went after his own
understanding. Because this way he would not find eternal life with God his
Father, that prepared everything for him. The serpent astutely induced the
human being to take their eye of the target, and thus way lose the vision of
the eternal missing the target. The serpent affirmed the opposite that God had
stated, just to get the humans eyes of the target, and therefore by doing so;
the human being fell into this trap.
God said:
Gn. 2:15-17: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to
work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "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 of it you will surely
die". And the serpent when he talked to Eve stating: "You surely will
not die”! The serpent did not say that
God had not said. The serpent said what he wanted the human being to do; the
serpent knew of the consequences of this, if they would do what it suggested.
When we have an option between what God says and what the enemy says, it is
wise to stay on God's side.
Please Read Gn. 3:1-7 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD
God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat
from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may
eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat
fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch
it, or you will die.' "You will not surely die," the serpent said to
the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman
saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and
also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some
to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them
were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves
together and made coverings for themselves”.
And the
woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the
garden: But of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it,
neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil. The serpent spoke what it
wanted the human being to do, because in doing so; it knew the consequences of
this, if human being would do what it suggested. “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it
and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free
to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely
die". And the serpent when she talked to Eve stating: "You surely
will not die”!
The serpent
quoted God wrong and Eve quoted Him wrong as well. When we have a choice
between what God says and what the enemy says, it is wise to stay on God's
side. It is essential to make a point of quoting exactly what God really did
say, and not hand over our interpretation of what God said. It was exactly in this
sentence that the serpent astutely made the human being lose the target in
their sight, and decide on what it wanted, switching the eternal happiness for
immediate pleasure. It was in their spiritual vision that they lost their
target. The focus was on something different now. Instant gratification was
what was before their eyes and they lost sight of the eternal goal, and
obviously died spiritually. Eve opted for an immediate satisfaction and with
it, lost what God had given them; the eternal. God had given instructions to
the human being, to work in the garden and he should not eat of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, because the day the human being would do so; it
would have its consequences.
As Eve
heard the snake, she decided to follow that suggestion, and with it fell from
Gods’ Grace. The human being as it heard the serpent give its comments, decided
to try it out, thus way falling from Gods’ Grace. In Romans 6:23 we read the
following about this: “for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God”. And in the chapter 6:23 we read: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord”
Wages of
missing the Target, which God had prepared for the creation He made in His Own
Image and Likeness. To fall short of God's grace simply means that from that
day our wages of sin; or from missing the target; is death. Adam and Eve before the fall, they enjoyed
the most intimate communion with God there in the Garden Eden; but now there
was a barrier between them. The spirit of the human being was dead. Now there
was a disconnection between the human being and their God; and God had put them
out of the Garden Eden. God told the woman he would provide a Savior for the
Human Being. But, praise God, this indeed was not the end of a loving story
between “God is Love” and the “Human Being” he had created in His Likeness.
"I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel" – Gn. 3:15. Here God was referring to the serpent's seed,
and you can check this in verse 14, and the seed of the woman. We see this
clearly described in the Word of God, the seed of the serpent is the
antichrist, and the seed of the woman is Jesus, the Christ. At this very moment
God was promising the coming Messiah in the future to save the human being,
namely, the second Adam. In the time of grace, that is after Jesus died and
resurrected, we celebrate Easter for this reason, Jesus the Christ came to take
our place on the cross, thus way justifying us before God. “So the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, so that we might be justified by faith”.
Galatians 3:24.
God brought
salvation to the human being through the second Adam; Jesus. Take some time to
read these verses from the fifth chapter of Romans.
"16 Again, the gift of God is not like the
result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought
condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
17 For
if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how
much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the
gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Consequently, just as the result of one
trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of
righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
19 For just as through the disobedience of the
one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one
man the many will be made righteous.
20 The law was added so that the trespass might
increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so
also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord."- Romans 5: 16-21.
"But God demonstrates His own love toward
us, in that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners" Romans 5:8.
“And are justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”. Ro. 3:24
“Know that a man is not justified by observing
the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ
Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law,
because by observing the law no one will be justified.” Gl. 2:16
Personally
I love these passages for the fact that God describes how the spiritual law
works in the universe in which we live. In the beginning while there only
existed Adam and Eve, the judgment was by one transgression that they had
practiced; in fact, resulting in condemnation. But, the free gift came of many
offenses unto justification; the free gift came from God, when he sent his son
to die for us. In the following verse the Apostle continues on saying: “For if,
by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much
more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift
of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ”.
How would
you describe yourself, as one already reigning through the one man, Jesus
Christ? Or, are we all in the same boat where we need to confess: well, without
Jesus, I am still in the realm where death still reigns through one man, which
in the beginning sinned; and I did miss the target!!
Many people
do not understand why everyone has to suffer on this earth because Adam and Eve
erred as they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Erred is a
synonym for missing the right choice. By doing what the serpent said, the Human
Being missed the eternal blessing what God had prepared for them. One of the
things that I understand in this text is the fact that God did not say:
"If you eat, you will receive the punishment, and you will die for
it". Now allow me to explain to you
my understanding upon this factor. The fact is that the human being was not
made like God, in order to be able to support and withstand with the things
that belong to God alone. God spoke that as a loving warning, do not do it,
because you have been made in my likeness yes, but your structure does not
support to enter the knowledge that of a higher level, belonging to me.
God spoke
it as a warning: “But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not
eat, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. Do not do
it! This, was a command expected to be followed. Yes, the human being was made
in Gods´ likeness, but, the human being does not have the structure as His
Creator has, therefore they were told: do not eat of the tree of knowledge of
good and evil. We are not like God; we are made human being, that is the
difference. The human beings structure is not able to bear with the
consequences of eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There will be
one day in Heaven when it will be given to us the right to eat from the tree. A
good example of this would be when a gas company puts up a sign saying:
“forbidden to light fire at this location”. Why is it forbidden? Just because
they want to prevent others using fire? No! The prohibition is there to prevent
a greater disaster; to light a fire at the site produces a vast chaos.
God
actually wanted to save the human being from a greater disaster, therefore He
made it clear: "And the Lord God
took man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep. And the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.
But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die"- Gn. 2: 15-17.
God knew
the consequence of the fact if the human being would eat “of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil”, and God wanted to keep the human being safe from
this fall, for this he warned them in advance. God spoke clearly, do not eat,
because if you do you will die. This warning from God towards the human being
was an Act of Agape Love. If we say to a child do not touch the coals you will
get hurt, to warn them is an act of love, to protect the child from getting
burnt. The child in this situation does not understand the danger that is
contained in all of this but the parents who give the order they know.
Similarly was the situation of Eden when God said to the human being. One day
in heaven we’ll understand why that tree had to be in the Garden of Eden. But,
in my opinion the tree was there to protect the human being. God the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit, has the knowledge of good and evil; and according
to the Scriptures Jesus is the Tree of life. In Revelations it says: “He who has
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who
overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the
paradise of God”. Re. 2:7 But, in the
Garden of Eden the human being did not have the right yet to eat from the tree
of life.
It says in
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. I believe that the Tree of the knowledge of
good and evil is the tree that is mentioned in Revelation; the tree of life
which we will get the right to eat from once we overcome. One day for all of us
who overcome will be in Paradise with God. Surely Adam and Eve did not
understand the shrewdness of the serpent when it tempted them for eternal
destruction. The serpent knew that the human being would fall from Gods´ grace,
and this would cause spiritual death.
Just as sin
reigned in death, so grace reins through righteousness to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh glory, hallelujah. As we have described earlier
humans are sinful and fall short of the Gods´ glory, Ro. 3:23; and so they
cannot experience or know the love and God's plan for their life, on their own.
The human being was created to have perfect relationship with God, but because
of their disobedience and rebellion they followed their own path. Resulting
therefore; in eternal separation between Man and his God. The relationship fell
apart and the human being was now in the state of sin that left him in his
indifference towards his God. It was for this reason that God sent his Son to
earth to die in our place. As previously mentioned the wages of sin is death
according to Ro. 6:23. All this left a large gap between God and man. The only
means of reconciliation as the Word of our God teaches us, is by the shedding of
blood of a lamb without blemish. The only one who did not have blemish or a
stain, as per say, was the very Son of God, Jesus. God searched the land for a
righteous, and did not find one, and therefore He sent his beloved son.
“In fact,
the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the
shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”.
Hb. 9:22
NIV. This refers to what was written in the laws of Moses in Leviticus.
17:6-16, especially verse 11: “For the life
of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for
yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life”. "As it is written: "There is no one
righteous, not even one;" - Ro. 3:10.
We also
read in the Psalms as the psalmist expresses himself:
Ps. 53:1-3 “The fool says in his heart,
"There is no God." They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there
is no one who does good. God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see
if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away,
they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even
one”.
God knew
that there was not even one righteous human being that could pay for the
atonement for humanities life”, therefore in His Eternal Agape Love He sent His
only Son here on earth as a human being to take our place at the altar. The psalmist
says: God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who
understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, they have together
become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
The Bible
tells us that Jesus died for us on the cross of Calvary. Jesus is the only
solution for man's sin through Him you can know the love and God's plan for
your life. Romans 5:8 tells us: "But God demonstrates his own love for us
in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. God created us in
love, and when we destroyed ourselves and went after our own path; what did God
do? God proves his love, and sends his Son Jesus, the Messiah to take our place
for the atonement, because he was without blemish. Jesus comes and dies in our place. There
existed only one reason for all this: The Great Love of Our God for Us; human
beings. "But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin" - 1 Jn. 1:7.
Jesus died
and rose from the dead. He is with the Father in glory; he ascended to heaven
forty days after he had risen from the dead. "For I delivered unto you
first what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, and that he was buried, and rose again the third day according to
the Scriptures" - 1 Co. 15:3-4. When he states here according to the
Scriptures, he was emphasizing the fact that the prophets had foretold this
fact. Jesus he is the only way: "Jesus said I am the way, the truth and
the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me" - John 14:6. Through the
death of Christ on the cross God has bridged the abyss that separated us from
Him by sending His Son to die in our place on the cross there.
In the Lord's Service
I greet you in His Love
Antonina Penner.
Missionary
Masters inTheology..
ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4
Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher
No comments:
Post a Comment