10/05/2023
Do you feel like a victim of Adam and Eve? Do you view yourself as having been strapped with the responsibility for a sin they committed? Nothing could be further from the truth... in fact, our own sins are more than enough for us to deal with. So what did we receive from Adam that has brought us death, and how is it different from sin?
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.”
Romans 5:12-14 ESV
You undoubtedly have noticed that this scripture doesn’t mention Eve. There are many discussions relative to this, and a topic for another day, but let me quickly give you a thought to mull over. Eve was deceived into eating of the tree, but Adam ate by choice.
The disease that Adam let loose upon mankind was the idea that we are responsible for ourselves and in this way we have jurisdiction over our own destinies. Then this disease spread to all men from beneath the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It wasn’t his sin, that Adam left us with... it was the knowledge of it... the loss of innocence, and the ability to judge. Sin did not bring death, it was what came because Adam sinned. Sin is like a sick animal that carries a disease to the entire flock and infects it, and death is that disease.
“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."”
Genesis 2:17 ESV
Over all things there is but one Judge, and it isn’t Satan, and it isn’t man. All authority rests with God, and Adam’s desire to know as God knows, and Judge as God judges, is the virus, the disease, that was unleashed in the Garden of Eden.
A nursing baby will reach up and pull its mother’s hair, but the mother does not become upset or punish that baby, but if a child who knows the difference between right and wrong pulls its mother’s hair, then it is in response to that awareness that the child is held accountable and corrected. Adam has left us with an awareness of our sin. He has erased our innocence.
Jesus came to conquer sin and death. The genie was out of the bottle, and man now understood what was right and wrong, so He came to teach us how to deal with that knowledge, how to be reborn and redeemed so that we could allow our realization of those sins to be addressed through God’s grace... not by our own efforts. Our historically futile struggle to save ourselves through sacrifices was a continuous attempt to influence God’s authority, but Jesus taught us that there is only one true will when He said: “not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) and this places our desire for the control of ourselves back where it belongs... into the rightful hands of God. For this purpose Jesus suffered and died for us, and as a sign of His victory He ascended into heaven, and now sits at the right hand of God.
So, although Adam opened our eyes through his sin of disobedience, we didn’t receive responsibility for his act of his disobedience ... we received the plague of his awareness, and inherited his desire to know as God knows. In fact, we can sin quite enough by our own doing, so we really didn’t need his sins to be condemned. Jesus washes us clean of our own sins, not Adam’s, and teaches us that we are saved from the awareness that Adam infected us with by God’s grace and mercy. In this way Jesus conquered sin through His sacrificial blood, but death by His dying for all men.
We are not victims of a sin committed by Adam... but, we were infected with the sickness that was unleashed by his choice. His act of sin (disobedience) was his alone. Now we realize our own sins and judge ourselves with an awareness of our own shortcomings.
Nurses who work in labor and delivery units see crack mother’s give birth to crack babies. The mother chose to do crack cocaine, and yet, the baby is born addicted. This is another way to view ourselves. We didn’t commit the sin of Adam, and we are not judged by it, but we are born addicted and without the treatment that Jesus offers us to cure death we will surely die.
Let go of your guilt over a sin that Adam committed, and accept the forgiveness Jesus offers for your own sins through His blood. Then let God’s continuing grace treat you, through the inoculation of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, for the deadly disease Adam infected you with… death.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your grace and for healing the sickness that Adam’s indiscretion brought to all mankind. I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who suffered and was nailed to a cross for me. I thank you for your Word and the gospel of Jesus that teach me about my sins and how to avoid them, and how the blood of Jesus has overcome them, but most of all, I thank you over and over again for allowing me to accept Jesus into my life and body as your agent of grace that heals the garden’s terminal illness that the world was infected with. Holy Father, take control of my life and reign supreme over me in all ways. Remove the stains left by my own efforts to rule myself and replace them with the purity of Christ, and the true knowledge of your greatness and authority. Your grace is sufficient Lord. I praise your Holy Name, and proclaim you Judge of judges, King of kings, and Lord of lord’s... your mercy has lifted me up and given your breath of life back to my lungs. Your grace has healed what once meant death to mankind, and in this way, the death and resurrection of Jesus are no longer my hope against dying... but my reality in eternal life.
Rich Forbes