Stone 1 Part1

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”  John 3:17

  

“Nobody’s perfect,” is the mantra of modern Man. But, how do we know it is true? Where did we get the idea that imperfection exists at all? If nobody’s perfect, then aren’t all people, as the now exist, the norm?

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote: “...that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave that way...” He says, “These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.” Whether or not you agree with Lewis, the idea of human imperfection permeates our thoughts, actions, and excuses. Men judge themselves and others not by how we actually behave but by how we ought to behave. We readily accept that all mankind is somehow flawed. At the root of our confession of imperfection lays the inescapable fact that we are comparing ourselves to someone or something which is perfect. If the perfect model does not exist, imperfection is meaningless and no one really believes that.

Christians believe the disparity between actual behavior and ideal behavior exists because man was created perfect, but something happened to him. They call that “something” sin. Sin was not a communicable illness that man acquired rather man, knowing the consequences of his actions, chose sin. The one fundamental element of civilization has gone unchanged since creation is man and that choice.

At first glance, the introduction of sin into man’s nature seems to involve a tree. In truth, the tree was just a tree there was nothing sinful about it. The tree was a test. God gave man the world and a special garden paradise of his own to do with as he liked. There was only one restriction—one tree God kept for Him.

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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.”

God’s command was a test of love. If Adam loved God and fellowship with the Creator, then he would leave God’s tree untouched. Adam complied until Satan told him that God lied.

“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.”

Man being what he is, the lie sells as well today as it did in the Garden and is as readily believed. “Ye shall be as gods…” the wish for divinity was Man’s downfall. He still gropes for the position. Rebellion is still the first reaction to well up in the human heart when we hear “Thou shalt not.”

God responded to Adam’s insolence by pronouncing the promised condemnation: “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; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

Spurning God consigned man to share the fate prepared for the devil—eternal separation from God. The universal condemnation of man is not the raving of religious fanatics or the arbitrary application of man-made standards of behavior. It is the promise of God. As sure as there are thorns and thistles, Man stands condemned before God. Man is born into sin; struggles with it for life; dies and faces the condemnation of God. Man’s guilt is decided; sentence pronounced; and death is determined. It is not a happy picture. The only recourse is to eliminate God from the equation or find a way to reconcile with Him.