Far
as the Curse is Found
The
Bible tells us all we need to know for a right relationship with God. It does
not tell us all there is to know or even all we’d like to know. For instance,
I’d like to know how long Adam lived in the Garden before getting the boot. How
long did it take him to go from fellowship with God to rebellion against God?
The Bible doesn’t say. It only tells us it happened and that as a result death
was unleashed on the entire world. “Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed
upon all men…”
I
often hear people say, “If God exists, why is there war, murder, disease?” The
list goes on ad nauseum. On this subject the Bible is clear; death, war, famine
and pestilence are in the world only because sin is here. Though death takes
many forms, but it has only one cause---sin. Besides Adam’s spiritual demise,
the immediate effect of the curse was a physical death inflicted to cover Man’s
nakedness. “Unto Adam also and to his
wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” Now, I’ll
admit God could have made skin coats out of nothing and it’s possible that He
did so. It’s possible, but not likely; “without
shedding of blood is no remission.” Sin leads to bloodshed and death. Atoning,
if only symbolically, for Adam’s sin cost an animal his life. We’ve been paying
ever since.
James
outlines the progression of yielding to temptation. “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and
enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it
is finished, bringeth forth death.” This is exactly what happened in the
Garden. We will come to a list of sins soon and when we do it will sound like a
list of the world’s woes. Man has always been his own worst enemy. Man was made
for fellowship with God and sin separates us from Him. That’s why separation
from God is the true death. God doesn’t send people to hell, they choose to go
there to be away from God; it’s a choice they have made all through their life.
Here’s
the thing many people either forget or do not understand. Christians are
forgiven their sinful nature by the death of a substitute. They are reborn into
eternal life free from Adam’s death. They have God’s fellowship through this
physical existence. They are not free from the effects of the curse. They are
tempted and enticed; they battle lusts; they get sin; they succeed and they
fail at the trials of life. Bad things happen to good people. The opposite is
also true; good things happen to bad people. This is the result of the general
existence of sin in the world and not necessarily the effect of personal behavior.
Job
is a case in point. God, as He will sometimes do, prospered Job for being a
good man. The disasters that befell him, while prompted by the devil, were
things that happened in everyday life of that time. Thieves, rustlers,
tornados, and painful disease can, and do, happen to faithful Christians just
because sin is in the world. Sometimes rather than shield us from trouble, God
chooses to walk through trouble with us. Job’s comforters were right to
attribute calamity to sin; they were wrong to assign that sin to Job.
Of
course, this is not always the case. There are
times when Christians are guilty of
sin. This does not make them less Christian any more than a sinner’s good works
make him a Christian. However and here some will argue with me, the Christian
who sins must seek forgiveness for this sin.
This
would be a good place to talk about a doctrine known as eternal security. This
doctrine says that once a person is saved from sin by Christ; he can never lose
his salvation. The Christian is “eternally secure” in Christ. It is fair to say
that not all Christians accept this idea. The other extreme are those who look
at Christianity more as a type of parole. Sin is a violation of parole and an
automatic return to condemnation. There are strong arguments on both sides. Then,
there are those live in the real world.
When
a Christian sins, the Holy Ghost confronts him with his sin. This happens in a
multitude of ways from the still, small voice of conscious to a prophetic
announcement from the housetop or a shouted sermon. This is a certainty. The
ball is then in the believer’s court. He ideal solution is that, confronted
with his faults, the believer repents and seeks God’s forgiveness. If he does,
he is forgiven, restored, and rescheduled to face that temptation again. This
is God’s version of taking us to the woodshed.
Should
the believer resist or ignore the Holy Ghost’s repeated warnings, a type of
callus or hardening of the believer’s heart takes place. The sin will then
return like plague on that person’s life until God gets the believer’s
attention. God does not give up; however, He does not take captives either. If
a believer wishes to be free of God, his further rejection of God and returning
to sin will win his release. God will let the prodigal go his own way and wallow
with the pigs. He will also forever await his return.
Sin
is woven through the entire fabric of our cursed
existence. Without divine intervention the end of sin never varies—it means
death; separation from God for eternity.
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