The Scandal of Identity TheftSample

Sin Brought Death

After Eve listens to the lies of the enemy, ponders what the enemy said, and feeds her eyes with the forbidden fruit, she exercises her free will and chooses the option the enemy gave her over God’s word. Immediately death enters, and Adam and Eve die spiritually, and the concept of physical death is also introduced. 

To be separated from God is to be spiritually dead, and without God, we can never live out the blessed life He has prepared for us. If we have no communication and fellowship with God, then our spirit cannot be fed by God, and that makes the soul of man more dominant. Before the fall, man was comprised of spirit, soul, and body, where the spirit of man communed with God and governed the soul and body. But after the fall, the spirit became dead to God, and man was ruled by the passions, lusts and desires of the body, making soul a slave to it; man became carnally minded and no longer spiritually guided.

When we are not connected to God through our spirit, we will use our natural senses to live, and our natural senses will always lead us to ourselves. A sense-driven person is also known as a self-centered person because God is no longer the center of his or her life. Adam and Eve before the fall were God-conscious because their spirits were alive, but after the fall they became self-centered, thereby replacing God in their lives. The power of sin keeps us in a place of shame and guilt; it also leads us to believe we can fix our problems on our own. Sin always seeks to stain and ruin the perfection of God’s creation. Sin invites us to be the fixer of our problems, and it demands we be self-sufficient, cutting out the need for a higher power. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves up by making clothes from the trees of the garden—the once-perfect bodies, the innocence, the enjoyment of God’s creation had now become something ugly in their eyes, and the freedom they shared with each other, the freedom of appreciating each other’s bodies, was smeared with an uncomfortable feeling. Instead of running to God or calling out to Him, they now hid from Him. This is the power of sin: to keep us running away from God rather than running to Him.

Adam and Eve stood in God’s presence. They fellowshipped and communed with Him because they had His covering, glory and light. Sin broke the cover, and then their uncovering made them uncomfortable and ashamed. Their covering of light and righteousness was stolen from them, and then the consequences had entered the door. While Adam tried to evade their sins by blaming his fear on his nakedness, God needed him to come to the place of a full confession so He could help them. While their sin would have to be judged and consequences paid, God would still make a way for them not to be destroyed, but the confession was the key. Until we come to the place where we can confess our sins, God cannot help us.

I love the heart of God displayed when He confronted Adam and Eve. God didn’t come barging in with hate or anger; He came as he always did, peacefully, lovingly, and kindly, and his call to Adam was with the knowledge of the wrong he had done; yet His heart was like that of a caring Father. Today, God still approaches the lost and distant the same way. He calls to them in His fatherly voice, drawing them out of the darkness and the hidden crevices where they have tried to place their sins. His heart is to bring them to Him so He can offer the solution to the root of their problem, which is the sin. There is always hope in God if we listen to His questions with an open mind. It is confession that brings freedom to the soul and life to the spirit.