6
¶ And when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and
they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made
themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the
voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees
of the garden.
Eve is presented with three things that we are
presented with every day and fares no better with them than we do. These three
things are the foundation of the world in which we live. They are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life.
1John
2:15 Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. 16 For all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world. 17 And the
world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God
abideth for ever.
Jesus goes further to include all of the things which
mankind holds as important and valuable, things which elevate man in his status
before other men.
Luke
16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they
which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that
which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
This is a key to what it means to be a Christian in
thought. One of the first doctrines of Christ which Paul listed in Hebrews is;
Hebrews
6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of
the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Reading again what Jesus said in Luke 16:15 and
comparing it to Hebrews 6:1 we see that to become Christ’s one must repent or
turn one’s mind away from the dead works which you hold onto as justification.
To justify yourself before God you need to trust in Christ, not in the things
which you’ve been taught make you a good and valuable person, worthy of
respect. John the Baptist warned the Pharisees (conservatives) and the
Sadducees (liberals) who felt they were good in the sight of God by their
religious observances and their heritage as Jews. Notice the context of this
passage is not sin necessarily but what justifies you before God. We must
repent, or change our minds and hearts or have them changed, from what we
believe is our justification and look to Christ;
Matthew
3:7 ¶ But when he saw many of the
Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of
vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for
repentance: 9 And think not to say
within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God
is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of
the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down, and cast into the fire. 11 I
indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose
fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat
into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
These things presented to Eve are things we absorb in
our minds from our first understanding and a great deal of unlearning must take
place when the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts or we will spend a great deal
of time spinning our wheels as Christians, making a mockery of our
discipleship.
Eve gave the fruit to her husband, Adam, who was with
her, and he also disobeyed God. At that moment they realized their disgrace, as
conscience was revealed and the bitter vision of knowing that they were undone,
without honor, overcame them. As we are wont to do, if indeed we have a
conscience at all, they tried to hide their shame and human frailty that had
been exposed. Gone were the happy, careless times of joy in God’s garden, the
first couple enjoying each other and creation without care or doubt. We mistake
this time in our lives for attaining adulthood, becoming a man or a woman,
when, all too often, it simply reflects a loss of who we were or could have
been. When we follow the world, which is Satan’s bailiwick (2Corinthians 4:4),
with our desire to place self-gratification and self-glorification above God
and make it a sort of rite of passage into full admission to the world we must
take on that shame and self-doubt, that uncertainty and, if you would, low
self-esteem, we take steps downward. Often, with each action after that we feel
less and less that sense of ‘all is possible’ for us and our choices become
more and more limited and less and less satisfying. Shame becomes a constant
nagging companion and if we become so hardened that we cannot feel it we just
become numb and can only feel a sense of disgust at who we are.
Some will try to hide in an entertainment as an
escape, some in a hobby or an employment or some other activity, even hiding
from God in church, while others drink or take drugs to numb the pain of their
existence. Some will become defiant and proud of their sin, claiming it as a
badge of distinction and self-justification, thumbing their nose at God, so to
speak. But, that point comes for almost all people who are actually able to
acknowledge it, that point when they feel that they have lost something. It is
a vague and uncertain pain or it may be a great sense of grief. But it is a
sense of loss nonetheless. The only real cure is to trust Christ, to know that
He loves you, to acknowledge both your love for Him and His for you, and to
depend on His righteousness and not your own for peace with God and peace in
your own soul.
They heard God, the pre-incarnate Christ, the visible
image of the invisible God, the express image of His person as pointed out in
the study on chapter 1, verse 3, with whom they had known such sweet
fellowship, walking in the garden, calling out to them as He often did
apparently. But, this time they hid from His presence. When we sin we often
forgo our prayer, talking to God, and reading the Bible, God talking to us, and
hide from Him, because, if we are indeed believers, we feel great shame and
that we have let Him down. The more we continue to do wrong the more we try to
cut off His counsel and fellowship with Him until we are the most miserable of
persons.
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