Trouble In Paradise

Paradise (as it's called in the Septuagint)  means "pleasure," and the word is from the Persian for Eden. There is lots of trouble in Hawaii, also called Paradise, but this was indeed a perfect environment with no pitfalls, drawbacks, or downside. Everything a man could want was there--even the perfect job--horticulture at the time the first profession.  Even his marriage was made in heaven and Eve was designed to be a perfect helpmate and partner.

But things didn't go as planned, even as it seemed God had planned.  Adam was meant to live forever and to eat of the tree of life, but he ate of the wrong tree, the one that was off-limits. Why he hadn't yet eaten of the tree of life is a mystery.  Evil and trouble had already made their debut in heaven as Satan was kicked out and cast down to earth for his sin of pride and rebellion with his legions of demons or minions.  God had made one simple test to see whether Adam would want to obey Him or Satan.  Adam had no inclination to evil, and wasn't prone to disobey--he had the ultimate free will--(he was free to sin and free not to sin; he had both capabilities) and there was nothing internal or external compelling him to sin--he simply chose to, uninfluenced by an outside force. Actually, it seems he took of the forbidden fruit because his wife had and he was on her side!  But by his one simple act of rebellion, the human race was all reckoned to be in sin (called original sin).  Eve had listened to Satan unwittingly and ignorantly, even innocently, but Adam listened to his wife and knew what he was doing in a better light.  He chose willingly to be a partner in crime!

Eve was the one to watch!  She was obviously naive enough not to know that serpents don't have the power of speech and also that she had power and authority over all creatures.  But she was curious enough to talk to a serpent.  Curiosity can lead to sin!  The first act of defiance against God was a prototype sin in manifold ways--we all confirm and verify this sin in ourselves to show we would've done likewise.  We all display solidarity in Adam.  It is said that Adam and Eve spurned God's grace, contradicted His truth, violated His law, rejected His authority, disputed His wisdom, repudiated His justice, and resisted His grace--that just about covers a rebellion against the complete nature of God--the prototype sin.  The proverbial apple or forbidden fruit was the entree into the ways of the world and to find one's own wisdom, discernment, pleasure, truth, and will.

Satan had said that they would be "as gods" (knowing good and evil) and this was a way to be independent of Him--she might have doubted God's goodness or suspected He was holding out on her. Not that this knowledge was necessarily bad, but it wasn't in God's timing for them to know it yet--perhaps later.  It is true that eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil gave them cognizance of what evil was--they already had experienced God's goodness but now they questioned it--doubt entered the equation.  Now they knew evil first hand!   Eve also displayed "bad purpose" to know good and evil, legally showing corrupt intention and desiring to be equal with God and independent. 

We also see good in comparison to evil.  Evil is the distortion of good and they knew good but now they knew evil and its consequences--shame and guilt, resulting in embarrassment and sinful self-consciousness.  In other words, good must first exist for there to be evil--it's not independent of the good and couldn't exist on its own without there being a good to pervert or imitate.  We only see evil in light of good.  Now they reasoned they could be good without God and make a name for themselves, I suspect. Adam followed suit and decided to take his chances with his helpmate and partner and partner in crime in partaking of the "forbidden fruit."

But what happened after the fact is the rest of the story.  Adam and Eve displayed "consciousness or cognizance of guilt" (legally showing culpability).  They were indeed responsible for what they had done but they immediately pointed their fingers at someone else and played the old blame game.  This culminated in Operation Fig Leaf, the first religion of good works to try to gain the approbation of God and make oneself righteous and acceptable apart from grace and mercy.  They didn't realize that God only made one simple command or rule, not a suggestion!  It wasn't just good advice!  They couldn't keep one simple rule!

Noteworthy is the fact that they didn't even ask for forgiveness, showing more guilt!  Maybe they felt too guilty to seek forgiveness like Judas, not thinking it was forgivable.   An insult to God's nature of goodness!  They must not have known God very well not to know He is one of grace and mercy; however, God was merciful and delayed his death sentence by nearly 1000 years.  But they had experienced the death of being separated from God's fellowship and communion. But note that they didn't even apologize or say they were sorry!  But they apparently did have a guilt complex though and tried to hide their shame by putting on aprons made of fig leaves, noticing their nakedness made them feel vulnerable and exposed their feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.

And it's a wonder that they had only one simple rule to obey and blew it!  And yet they did it in a perfect environment to prove to us we cannot blame our sin on our upbringing or background. We must trust God's wisdom in knowing what we are capable of knowing for our own good, perhaps God would've revealed the difference between good and evil after Adam and Eve had matured in their evening walks with the Lord.  Sin is universal:  we are born into it, we choose it, and it's our nature known as the old man Adam.  But worst of all is that we all confirm Adam's sin by duplicating its acts in other manifestations and following suit showing solidarity and the universality of sin.  Thank goodness, God made for them coverings of skin to hide their shame and show forgiveness and reconciliation.         Soli Deo Gloria!

Upsetting The Religious Applecart

"Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.  Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them"   ( Mark 7:15, NIV). 
"You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act..." (Matt. 7:16, NLT).

Jesus was clearly antiestablishment and countercultural and was determined to overturn the tables on the Pharisees' religious turf.  He managed a revolution of topsy-turvy spirituality.  They had no notion of true spirituality, but only of externalism:  circumcision, tithing, offerings, sacrifices, festivals, Sabbath observance, fasting, handwashing, ceremonial duties, and whatever agreed with the outward show of religious piety but having no inward vitality or reality.  Jesus succeeded in internalizing religion and making it a matter of the heart and sin was on the inside that God could see.  The Pharisees were highly jealous of Jesus and protecting their turf was Job One.  Everyone wants job security, but this was too much for Jesus.  They sensed a threat to their authority and teachings, which Jesus referred to as the leaven of the Pharisees.

The people were burdened by 613 additional (248) commands and (365) prohibitions or laws of their legal system that made the Law of Moses a burden too heavy a yoke to carry.  Even the Sabbath with 39 additional activities regarded as "work" was nothing to look forward to anymore nor enjoy as a day of rest and spiritual renewal.  What really got them uptight and ill at ease was His popularity among the common people who heard him gladly and the miracles He was doing were both undeniable, and they had to come up with some explanation.  Jesus repeatedly made them out to be as fools and an embarrassment to their own cause.  Jesus seemed like a hero and authority the way He threw the moneylenders out of the temple.  They had every reason to fear His authority because He spoke like no man, not by authority, as one of the teachers of the law, (cf. Matt. 7:29), but with authority and they could not resist the Spirit by which He spoke nor answered His questions.

Jesus was against religion as they knew it.  The Pharisees were frauds at worship--just going through the motions with lip service and their hearts being far removed.  He saw the Jewish faith as one of knowing God, not of performance or a list of dos and don'ts.  The Pharisees were white on the outside but inside were as sepulchers.  They would strain a gnat and swallow a camel because they were so worried about the minor details of the Law but missed the main points of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  Religion for them was mere show and Jesus despised it.

One thing that He wouldn't tolerate was duplicity and He saw this in the Pharisees they way they didn't practice what they preached. The religious authorities were never the same after Jesus was through with them and He changed the culture by changing people.  He was the light that shown on every man to see.  No one was unchanged nor the same after an encounter with the Lord.  The religious applecart had become an organization, not an organism, or living community of believers.

The major realignment in religion came as Jesus saw through legalism and hypocrisy and instituted undefiled and pure religion as coming from a sincere heart and motive.  Jesus saw through the veneer and facade!  The people needed to be set free from the burden and yoke of the Pharisees and their take on religion, in fact, most people didn't want to emulate them nor were they jealous, though the Pharisees were respected, Jesus saw their veneer and masquerade that they hid behind.

One sad commentary on the Pharisees was their tendency to exalt themselves and of having an air of superiority.  Jesus countered that the way up is down in God's economy and one must humble oneself first to be exalted in God's eyes.  He warned them that one must become as a child to enter the kingdom of God (cf. Mark 10:15; Matt. 18:3).

The normal Christian life was in contradistinction to the one of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees flaunted their faith and Jesus taught that people should not practice their righteousness before people (cf. Matt. 6:1) but keep their religious duties between them and God and to pray in their closet, inner sanctum, comfort zone, or private space.  The Pharisees were the ultimate goody-goodies who were working for God and kept up all appearance of propriety, but they knew not the Lord in reality.  Christ will say unto them that He never knew them at the Judgment.  But we all have feet of clay (flaws not readily apparent) and must repent of the Pharisee in us.  All our works are worth zilch if we don't love the Lord and do His will--"if I have not love, I am nothing."   Soli Deo Gloria!

Man, The Religious Creature

"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32, HCSB).
"... God have mercy on me, the sinner!"  (Luke 18:13, NASB--the sinner's prayer). 
"...But I am not ashamed, because I know the One I have believed in ..." (2 Tim. 1:12, HCSB).
"... My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10, HCSB).
"If only I knew how to find Him..." (Job 23:2, HCSB). 
"Yes, You are a God who hides Himself..." (Isa. 45:15, HCSB).

Kids are taught in the schools they are animals, and is it any wonder they act like them?  But we are not animals!  Have you ever observed an ape building a chapel?  Man is incurably religious in his core being and nature and if he doesn't worship God, he'll worship something in its place: himself, fame, fortune, power, celebrities, heroes, an engrossing hobby, a sport or sports team, you name it!  Mankind is hard-wired for worship and religion--it's his nature!  Religion dates back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Even made themselves aprons of fig leaves--Operation Fig Leaf!  Mankind has been termed Homo religiosus or the religious being.  He's also been called Homo divinus, or the divine being.  It is really obvious that man has a spiritual dimension and inclination, which in itself is a sort of proof of God's existence, as when one feels the tug of a kite, knowing it's there.  We feel pulled toward God as if gravitating in His direction.  Man has always been on the quest to find Him but God hides Himself (cf. Isa. 45:15) only to be found by the diligent (cf. Heb. 11:6) and not triflers. He will authenticate Himself if searched for!

The answer though is that we cannot find Him unless He reveals Himself and He has in Christ. But a poll was once taken in the UK and they found out that a certain percentage of people actually believe in "the Force," of Star Wars fame, though it's fictional!  People grasp at each passing straw hoping for hope and light at the end of the tunnel.  And George Lucas, the producer of the Star Wars saga, said that he's come to the conclusion that all religions are right!  This is impossible due to the inherent contradictions of beliefs, but it is logically possible they all could be wrong!

As Pascal said, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which only God can fill through His Son, Jesus Christ." Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.  We are empty, unfulfilled beings without God in the picture.  We need God to find meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in our life.  Without God, life makes no sense--it's a useless passion.   The ontological proof of God is that He is worshiped in some manner in every culture around the globe.  All culture, it's been claimed, is shaped by religion.  The stability of society depends upon religion as the guiding light and principle of moral principle.  In fact, George Bernard Shaw, quoted by William Barclay, said that "no nation has survived the loss of its gods."

As a matter of fact, we are all inclined to think we can gain the approbation of God in many ways:  religion, morality, good deeds, philosophy, or ritual!  We aren't called to become do-gooders or goody-goodies or even Goody-Two-shoes!  Our good deeds or do-goodery amount to naught in God's eyes, even as filthy rage according to Isa. 64:6!  We must do all to the glory of God (cf. Col. 3:17, 23) and in the Spirit of God, not by might nor by power (cf. Zech. 4:6).  Religiosity accounts for zilch in God's economy and the way up is down, it's a matter of how low we can go, not how high we can attain on our own merit.  We all like to compare ourselves with others (cf. 2 Cor. 10:12) and think we are more "religious," righteous, or holy (cf. Isa. 65:5) than others, but God doesn't grade on a curve and we are all in the same boat--God has leveled the playing field.  We are all justly condemned apart from grace and fall short of God's glorious ideal and standard of holiness (cf. Rom. 3:23).

But God has not called us to a to-do list; He's called us to a to-know list instead. The bottom line is that man is incurably addicted to doing something for his salvation and wants to give himself some credit.  We don't need a to-do list and Christianity is not a catalog of rules or list of dos and don'ts, but it's a list of to-knows!  We need to know God, know we are saved, know the will of God, know Jesus as personal Lord and Savior, know the Word, know the gospel, know our enemy, know our calling, know Christian ethics, know sound doctrine, and to know the Lord first-hand not second-hand, and even to know ourselves for who we are, etc. But don't forget, in knowing, we must apply what we know!  Christianity is a religion of knowledge and we know that we know--we don't conjecture or surmise, but know by the testimony of the Word itself with certitude.  There are basically three ways of knowing something:  experience (the empirical), revelation, and rational thought processes and reasoning faculties--we have the revealed Word of God.

Christianity is a revealed religion, not one of religious imagination or concoction.  It's the only faith that is based on facts, history, and evidence and we can know for sure of what we are talking about or believing.  Many religions are referred to as "faiths," but only Christianity stresses this as the instrumental means of salvation--faith is stressed as the goal and primary virtue!  But note that it's the object of the faith that saves, not faith per se--we don't have faith in faith, but faith in Jesus!  Jesus is the only Savior!  We don't just acquiesce or agree to a creed or recitations, we know a person!  Christianity isn't selling some good work or philosophy of life, but freely offering the gift of salvation to all!  But note that Christianity has nothing to say to those who don't realize they are lost and in sin.  The prerequisite is being lost before being found!

But fortunately, Christ doesn't call us to religion!  The Bible even frowns upon the term itself and prefers to call our religion a "faith" or the Way.  We know the way to eternal life!  What we are called to specifically is a life of holiness, righteousness, good works, and fellowship with God.  We are called to walk in the light and be lights.  To be the salt and light of the world at large.  Our righteousness is as filthy rags and all our good deeds don't benefit God--He just turns everything to His glory, even making the wrath of men to praise Him (cf. Psa. 76:10).  Our righteousness, then, is God's gift to us--not our gift to God!  We have nothing to boast of, and nothing that we didn't receive (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7).

Man naturally wants to do something for his salvation and must receive it by grace as the free gift of God, unearned, and unmerited.  Salvation is much more than the offer of forgiveness for our past, but the power to live in the present, and hope for the future.  Only Christianity promises and delivers on that promise from the power of sin and also the freedom from its bondage.  We cannot pay it back nor do we deserve it--or it wouldn't be grace.  God owes no one salvation and didn't have to save anyone (or it would be justice), but freely chose to save those whom He foreknew according to His favor and will or purposes (cf. Eph. 1:5). As a result, we are all called to a life of walking with Christ in fellowship and getting to know Him personally and spreading this message--to know Him and make Him known as the marching orders.

Salvation is open to all and offered freely to all (cf. Titus 2:11) who realize their sinfulness and deem themselves unqualified and sinners by nature, birth, and choice, i.e., born in sin and a slave to it.  In fact, the only qualification is to recognize one's not being qualified!  We all need grace and no one is any more righteous than another--we cannot claim holier than thou type (cf. Isa. 65:5) attitudes.  The fact is, that we are never good enough to be saved and cannot do any so-called presalvation work to qualify--but we are bad enough to need salvation.  God has judged all under sin, that the gift of grace may be offered to all.  God doesn't grade on a curve and no one gets in automatically, we all go through the turnstile of salvation one at a time via the same formula:  by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and God alone getting the glory, while the Scriptures alone are the rule of faith and authority.

Christianity is more than a religion or philosophy--it's a more abundant way of life with Christ, knowing Him personally and putting this faith into action.  It was originally called the Way!  The phenomenon of Christianity is "changed lives" that cannot be attributed to anything but the work of God's transforming power.  And subsequently to translate creeds into deeds.  It would be an insult to tell a Christian that he has "found religion," when he has found the Lord! In principle, religion is based on human achievement, not a divine accomplishment; what we do, not what God has done!  Religion is man reaching out to God, not God reaching out to man. Religion is basically a do-it-yourself proposition and a lift-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps undertaking.  Viva la difference!  

Finally, there is no caste system, no elite, neither are there any spiritual classes to be conscious of (there's no class warfare!)--we are all saints and children of the King and members of the royal family of God as brethren of Christ. We're all one in Christ (cf. Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11).  We are all family in Christ!  (A word to the wise:  pure religion, as described in James 1:27, won't save; only Christ saves through faith by the grace of God.)   Soli Deo Gloria!