War In Your Heart # 24

Defeat Through the First Man In Eden (continued)

Consequences of Defeat

Death

God had said, "For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Both Adam and Even had said, "I did eat." The authenticity, authority, and integrity of God's Word was given full proof in Adam and Eve, for the very instant they ate they died spiritually. Spiritual death is separation from God.

Ephesians 4:18: Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them.

How ironical are the words "through ignorance"! Had not the promise been that their eyes would be opened and they would know way beyond anything they had known before? Well, this was satan's half-truth which was in reality a whole lie, because spoken with the distinct aim of deception. Their eyes were opened, but to what? Their nakedness. Had they not had this knowledge in the period of their innocency and sinlessness as they both came fresh from the hand of God in creation?

Genesis 2:25: And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

But since sin entered there is an overwhelming sense of shame that produces such fear of God that they hide from His presence. What causes such a change? They had not known evil before. But sin has entered. Conscience has been awakened within them; has already passed judgment upon their action and compelled them to face the good they have lost and the evil they have gained. They are conscious of sin, which produces both shames and fear as they think of having to meet an absolutely righteous and holy God. Before God ever passed sentence upon them they were sinners, unfit and unworthy to meet God. God's law had been written in their hearts. They knew they had broken it. Their conscience was accusing them. They were already condemned.

Romans 2:15: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.

1 John 3:20: For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

"They knew that they were naked" - they knew now the good they had lost, but had no power to restore it. They knew the evil they had gained, but had no power to remedy it. But they must at least make an effort to make themselves presentable to the God with whom they had had such free access and such delightful fellowship. How would they do it? They had no means at their disposal but the leaves from the trees of the garden. They chose the leaves of the fig tree and made themselves aprons. An active imagination is sufficient to show how pitiably, pathetically inadequate was this homemade covering. It was certainly "ersatz." And they knew that without being told, for even with this self-made provision, they hid from the presence of God through fear; in the day that they ate, the penalty of their sin had been meted out. They were spiritually dead.

But what is death? It is absence of life. All life has its source in God. So death is the absence of God. It is separation from God. It is "alienation from the life of God." It creates a yawning gulf between God and man. Sin separates the sinner from God.

Isaiah 59:2: Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 25)