My Way is Death - Day 3
“Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.” Psalm 116:5-6
Like a branch pruned from a tree, we find Adam and Eve cut off from their source of life because of their sin. We are not told how long it was they lived in the garden. Even if it was a short period of time, the drastic change from perfection to corruption had to have been terrifying. Fear can cause people to act contrary to their character, to act so irrationally that it brings shame and regret for many years.
In the case of Adam and Eve, it wasn’t fear that caused them to sin, but because they sinned, they feared. In fear of God’s condemnation, they made themselves coverings for their nakedness. They didn’t cover their bodies for God’s benefit. God created them naked and He was not ashamed to see their nakedness. They covered their bodies because they were ashamed. They saw themselves as lacking, so they decided to provide for their own needs. They now attempted to make themselves acceptable to God.
They died spiritually immediately when they sinned. Now, because they sinned, they started the process of dying physically. They would grow old and die. If they were still separated from God both relationally and spiritually, being still spiritually dead and subsequently dying physically, they would experience eteranl death; separation from God forever in the lake of fire.
God is holy. Only God, and God alone, could restore this broken relationship with Adam and Eve. Only God could cover their sin, the atonement necessary for reconciliation, to provide their justification. That is why God would not accept the fig leaf clothes that Adam and Eve made. They were, with their fig leaf clothing, attempting to come to God their own way. God required them to come to Him God’s way. Here is a principle: Anything that originates with man, God will not accept. God is the one who makes the only way to come to Him.
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…” Death is earned when we sin. It is what we have all earned, what we all deserve. God is righteousness and justice, and He always follows thorugh with what He says. Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The soul of he that sinneth, it shall die…” God gives us many warnings of the consequences of sin. That is because He loves us and wants us to choose Him and choose life.
“Thank you, Father, for not leaving it up to me to find you, for You have provided the way, the only way, Jesus! Amen.”
