Did you ever have one of those “What Just Happened” moments? Where you pushed the wrong button, made the wrong decision, said the wrong thing and before you could take it back, BOOM?! You were past the point of no return! No way to back out! Well, there was a time in our history when the entire known world was rocked by one Jim Dandy of a “What Just Happened?” moment. That was in the Garden of Eden. The Good News, though, was that there was a way back provided by our Creator.
Let’s go back to the beginning in the Garden and see what happened. Things were pretty good back then, were they not? Adam and Eve were bebopping through the garden naked without a care in the world. Life was pretty easy. You could say they were childlike, not unlike the kingdom of heaven described by Jesus in Matt 19: 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
And everything was Good, Gen 1: 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
Why was it good? Did evil not exist? Like children, they saw everything with the single eye, as good (Luke 11:34). They naturally flourished and bloomed, firmly rooted in God.
So what was the problem with all that good stuff? Well, they started to think about it. Instead of a “. . .Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on . . .” (Matt 6:25) mentality they were deceived into thinking there was something even better. Along came Satan with enticements. They started to think . . . to rationalize. They listened to someone other than God. But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:4-5)
Then what happened? They bought it lock, stock, and barrel. After all, what was wrong with wanting to be like God? 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. (Gen 3:6)
So did they die? It looks like yes and no answer. A simple way to look at it is we were removed from the life giving root and set in a vase.
We’re still pretty though, right? For a while anyway, but let’s not kid ourselves . . . it’s dead! Just temporarily on life support. And look at all we got for it. Now we know Good and Evil, but with a distorted and divided view that has resulted in about every kind of evil imaginable. We have this exaggerated sense of self-awareness and self-importance as evidenced by the sudden shame in their nakedness. The delusion of independent self has set in.
This metaphor shows what happened to us physically, to the body, but believe it or not, that’s the last of our problems. Spiritually there was no grace period. When they ate of the apple, they died spiritually . . . right then, right there. Instantaneously! Dead at the scene! Separated from god!
To understand the ramifications you need to understand the difference between spirit, soul and body ( read Dividing Asunder Between Soul and Spirit). Man was designed to be nothing more than a receptacle, a container. He is referred to metaphorically as a vessel, jar of clay, and so on. He was meant to contain someone and that someone was God. God was meant to reside in us.
Picture our spirit as a cup located in our heart. Prior to the fall, we were joined to and in union with God. When we rejected God, we didn’t become independent persons. We just exchanged one owner for another and became joined to and in union with the not-god who by nature is sin. We then expressed that new nature.
So, if you want to know What Just Happened, that’s what happened. Now we’re stuck. We can’t extricate ourselves from this union. But there is one who can . . . Jesus Christ. There is only one little thing we have to do. We have to die one more time. To make it easy, He did it for us. When Jesus died on the cross, we died also. We hung there with him in some mystical way that the human mind will never explain. All it takes is to believe in the one and only Son. And when you do, you are freed from your old husband and free to marry another . . . the One who we were meant to be married to.
Read The Lost Coin by Samuel Hayes Sherwood. A young man’s journey takes him on a path revealing Total Truth, understanding the mystery which is Christ in us.
Very interesting! Enjoyed reading story.