Excerpt A from Chap. 2 in FOR HIS GLORY
– – but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.*
The Consequences
As God had warned them*, something inside of man died(1) when they disobeyed Him.
They were driven out of the Garden where communion with God and living in harmony with Him were natural. It was the place where our Father’s Life had flowed into them through their spirit in the normal course of their day. Through Him they were complete in every way.
However, man’s spirit was now disabled(1) and his soul (mind, will and emotions) took over to instruct him.
Satan’s influence was heard through man’s soulish desires (Eph. 2:3), and he became the default, or “natural” spirit source for man to satisfy his compulsive soul-hunger.
Man was created as the highest form in all of creation, but he could now be the vilest part. He was crazed with soul-hunger because he was cut off from constant fellowship with God the Father.
All evil in the world, and the horror and pain that follow, reveals man’s desperation to find the wholeness he was created to have.
Every act of sin represents another futile attempt to get something to fill our emptiness, and that often happens by taking another’s life, purity, property, reputation, happiness, freedom, rights or suchlike. It represents man’s attempts to fill the cavernous vacuum inside of himself by robbing others.
Man’s brokenness began when he listened to Satan and followed him in rebelling against God the Father. He wanted to be his own god, but it didn’t work out as Satan had promised. It never does.
The consequences were earth-shattering but Sovereign God had a plan, and it would take place in His way and His time.
(1) Actually, two things happened. First, they were condemned to die physically because if they had eaten of “the tree of life” they would have lived forever on the earth in their fallen state.
Secondly, the Greek for “dead” in Eph. 2:5 and Col. 2:13, nekros (Strong’s G3498), is used both literally and metaphorically. Here it is metaphorical and speaks of “destitute of a life that recognizes and is devoted to God; destitute of power” (Strong’s, edited).
*Gen. 2:17 niv
Ken Stoltzfus
Kidron, Ohio USA
March 24, 2022
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