One of the realities of humanity I’ve come to learn about and understand in my walk with the Lord is the fact that humans are not inherently good, at least not in God’s eyes. Yes, we can have qualities that are positive and beneficial, but this doesn’t automatically buy us a free ticket to heaven. In this piece, I attempt to explain why that is and how it all began with Adam in the Garden of Eden.
Whilst still in the garden of Eden, God warned Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for he would surely die. For the longest time, I was confused about this because when Adam did rebelliously eat of the tree, he didn’t die a physical death. What I have come to learn is that the death that God warned Adam about was a spiritual death which is separation from God.
‘And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”’ Genesis 3:8-9
The verse above is very telling, but focusing on the last sentence… I believe that when God asked Adam that question, He already knew the answer. The question was for Adam to recognise his own distance from God, a distance that wasn’t there before disobedience.
This separation caused a shift in Adam’s psyche that affected his closeness to God – there was a certain one-ness between Adam and God that was destroyed when he ate from the tree. Adam gained knowledge, but he lost intimacy and dependency, which is really a shame because the knowledge he did gain, was limited – so the whole thing wasn’t worth doing anyway, but I digress.
I don’t think that there was any special power in the tree itself, namely the power to cause a spiritual death. The ‘power’ was in the act of disobedience – in choosing to follow a voice other than the Lord’s voice. The thought process of ‘I know what God said, but I want to do my own thing’ and then wilfully acting on this rebellious thinking is what caused Adam’s separation from God.
Because we are descendants of Adam, this thinking is naturally ingrained in us. We are born with a sinful disposition to rebel. This nature is opposed to God, His will and His authority. No matter how good and sweet we think we are, this is our human nature at birth. As uncomfortable as it is to think about and accept, this rebellious nature is seen even in very young humans – children. When young children begin to have the cognitive ability to understand instructions, we see them wanting to rebel against them. When they’re told to not draw on the wall, or not climb onto the table etc. they can often need to be told multiple times before they listen. It is a bit funny when you see them watch you for a reaction too because they know they’re doing wrong and find it amusing to be told off.
On a serious note, this is a nature that grows and has more serious, eternal implications. Even while on earth, the extreme extent of this rebellion can be seen in the state of our world. At the very core of the hate, killing, violence, anger, corruption we see so much of is a natural disposition to act against God.
This is not something that we can change about ourselves, by ourselves. No matter how ‘good’, kind, cutesy and demure we try to be, there is a disposition to act against God. If it’s not the obvious sins, it will be more subtle, sinister and easily hidden ones like pride or jealousy. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – no one is exempt. This is why we need a Saviour who can save us from ourselves and end the eternal separation from our loving Father. Cue Jesus Christ of Nazareth.