Devotion Corner
Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
When Adam fell into sin, he followed Eve by eating of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This they did partly because it looked “pleasant to the eyes”, and “good for food” (Genesis 3:6). Yet in the previous chapter of Genesis, we see that God had made all fruits to be just as appealing in their aesthetic. It wasn’t as though all the options given by God were dull, colourless, unappealing lumps of meagre food in comparison to what grew on the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God had ensured the availability of every safeguard against the selection of evil for Adam and Eve. Yet still they chose to rebel, even when there was no need or reason to do so.
When we really reflect on what the Bible says actually happened in the Fall of mankind through Adam, not what we’ve lazily pieced together from common misconceptions, we see how truly heinous mankind’s rebellion was against a thrice holy God! Adam ignored every protection offered by the Lord, and instead selected evil, thereby rendering humanity fully culpable for the entrance of sin, suffering and evil into all of Creation.
Even as Christians, we stumble into sin when we again, ignore the safeguards and protections God has put in place to guard us from ourselves. We will have the witness of the Holy Spirit to our hearts, that what we are about to engage in is sinful. We will we given escape routes to enable us to flee from the temptation in front of us. We will we shown good and Godly alternatives that will bless us with their heavenly fruits, if we select those deeds instead. And yet, we will ignore all these God-given protections for our soul, and we will select evil just to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. We repeat the foolishness of Adam in our own lives.
When we do stumble into sin, and every life does at some point; we are showing just how culpable we are too for our receiving of the justice of God. Each one of us therefore, is guilty just as Adam was, and therefore deserving of judgement. Yet in the richness of God’s grace and mercy, He has provided a means of rescue from His just wrath for our sins. He did this by sending His only begotten Son, to bear His just wrath in our place. He did not need to do so, He did so in fullness of love, so that we might know the true meaning of love. That meaning is not bound up in some romantic sentiment, but in a being, a person, the Lord Jesus. He who came in the flesh of man, holding full deity as the Son of God, and thereby uniquely able to bear our sins fully in the light of a perfect, eternal God.
So, when we are struggling with temptation, and Satan looks to convince us that sinful pleasures are sweeter than heavenly ones, look at it all in the light of truth. The beauty of heavenly pleasures of the Spirit, are no lesser in their potency than those of the flesh. If anything, they are as the bounty of fruits available to Adam in Eden, even more varied and enjoyable than those offered by the world!
