Tuesday, February 5, 2019

God said, "Why are you hiding?"
Adam replied, "I didn't want you to see me naked."
"Who told you that you are naked?" God asked.  "Have you eaten from the tree that I warned you about?"
"Yes," Adam replied.  "But it was the woman you gave me who brought me some to eat..."  (In that one sentence, Adam blames Eve--then God, for giving Eve to him.)  Shift the blame.
Then God asked the woman, "How could you do such a thing?"
"The serpent tricked me," she replied.  In other words, "It wasn't my fault."  Shift the blame.

The nature of us all.  Shift the blame.  And therein lies the problem with our sin.  We have excuses.  Repentance has no excuses.  You have to own up to your own disobedience.  And vow before God that you will give your "will" and your "won't" to Him.   We want to shift the blame to another person by saying "I'm sorry, but..."  But.  Being sorry isn't repenting.  It's that you got caught and next time you will be more careful before you do whatever you want to do.  And the word "but" isn't in true repentance.  "But" just gives God the reason we did it--and He isn't impressed.

God changes our "want to."  When you are truly repentant, you don't want to disobey His directions.  It is a love agreement.  He loves you first, then you love Him back and do what He asks of you.  And when you love someone, you don't want to hurt them.  (I personally don't want to embarrass Him.)

"The Lord God clothed Adam and his wife with garments made from skins of animals."  Then he banished them forever from Eden.  He set mighty angels at the east of Eden and a flaming sword to guard the entrance to the Tree of Life.  I don't know if this is allegory or not, but the intent of the sentence is to bar the gate.  And not until after judgement day will man have access to the Tree again.

God made death the payment for sin.  Some animal was killed to make garments of skin.  And from the time of Moses, sacrifice was made of sheep, goats, doves...and eventually, Christ Himself.

And so it is today; a sacrifice for sin was made by God Himself.  He died for the sins that we should die for.  He took our place.  Hung on a cross.  And died.  And conquered death...he lives eternally.

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