Fully Devoted: The Fallनमूना

A Fractured Relationship With God Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden. They lived in Eden, where heaven and earth were one. And their friendship with God was a friendship defined by intimacy, honesty, and vulnerability. All of that was shattered by sin. Because of the rebellion against God, all of creation has been marred by sin. And the first casualty of the Fall was our relationship with God. God is holy, which means there’s nothing and no one quite like Him. He is unique, set apart, and different. And His holiness radiates with so much intensity that sin cannot exist in His presence. God’s holiness can be compared to the heat from the sun. It’s a source that’s life-giving, but if an object gets too close, it will be consumed by the heat. Before the Fall, we too were holy and pure. But sin ravaged our existence so much that now, the intensity of God’s holiness is too much for us to endure. Maybe you’ve done something you knew was wrong, and instead of confessing that sin to God, you tried to hide it. When you looked at your sinfulness in the light of God’s holiness, the weight of your actions became too heavy to bear. So, instead of coming to God with openness, you hid—or maybe even stayed away. Here’s what we can never forget: Yes, our sin separates us from God, but God’s mercy is so much bigger than our sin. Adam and Eve did what all of us do when we feel ashamed—they covered themselves and hid. But God didn’t leave them to figure out the mess on their own. He went after them. He called them. He clothed them. Yes, there were consequences to their actions, because sin always comes with consequences. But even in the middle of those consequences, God promised that the day would come when we would be rescued from our sin and reconciled with Him. God exiling Adam and Eve from the garden was an act of mercy, not a fit of anger: > And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden ... Genesis 3:22-23 NIV How is banishment an act of mercy? Adam and Eve, having eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, were now infected by sin. If they were to eat from the tree of life, they would live forever infected by sin. That’s not what God wanted. Instead, He wanted us to be freed from sin so we could be reunited with Him. That’s why God allowed the sin to run its course. He allowed us to experience death so that, through the resurrection of Jesus, we could be given new life. Sin separates us from God, but Jesus brings us home. Journaling Questions * Write down one of the verses from today’s reading. Why did you choose this verse? * Be honest with yourself: Do you tend to run toward or away from God when you know you’ve sinned? * Write a few words to describe your relationship with God right now. Why did you choose these words? Memory Verse > For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 NIV