"It's their (Adam and Eve's) fault!"

We may complain about being saddled with the decision of our first parents (Adam and Eve), feeling it's unfair. After all, we didn't choose to rebel against God; they did!

However, if you and I were given the exact same circumstances and choices, I propose we would have made the ¹exact same choice. So in this sense, they are a representative of all humanity. 

And what was their decision? To attempt to operate contrary to their design in complete independence from God, instead of in total dependence on God i.e. to attempt to be their own god. But this can't and doesn't work since we are creatures designed to live in deliberate union with our Creator.

What many do not consider is once they rebelled the ultimate solution was immediately promised (Genesis 3:15) and a temporary solution was provided (Gen 3:21). God did not abandon Adam and Eve but pursued them from the very moment they rebelled - even though they had abandoned him. 

 

And He pursues us to this day. There has never been a time when God hasn't provided a solution since that day. A solution that is available right now for each of us and has always been from the outset of man's rebellion. The very fact that this answer is not popular is itself evidence of our rebellion. 

 

However, if you don't like how things went with Adam - or how they are now - why continue on that same broken path? We can simply accept God's solution. It's available at this very moment and has been from the outset. You may say, "that's ridiculous, I wasn't even there." True, but you are here and offered the solution at this present moment. 

We can, therefore, turn away from the path our first parents choose and return to the original path we were created to walk on simply by accepting God's solution to the problem ²they created - and we continue in. A problem we created,, not God. In effect, do exactly the opposite of what Adam did and trust God's promise-claims. 

We cannot blame our first parents (or God) for our present choices. There is a present solution and always has been one from the beginning at the time of our rebellion. The simple fact that you are reading this is evidence God is pursuing you right now (you aren't here by accident) and in Christ, God has done everything needed to restore you. All you need to do is accept his offer. 

God does not condemn us for our sin per se, since the solution for our rebellion (sin) has already been provided and our just condemnation was taken care of. No, we are condemned only because if we refuse the solution offered to address it.

Joh 3:17  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is  condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 

We now are the ones responsible for acting contrary to our design, not our original parents. We will be accountable for our choice, not theirs. It is our refusal to trust God and accept his present offer at this time that we are accountable for, not our parents' refusal.

Wish to know more about the solution? click here.

For a more in-depth discussion on what occurred at man's original rebellion, click here. 

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Footnotes:

¹So did God make a mistake in how he made us? I propose he made us exactly the way we are so we might know him truly as he is, to the greatest extent possible, thereby enjoying and partaking of him as much as possible. 

There is a mystery in this but I am suggesting how God made us ultimately was not only for God's highest glory but also for our greatest good and joy. It comes down to whether we trust God is good as He claims or He is not i.e. did he know what he was doing when he made us the way we are i.e. with the freedom to either trust or not trust Him? 

What we can not fully comprehend, we must trust is good. We can't prove He is good because of our limitations i.e. we are not all-wise and all-knowing, only God is. God claims He is infinite, in knowledge, wisdom, and goodness. But it's not as if we have no evidence of God's goodness. He gave is ample evidence of His goodness by sending His Son to remedy a problem we created and could not fix. He always does what is right and best. Do we or don't we believe these things He claims about Himself?

²If we reject God's offer and solution, this further indicates we would have made the exact same choice Adam and Eve made given the same circumstances. 

Morality or Jesus?

The church needs to get away from the ¹morality drill. Morality should not be our focus. Why? Because without God's enabling, none of us can truly be moral.

It's not that morality doesn't matter. It absolutely does. However, none of us can produce a truly moral life ²simply and merely by willpower. It is the fruit of something far deeper; something missing. 

Morality -- i.e. choosing to live according to God's commandments -- is not the cause of God's acceptance of us but the fruit of it. So why should we ask or expect the world to do what none of us can do on our own, Christian or otherwise? Morality is the RESULT of being loved by God first and then loving and honoring God in response - which also involves loving others as we wish to be loved.

Christ said, "if you LOVE me, you WILL keep my commandments" but instead, we somehow hear "I must keep God's commandments so He will love me." Sorry, but this is not his message. Read it again slowly and in its context. Morality shouldn't be our focus, the greatness, the goodness, and the love of God for us, and our response of love should be.

When we see God as he truly is -- all-loving, all-wise, and all-powerful -- for and to those who trust Him and that He is always present with us, this causes us to ²want to seek to honor him in our words and deeds i.e. to want to live morally Isa 6:1-8. We don't seek moral living as our primary aim. When we see him as he is, "high and lifted up," -- i.e. of tremendous value, beauty, majesty, wisdom, etc., loving God with all we are and have will be our primary desire and aim. In fact, this statement itself; that he should be our primary desire and aim, is a ¹moral statement and the true essence of morality.

We are not to focus on how poorly we or others are behaving but on how infinitely loving God is and with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves in response. Focusing only on morals causes us to take our eyes off of God. It is the cart before the horse.

People are tired of moralistic preaching and its condescending hypocritical message of do what I say, not what I do; of us expecting and demanding of nonbelievers something even we Christians cannot -- and do not -- do ourselves unless moved by God. The truth is NO ONE is or can ever be moral enough to be approved by God. Christian or otherwise.

So why are we trying to get or expecting the world to be moral? This is indication of our lack of understanding how morally bankrupt we all are. ³Morality is not what they need. They need Jesus first. When they fall in love with Jesus everything else follows. Then and only then will they want to honor him with their words and deeds.

All the "Christians" that are always preaching or demanding morality from an unbelieving world needs to please stop.

Instead, we are all called to fall passionately in love with God. To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is the greatest commandment for good reason. Don't we think this is convicting enough or a pursuit worthy enough of everything we are and have? Yet no one does this unaided by God's - Spirit, not even the most devoted among us. 

There is a reason Christ said on these two do all the other commandments hang. In fact, it's entirely dishonoring to God to focus on moral behavior because it brings attention to us, not him i.e. "look at how moral I am. You should be moral too"

Why? Will morality save us? NO!!! It's precisely because we are not moral and never can be moral enough to ever be approved by God, that God sent his Son to do what we could never do for ourselves; to provide and then offer to GIVE us a perfect moral status. Yes, give it! This is why it's called "good news." It is not something we do but something declared, if we'll accept it. 

We don't have to be moral in order to be totally accepted and fully loved by God because Christ did that for us. He was moral on our behalf and he bore the complete and total consequences for our immorality. We certainly need to recognize we dishonor God by our words and deeds but that is totally different from being moral in order to gain/win/earn God's approval. 

The truth is we must be 100% perfectly moral for God to ever accept us 100%. Well, guess what? That's never going to happen and that is precisely why Christ came and died. To provide morality for us and offer it to us as a gift.

For several posts on the legitimate role the law plays in a believer's life click here. 

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¹For a further discussion on the grounds or basis for morality click here.

²I am not saying we should abandon morality itself, but we should not expect morality from a person who does not know God and is not empowered by God's love to live morally. For the significance and meaning of morality click here.

Php 2:12  Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13  for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 

³I am not saying morality isn't important, or there is no right or wrong. There is wrongdoing that causes real harm and should be corrected. But this is more a societal issue i.e. it addresses our horizontal relationships with our fellow man, not our vertical relationship with God as far as His acceptance of us.  

I am speaking of our personal relationship with God. I am saying the morality we all need to be good enough to be restored to God we can never produce. We are simply too morally bankrupt to ever be perfectly moral. True morality is the fruit of godliness not the cause of it. Godliness is the fruit of loving God. Loving God is the fruit of him loving us first. 

Perfect morality has to be provided for us and given to us as a gift. And since it does, this is the message we must bring others; the good news, not "stop being bad...and start acting good..." Rather we must declare we are all bad and can never be good enough. None of us. The heart of where we all drop the ball is we don't love and honor God according to his true majesty, beauty, and honor. All other immoral behavior is simply the fruit of not loving God as we ought and He deserves.

Our desires… Good or bad?

Our desires are:

·        A part of our being in God’s image

But also misdirected as a result of…

·        Being separated from God

-->So there is a good element to our desires. 

By virtue of being in God’s image we can enjoy, worship and glorify God. 

-->But there is a bad element as well. 

We are separated from God and therefore now lacking what we were designed to experience in Him…perfect love, joy, peace, pleasure, value, importance, meaning and so on. Because we are separated from the source of our true fulfillment due to distrust and rejection of our Father/Creator, we go about seeking to fill that lack with anything and everything (i.e. in or by creation) but that which can truly and only fill it, God Himself (the Creator).

Because we have spent all our lives attempting to satisfy our desires with anything but that which can truly satisfy, our desires are stymied, suppressed. As C.S. Lewis stated...

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

I would add though we may be pleased on some level we are never truly satisfied. 

By "weak desires," I believe Lewis means we have the capacity for much greater desires. However because there is nothing in this life to satisfy our truest, strongest and deepest desires, we keep them in check with temporary things. We anesthetize our deepest and greatest longings. 

To allow our true longings to fully surface would be too painful because nothing exists in this life that can satisfy them. It might even cause us to look beyond the temporary things we use to the Creator of those things instead. But due to our rebellion we avoid looking to our Creator with everything that is in us. We refuse trusting God (in our rebellious state controlling feels safer than trusting) to give us what we need and long for which He alone can provide.

However as we grow to trust God and let go of those things we use to anesthetize our longings, our capacity to receive His love increases. As that capacity increases our longings also increase. We feel more because our capacity to feel more has expanded. We are being restored to our original state of finding and enjoying God as the only and true satisfier of our hearts.

Free will? Our passions vs our will

The following is an excerpt from an article I had read somewhere online. Unfortunately, I did not save the link and do not recall the original source or author but it grabbed my attention so I saved it. 

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Excerpt:

“Choosing God’s will over ours makes good sense to me,” he said. “Anybody who has ever tried to change anything significant about themselves has to know how useless the human will really is. We are not losing much by giving it up.”

(The below excerpt continues apparently in response to the above comment)

"I was completely taken by surprise. I had assumed my friend lived by the strength of his will. But as we talked more about it, I came to see that he was right when he said his passions directed his life much more than his will. He drew his energy from the causes to which he was fervently committed. His will was in the service of the basic allegiances and directions of his heart—the things in which he most passionately believed and to which his life was devoted. His will, he said, could help keep him on track with things he already deeply valued but was quite useless for getting him things he merely wanted."

My thoughts/comments…

"..his passions directed his life much more than his will..."

Passions and will are not necessarily opposite each other. We choose (will) what we are passionate about. To separate the will from passions is not truly possible, as indicated by the following… 

"...His will, he said, could help keep him on track with things he already deeply valued but was quite useless for getting him things he merely wanted..."

Again, what we value and what we want are not necessarily separate. That which we value most we desire/want most.

However, we can want things simply because we "know we should" and not necessarily because we truly value them, i.e. They don't really hold value for us. We only say they do because God (or someone else) said they should. So we don't truly want them. We only think or pretend we do.

And of course, none of us, as God's children, want to admit openly that we disagree with Him. So we disagree "quietly" instead, i.e. we hide our true feelings and beliefs from ourselves (though not from God) and others thinking by so doing we can avoid dealing with them i.e. We don't have to look at and address our unbelief/distrust in God and our subtle/hidden commitment to valuing something more than God.

"..his passions directed his life much more than his will..."

This is true for both positive and negative passions. Fears are a kind of passion as well as anxiety and anger. And they are all rooted in a broken value system - we value (worship) created things rather than the Creator. Rom 1:21-23. 

These passions are what drive our actions. We choose to go after what we value most, and we value most what we believe will best give us what we need, i.e. what we value most is what we are most passionate about. A solid belief in what is valuable is obstructed by our spiritual inability to see what is truly valuable above all things; God himself. 

When all is said and done, we are driven to act by our passions, which are rooted in our beliefs, whether right or wrong. Our wills do not "lead" in this process, but are subject to our passions, which are tied to our beliefs. 

Our will is not free in the absolute sense, it is the servant of our passions.

Or to quote from the above excerpt, "...His will was in the service (or slaves) of the basic allegiances and directions of his heart..."

Defining terms: e.g. the flesh, the Spirit, living in and by the Spirit, living under or by the law etc

There are several words or phrases in scripture that are often misunderstood causing a great deal of confusion over their true meaning. The following is an attempt to define these terms and phrases based on the scriptural context in which they're found. 

It is worth noting and significant that all of these terms or phrases have something to do with the law and how we are to relate to it.

What is the purpose of the law?

The law is given by God because he loves us and seeks our best. It is God's loving directions of how we might bring him the highest honor and experience our greatest joy and his highest good for us, which ultimately is knowing God himself and to operate at the optimum of our design. In short, it's operating according to who God is and who we are made to be i.e. according to our design.

The law is not given as a means of obtaining righteousness i.e. making ourselves right (approved), acceptable, and therefore loved by God or lovely to him. Obedience to God never ²causes God to love us. It is evidence of our love for Him.

God loves us for several reasons:

1. He is love i.e. He is the cause and source of love (as well as life and all things). 

2. We are bearers of his image and designed for love. To receive it first but to give it as well. 

3. We are ³able to enjoy his greatness and reflect him to others (which he loves about us) because we are like God i.e. in His image.

All these cause God to yearn for a realtion with us. But none of these have anything to with what we do but who we are i.e. who God has designed us to be. 

But we have turned away from His love and are in rebellion to who He created us to be i.e. creatures dependent on Him to be all we were created to be.

We rebelled from our dependence and set out to be our own god.

Nevertheless His love for us was so great He has provided a way to remove the barrier between us and him through Christ, freeing God, so to speak, so he could legitimately extend to us His complete and perfect love. 

Obedience to the law is an indication and demonstration of how we love God, and evidence of our love for Him, not an effort to cause God to love us. It is also a means by which we see and experience his perfect love. 

Common terms and phrases related to the law in the New Testament:

works or works of the law or law of works or works of the flesh - our attempt to gain God's acceptance, approval, and love through our efforts/activities/ actions i.e. through our efforts to live according to the law. Seeking love based on obedience, not grace. 

flesh or in the flesh or by the flesh or according to the flesh -  that disposition or orientation towards life that believes we can earn/gain God's love, acceptance, and approval through our deeds/acts/actions/efforts i.e. merit-based. Our natural or "fleshly" orientation of how we operate versus actions prompted by His love i.e. His Spirit who is God. Efforts to fill what is missing vs efforts that flow out of fullness from God's love i.e. operating in or by God's Spirit.

confidence in the flesh - a belief and disposition that my efforts and my achievements and the acquired status through these things causes me to be loved by God. 

This "fleshly" orientation:

• is how we naturally (due to our rebellious distrust of God) approach everything in life i.e. a performance based approach i.e. a view that we can earn God's love, approval, and acceptance through doing good deeds. 

• is deeply embedded in the core of our being. Apart from the Spirit, it is the center out of which we operate; out of which all our actions spring forth. It is the core disposition characterized in scripture as "being our own god."

• is the mode we naturally and automatically go to until God reveals to us we are operating this way and we abandon (repent) this mode of operation and pursue Him out of love and gratitude instead, and a desire to honor him. 

• is something we must be ever vigilant of and on guard against; diligently seeking to identify and abandon it wherever and whenever we become aware of operating this way. 

performance - any and all efforts/actions taken with the intent of earning/gaining love, approval, meaning, value etc. primarily from God but from others as well. 

under the law - acting under the obligation to obey the law in order to be approved, accepted, and loved by God (and thereby avoid his rejection and condemnation). The belief that we can only obtain a right standing with God by our efforts and if we do not obey the law, we are condemned and rejected by God. The belief that there is no other solution.

the law of sin or of sin and death - living in and under a sense of condemnation, guilt, and shame due to our inability to live up to the perfect standard of God's law.

law of the Spirit of life - operating out of love for God because we are freed from condemnation, guilt, and shame due to Christ bearing all this for us. There is therefore now no condemnation. Rom 8:1

by the Spirit, according to the Spirit or in the Spirit- any actions that are a response to the

reality that we are already perfectly loved by God based on the efforts of Christ, not ours and regardless of what we do or don't do. To operate in the Spirit is to operate out of love and under or by grace. It is living by or according to the gospel. It is operating out of trust in God's provision of grace and loving him as a result i.e. in response to his first loving us. 

by grace - To live in faithfulness to God out of a love for Him and a desire to honor him, in response to him loving us first, knowing we are already fully and totally loved and received by him in Christ. 

by faith or the law of faith- living by believing all the above is true. 

law - generally the objective moral standard set forth to us in scripture, which is rooted in the character of God by which we are to conduct ourselves. Also, a governing principle (law) based on God's design, by which something always operates best - like the law of gravity. 

For a discussion on walking in the flesh or the Spirit click here

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Footnotes:

²Being loved by God and experiencing that love is not the same. 

Being loved by God is based on Christ's efforts alone, not ours. 

Experiencing that love is based on our pursuit of God out of love for him and trust in Him. This love and trust creates a desire to honor Him in response to His fully loving us first in Christ. 

We can be in Christ and therefore fully loved (objectively) by him. But that does not mean we are ¹experiencing (subjectively) all the love He has for us and fully available in Christ.

¹For more discussion on experiencing his love click here and here.  

²Though obedience doesn't cause God to love us, it certainly is pleasing to him when we pursue him faithfully. For more on this click here. 

³For a further discussion of being valued by God as bearers of his image click here. 

Are Calvinists and Arminians both wrong?

I would suggest Calvinists and Arminians make the same mistake and are both equally wrong in a vital area.

The tension between the total sovereignty of God and man's full responsibility and accountability is a debate that has gone on since the beginning of the church and still continues. I would propose that in large part it is simply because the scripture teaches both. God is totally sovereign in every sense of the word and man is fully accountable in every sense of the word. We should not water down one to accommodate the other simply so we can make it work for us logically. Scripture certainly appears not to.

And herein lies the rub. We, finite mortals, do not like tension, paradox or seeming contradictions. It is not comfortable. Instead of believing what God says, and trusting what we cannot fully grasp, we would rather “figure it out.” So both sides try to make everything fit into nice, neat, logical boxes to the point they dismiss the other side of the discussion. As a result, both sides fall into the same error. They both tend to depend on logic more than scripture.

There are plenty of verses or passages given by both sides to support their “conclusions.” However, if we stop to consider it, can the finite (us) fully grasp the infinite (God)? Rom 11:33-34; Isa 55:7-9

The problem with taking a hard line ¹logically on the sovereignty/accountability debate is it will cause us to totally miss the significance of our accountability and responsibility to make choices i.e. we will downplay that ability by overstressing God's sovereignty and miss the valuable and highly significant truth that lies in accountability and our God-given freedom to choose or not choose God.

On the other hand, if we stress our ability, responsibility, and our total accountability for our choices, to the point we can't logically reconcile it with God's sovereignty, we will miss out on the comfort and joy we were meant to derive from the greatness of God's power, wisdom, control and his "electing" love that caused him to pick us as his child.

We can not and must not dismiss one side of these seemingly opposing and contradictory realities to the point of minimizing or even eliminating the other, simply because we have challenges making them work logically. Neither can we try to force one side over the other out of a need to be in control of (i.e. understand) how God operates. 

Using logic to give us a false sense of control is the opposite of faith or trust in God. In doing so, we will miss out on the vital significance each side reveals about God and about ourselves.  As the scriptures say, let God be true even if every man is a liar. God's ways are not our ways and our ways are not His.

I propose God is God and answers to no man i.e. what we cannot fully put together logically we must trust. Moreover, I believe this is exactly the point and importance of this seeming contradiction or any other paradox in scripture -- to trust God is good when and where our understanding (logic) comes up short. 

There is no contradiction or conflict within God. It is only an apparent contradiction due to our finite understanding. God is infinite in understanding and in every other way. We are not. 

God says without faith it’s impossible to please Him. God is after our trust in Him; to develop and increase it. How does He do that? Often by asking us to trust what we do not understand. It happens all the time. He often asks, “do you trust me, when it looks like I am not trustworthy and things happen that make no sense at the time? Do you still believe I am good, that I love you and am working for good - your good - when things look terrible and appear the opposite?"

The ability to reason is a gift of God but like all good gifts, it is limited because we are limited - finite. Reason can take us only so far. We should not discard reason, but we must recognize reason is limited simply because we are finite. 

All gifts, including the ability to reason, can be used to either honor God or as an attempt to control our world and try to put God in a box (a very logical one at that). Where logic comes up short, faith must begin. And when it comes to our infinite God, our finite reasoning - logic - often comes up short. 

God is good, He is wise, He’s running the show and working all things for His glory because He says He is, and we are fully responsible to believe Him or not, logic aside. 

Do we trust God and believe His word and trust there is no real contradiction (as opposed to an apparent one) or do we fall into the arrogant error that is a leftover of the “age of reason” by setting our ability to understand all things above the necessity to trust God? To depend exclusively on logic can become a form of control and the opposite of faith.

Gen_50:15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the EVIL that we did to him."

Gen_50:17 'Say to Joseph, "Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they DID EVIL to you."' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

Gen_50:20 As for you, you meant EVIL against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Does God use evil for good? Yes. He is sovereign over all things.

Were Joseph’s brothers fully responsible for their actions? 100%.

Act_2:23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Did God plan the death of His Son? Yes. (see also Acts 4:27-28 and 1Pe 1:19-20) 

Did He use the hands of lawless man to carry out His plan? Yes. 

Will those men be held accountable for their actions? Yes, 100%.

So where does this leave us? The only legitimate response to the truth that God is all powerful, all wise and all loving in the face of  seeming contradictions is as follows:

Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

The following links address the tension and different aspects of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.

• Our "wanter" is broken, not our "chooser"click here
• Why freedom of choice is important, click here
• Do we have a "free" will or are we heavily influenced? click here
• Is God free? click here. 
• The value of paradox and truths in tension click here
• How big is God? click here
• Does God use evil for good? click here
• The greater the evil the greater the potential healing click here
• For a discussion on the knowledge of good vs evil click here
• For a discussion on the question of fairness click here
• The necessity of mercy click here
• Is the election and wrath of God unreasonable? click here
• The practical importance of God's electing grace click here

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¹as opposed to simply trusting it's true and not trying to force it to make sense where it doesn't work logically with accountability.