The greatest blessing one can have in this life and in the next life is for God to accept us into His fellowship! I doubt if we can even image what it will be like to be in the presence of God! The barrier to having fellowship with God is our sin and yet we live in a world where basically the world says there is no sin. Can you think of anything that the worldly-minded individuals would say, “That is sin?”
Most of us have come to accept sin even though we do not live in sin ourselves. When one enters a dark room, for example into a theatre, after the movie has started and it is so dark we cannot see. But, the longer we are in that dark room, the less dark it seems. Our eyes have accepted the darkness and it doesn’t seem to be as dark. That is what has happened to us today! We live in a dark world, but the longer we live in it, the less dark it seems to be. We have come to accept that the darkness of sin is really not that dark.
The Beginning of Sin
Before God made Eve, He instructed Adam saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). God then made Eve and brought her to Adam and the Bible says, “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). For some period of time this couple had a close fellowship with God which is hinted at when God came walking in the cool of the evening, seemingly to have a close personal time of fellowship with them (Genesis 3:8).
Sometime after God instructed Adam about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan, in the form of a serpent, asked Eve “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1). She explained that they could not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because if they did, they would die (Genesis 3:2-3). Satan said, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5). He lied when he said they would not die, but he was correct with the rest of his statement.
She saw all the appeals the tree offered, and she ate its fruit and gave some of the fruit to her husband and he ate (Genesis 3:6). Notice the next statement the Bible says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings” (Genesis 3:7). When God came, He asked them, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11)? They lost the innocence they once had. Notice, now they did know what sin was because they had experienced it. In that sense they did become like God – knowing the difference between good and evil. They now had consciences. Whereas before they were naked and not ashamed (Genesis 2:25), now they were naked and felt ashamed (Genesis 3:7). By eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they reached “the age of accountability.” They died spiritually that day, because they had sinned which kept them from having the close relationship with God they once had (Genesis 3:8-12).
Their actions had long-reaching consequences. Paul explained “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Unfortunately, so many people believe that this verse says everyone is born sinful because everyone inherits Adam’s sin. This verse does not teach that everyone receives Adam’s sin. When Adam sinned, he introduced sin into the world. One only becomes sinful when he or she participates in sin. Notice the text says that death spread to all men because all sin. Adam introduced sin into the world and when everyone from that day following sinned, that person died spiritually.
The Glory of God
The only way we can see how black and dark sin is, is to see how white and bright God is. When we compare God’s holiness with our sin, we understand how dark our sin is. One can see God’s holiness by reading about an experience Moses had. “Then Moses said, ‘I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Exodus 33:18). “And He said, I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you” (Exodus 33:19). Moses asked to see God’s “glory” and God responded by saying Moses would see His “goodness.” God is so good He glows!
God said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (Exodus 33:20). The text records this event in these words. “It will come about while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but my face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:22-23). Notice again, that God passing by is once again spoke of as His “glory” that Moses would see. God is so pure that He is bright and that brightness is called “His glory.” When Moses came off the mountain, because he had been in God’s presence, his own face glowed (2 Corinthians 3:13). For this reason, Paul explained that when one sins, he or she falls “short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Conclusion
Until we can grasp at least a little bit of understanding of how holy God is, sin will never seem too bad! The world will never see sin for what it really is, until they see the holiness of God. May we help them see how holy God is! Remember, “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (I Peter 1:15-16). “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain” (Philippians 2:14-16).
Wayne Burger