The "Apple" Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree...

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”  -Genesis 2:16-17

At home we have a wood burning stove. The stove sits on a tiled platform that I built, keeping it up and off the carpet. It is clearly separate from the rest of the room. Micah (and future children) is instructed at a very early age that he is not allowed to touch it. This is the forbidden fruit of our home right now. Where as Adam could not eat, Micah is not even allowed to touch the platform that the stove sits on.  Micah has never been burned, and he has no idea what it means to be burned.  He has really little concept of hot and no concept of fire. He does, however, know what the word "no" means, and that's what we work with. "No" is probably the first word Micah ever learned to comprehend when he hears it. It will likely be the first word any of our children learn. Therefore, because he comprehends it and may do it anyways, there is now moral consequence to what he does, and discipline needed.

Why no?  Is it because we are mean? Is it because we don't love him? Is it because we don't want him to someday learn to harness the power of fire? No. It's a no because we know what's better, and if he were to reach up and touch the stove, or manage to open the stove, he could be severely burned or even set the entire house on fire.  Micah doesn't know that, but we know that. We know better for Micah than Micah knows for himself.  We know things Micah doesn't know.  When he does touch the platform anyways, he is disciplined and told "No"; then there are tears. How much better is that discipline and those tears, than being severely burned or burning the house down around you?

Now, back to Adam in the garden.  We know that nothing died before Adam sinned (ate the fruit). There was no death, and it was by one man's sin that death entered the world (Romans 5:12). If you were in Adam's situation, would you have eaten the fruit? What do you think? Adam was the first human being ever created by God. Created before sin had given way to entropy in this fallen world; what a perfect creation he must have been. Imagine in your mind the perfect man, with perfect body and mind—that was Adam.  Perfect in strength and immunity.  Free of any disease or sickness.  He was probably more perfect than we can imagine.  As great as God made Adam—perfect in the Garden—Adam still took the fruit, didn't he?  The champion representative of mankind, the best representative of human body and mind; the "genuine article", fallen prey to sin.  Do you think you would have refrained from sin?  I think not.  Truly all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:21-26). We are not better than Adam in any way. We all need the grace of God.

That's just the honest truth. I believe we all would have sinned.  Furthermore, regarding things in this life now, I have sinned—I have taken the fruit. Certainly there are sinful things we have all been told not to do, did it anyways, and agreed later we ought not to have done. Consequently our eyes were opened to things we would have otherwise never known. Things that increase our struggle with sin still today.  Truly, ignorance is bliss, and there are things better left unknown.  How better is it to just take God at His Word?  We need Jesus, every moment of every day.  Both on the days you think you're doing "good" and on the days you think you're doing "bad".  We are constantly at the mercy of God, and Jesus is the means by which that mercy flows constantly.

Whereas Adam was perfect in ways we were not, we have many things I would call "advantages" over Adam.  We have God's complete and inherent written Word giving us the history of the fall of man, combined with the example of Christ and His Holy Spirit within us giving us ALL instruction for ALL things pertaining to this life (2 Peter 1:2-4).  Even though we have sinned intentionally and willfully—ignorant or not of the consequences—Christ died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). For those of us not under the law but under grace, that grace is abounding much more than our sin (Romans 5:15-20).  We have been living on this Earth as mankind, for thousands of years. We have seen sin and the consequence thereof throughout generations of history. We have examples throughout time of men and women before us.  So, what excuse then do we have to keep on sinning? None at all.  Yet, we do still sin.  It is no wonder that God's grace must be abounding, much more, if any one could be saved.  Where Adam might have pleaded ignorance compared to us (not that he was ignorant, he disobeyed), what will we plead?  Our only hope is that we will plead Jesus!

Knowing all of these things should cause us to cling to God even more, secure in His salvation apart from any works of your own.  And, it should cause you to sin less because you do not take for granted the price that was paid and the grace that was given by Him who died for you—in all of our ignorance, willful ignorance, and sin—while you were actively sinning.  Not just as Adam sinned the once, but many more in many other ways.  Who is less deserving than us?  Who would be more justified in condemning us than God?  Yet, Christ died for us while we were sinners, in the very act of many sins and knowing that we would continue to sin.

This is why we are told, and how I will conclude...

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  -Romans 8:35-39