Most people think – or have been taught – that when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God turned His back on them, disgusted at their filthiness and furious at their disobedience. I certainly had been taught something along those lines. It went like this:
When man sinned for the first time, God was mad at man for disobeying. He kicked man out of the Garden of Eden because they were no longer good enough to be there. God is mad at you too for your sin. But if you and I try hard enough to live good enough, maybe God won’t be so mad at us and we can enjoy His blessings. He sent Jesus to die for your sin to that you can go to heaven one day.
Although containing elements of truth, this is a twisted understanding of the Word. I realized this when I became a new creation in Christ and discovered just how deep the Father’s love for us. Here is the way the Father revealed it to me:
When man first sinned in the Garden of Eden, my heart was broken because I knew what evil and hardship man would now have to endure. Worse than that, they would no longer have Me to cover them and help them because I could no longer come near them. My heart longed to be with them, but I could not. This is because sin cannot live in My presence. Man would die in my presence because of the sin in him. I loved man so much that I dared not come near them, or they would perish. I – with a broken heart and longing – had to send them away in order to preserve their existence.
This protection from death continued throughout the Old Testament times. In both the tabernacle and the temple, only one man (the high priest) and he only once a year and only after specific acts of preparation for purification could come in to the section called the Holy of Holies, the deepest and most Holy portion of those edifices. Without the proper preparations, the high priest would die in there, because the presence of God was in that room.
But when Jesus came, the veil (or curtain) which separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the property was torn in two. Through the death and blood of Jesus Christ, man was made so righteous that, not only could man enter the presence of God (by entering the Holy of Holies) and not die, but more extraordinary than that, God could come out from behind the veil and again enjoy the presence of His own creation.
Those who misunderstand what happened in the Garden of Eden and believe God is so mad at them for their wrongdoing, will live in constant fear of not being good enough. They will have a hard time understanding God’s amazing love toward them and as a result always struggle with believing all the Bible has to say and constantly strive to be good enough rather than finding rest in Jesus Christ.
If this is you, I want you to find encouragement that God has sent you to this place to learn of Him, and it is my mandate to help you know God more and build a true relationship with your loving Father.
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