Friday, August 13, 2010

Dining with Jesus (Part 2)

It all started in a garden

“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 of it you will surely die’.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

When God created Eden it was a reflection of His Heavenly realm. “And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground-trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). The river running through it provided water for the plants and trees (Genesis 2:10). John writes of his visions of Heaven in Revelation 22,

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding it fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (1-2)

This broken place is but a glimpse of the eternal kingdom that is being prepared for us (John 14:3). God knew that man would fall into sin and from His grace, yet He made him anyway. His intentions all along were to send Christ as our Savior and eternal sacrifice (2 Timothy 1:9). He provides glimpses of His glory and majesty on this earth that we may understand how much greater our lives will be in Heaven.

Unfortunately, the ruler of this world is Satan and he chooses to distort and pervert everything that God intended for good. Once Adam and Eve ate that fruit from the tree (Genesis 3) they then understood that there are two sides to every action, a good one and an evil one. While God was in control there was only good because there is no evil in Him (Psalm 92:15) but once the knowledge of evil was revealed, Satan got a foothold. “ ‘You will not surely die’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ (Genesis 3:4-5).” Of course Adam and Eve did not physically die, but they died spiritually. The communion with God was broken and now nothing could save them from eternal damnation but a complete and total sacrifice for their sin.

So now we are presented at every turn with the opportunity to do good or to do evil. We are born dead and must be “reborn” to God and Christ in the Holy Spirit in order to see right from wrong . John 1 says “yet to all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (12-13). How cunning Satan was when he told Eve she would not die. Of course he did not elaborate on the type of death, he only alluded to the death she understood, which was physical and a return to the dust of the ground.

After this heartbreaking moment, God cursed Adam and his descendants. “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:17-19). There was not a man that God could have created that would have avoided the temptations of the devil forever. God knew that in order for man to love Him, he had to give him the choice to hate him. Only true love is revealed in the choices we have. The only human who chose to love God completely and obey His every command was of God Himself. Only Jesus Christ had the wisdom and knowledge to overcome Satan while in human form, and it was not easy for Him. Surely He was God in the flesh, but He was also a man, to whom the pleasures and temptations of this earth are rarely overcome.

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