Born in the Crossfire
Babies are cute and they seem innocent, but are quick to learn how to exploit and manipulate their mothers and later the father and other members of the family. They have to be trained at a very early age to know their place and learn the routines of life. Inherently babies are evil, and born sinful. The Psalmist reveals to us that we are conceived in sin:
Ps 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
You may exclaim: “It is not fair that I was evil before I could even take responsibility.” What chance do we have to be saved if we are born evil. If righteousness and salvation depends on our own performance and merit, we are lost from the start and doomed to die. It is impossible for us to be good and to gain salvation on our own accord. How did this happen? Let us look at the origin of our sinfulness.
Adam was created in perfection, and there was no evil in him. His wife, Eve, likewise was created in perfection. There was just one way in which they could sin, and this would be their choice. God placed in the Garden of Eden, their home, a tree of which they were not to eat. Why did God place this temptation in their perfect world? He did that because He was involved in a controversy. The leading angel in heaven had challenged God on the way He governed His kingdom, the Universe. God reprimanded him and told him where it would lead to. The angel, Lucifer, eventually did not heed His warnings and openly sowed discord among the angels against God. One third of the angels decided to support Lucifer against God. God could have annihilated them, but that would have been the end of God’s regime of love. The loyal angels would have remained loyal out of fear of being destroyed. For that reason God simply banned Lucifer and his followers from heaven.
Adam and Eve were created after the banning of the angels from heaven. They were created perfectly just as Lucifer and all the angels were perfect before their rebellion. However, to give Lucifer – Satan – a chance to prove his way of ruling his domain, Adam and Eve were given free choice, and the ability to ascribe to Satan’s way if they so pleased. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was placed in the Garden for Adam to be able to subscribe to Satan’s regime – a polling booth if you please. God warned them to not eat of that tree, because in the day that they did, they would surely die.
For many years they lived blissfully in their garden home and had no need to eat the fruit of that tree. They had every type of fruit that they may have desired. Those many years, Satan waited for his chance to subject them to his wiles. One day, Eve wandered off from Adam. She found herself admiring the forbidden tree, wondering what it was that made the tree so bad. While wondering, she heard a strange voice coming from the tree. She looked to see the being that was talking to her. She knew the voices of Adam, God the Father and Jesus only. Focusing on the tree she saw a snake in it, a large one. They knew snakes, but had never heard one speak, or any other animal for that matter. The snake was eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was eating and surviving. He then sowed the seeds of doubt in Eve’s mind:
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Satan in the form of a snake deceived Eve. She ate of the fruit and did not feel the pangs of death. She imagined exhilaration. She then took some of the fruit and offered it to Adam. He immediately recognised the fruit as that belonging to the forbidden tree. His beautiful wife had succumbed to the wiles of Satan. He was faced with the choice between obedience to God, or throwing his destiny in with that of his wife. He chose the latter. He loved his wife more than God. He willfully and consciously decided to eat the fruit:
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Satan’s statement was not all lies. It was a white lie. They did become as gods, knowing good and evil, but the knowledge was not desirable as the serpent had suggested to Eve:
Eccl 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
At the moment they partook of the fruit of that tree, they changed. They lost their immortality. Their genes changed. Incorporated into their genes was the propensity to sin. Adam, who had loved his wife so much that he chose her before God, turned on her when God inquired about their state of being. Before sin they were naked in the garden, yet unashamed. They were clothed in light, but when they sinned the light went out. Becoming aware of the change, they felt exposed for the first time, and hid in the garden and covered their shame with fig leaves.
Gen 3:9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Adam accused Eve of leading him into eating the fruit, blaming God too, calling her the woman He had given him. Evil had entered into their hearts. Eve likewise blamed the snake. From this point on, incorporated into the genes of mankind and his offspring, there was the natural inclination to evil. We cannot help it. We are born self-centred – I am number one! Goodness and care for others have to be cultivated. Parents have to teach their children to care for others. God also instilled goodness into Adam and Eve after they had succumbed to evil. He said to the snake that He would make man hate evil:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
After God put enmity between us and Satan, we have in our hearts these warring factions. Within us is both evil in our genes and flesh, and goodness which God reinstilled into us. We have literally become victims in the controversy between God and Satan. We are born in the crossfire of this great and significant conflict. How are we extracted from this conflict? The answer to this is well described in Romans 5. By Adam evil and death came into the world and to all his progeny. His progeny have a lesser sin than Adam. The only way out of this dilemma is by the second Adam – Christ:
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Adam brought sin into all the World. Christ pathed the way of righteousness to all the World as a free gift. We have to accept the free gift. If we reject it Christ’s death for us is in vain. What is also emphasized is that the free gift of Christ is far greater and stronger than the miss-step of Adam.
We have been born into the crossfire without our consent or doing. Likewise we have a way of escape from the crossfire without our merits or deeds by Christ. Our sinfulness is not our doing, likewise our salvation is not our doing, it is a free gift presented to us by the love of God through His Son.
Revel in God’s love and the freedom He has provided.
Babies are cute and they seem innocent, but are quick to learn how to exploit and manipulate their mothers and later the father and other members of the family. They have to be trained at a very early age to know their place and learn the routines of life. Inherently babies are evil, and born sinful. The Psalmist reveals to us that we are conceived in sin:
Ps 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
You may exclaim: “It is not fair that I was evil before I could even take responsibility.” What chance do we have to be saved if we are born evil. If righteousness and salvation depends on our own performance and merit, we are lost from the start and doomed to die. It is impossible for us to be good and to gain salvation on our own accord. How did this happen? Let us look at the origin of our sinfulness.
Adam was created in perfection, and there was no evil in him. His wife, Eve, likewise was created in perfection. There was just one way in which they could sin, and this would be their choice. God placed in the Garden of Eden, their home, a tree of which they were not to eat. Why did God place this temptation in their perfect world? He did that because He was involved in a controversy. The leading angel in heaven had challenged God on the way He governed His kingdom, the Universe. God reprimanded him and told him where it would lead to. The angel, Lucifer, eventually did not heed His warnings and openly sowed discord among the angels against God. One third of the angels decided to support Lucifer against God. God could have annihilated them, but that would have been the end of God’s regime of love. The loyal angels would have remained loyal out of fear of being destroyed. For that reason God simply banned Lucifer and his followers from heaven.
Adam and Eve were created after the banning of the angels from heaven. They were created perfectly just as Lucifer and all the angels were perfect before their rebellion. However, to give Lucifer – Satan – a chance to prove his way of ruling his domain, Adam and Eve were given free choice, and the ability to ascribe to Satan’s way if they so pleased. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was placed in the Garden for Adam to be able to subscribe to Satan’s regime – a polling booth if you please. God warned them to not eat of that tree, because in the day that they did, they would surely die.
For many years they lived blissfully in their garden home and had no need to eat the fruit of that tree. They had every type of fruit that they may have desired. Those many years, Satan waited for his chance to subject them to his wiles. One day, Eve wandered off from Adam. She found herself admiring the forbidden tree, wondering what it was that made the tree so bad. While wondering, she heard a strange voice coming from the tree. She looked to see the being that was talking to her. She knew the voices of Adam, God the Father and Jesus only. Focusing on the tree she saw a snake in it, a large one. They knew snakes, but had never heard one speak, or any other animal for that matter. The snake was eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was eating and surviving. He then sowed the seeds of doubt in Eve’s mind:
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Satan in the form of a snake deceived Eve. She ate of the fruit and did not feel the pangs of death. She imagined exhilaration. She then took some of the fruit and offered it to Adam. He immediately recognised the fruit as that belonging to the forbidden tree. His beautiful wife had succumbed to the wiles of Satan. He was faced with the choice between obedience to God, or throwing his destiny in with that of his wife. He chose the latter. He loved his wife more than God. He willfully and consciously decided to eat the fruit:
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Satan’s statement was not all lies. It was a white lie. They did become as gods, knowing good and evil, but the knowledge was not desirable as the serpent had suggested to Eve:
Eccl 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
At the moment they partook of the fruit of that tree, they changed. They lost their immortality. Their genes changed. Incorporated into their genes was the propensity to sin. Adam, who had loved his wife so much that he chose her before God, turned on her when God inquired about their state of being. Before sin they were naked in the garden, yet unashamed. They were clothed in light, but when they sinned the light went out. Becoming aware of the change, they felt exposed for the first time, and hid in the garden and covered their shame with fig leaves.
Gen 3:9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Adam accused Eve of leading him into eating the fruit, blaming God too, calling her the woman He had given him. Evil had entered into their hearts. Eve likewise blamed the snake. From this point on, incorporated into the genes of mankind and his offspring, there was the natural inclination to evil. We cannot help it. We are born self-centred – I am number one! Goodness and care for others have to be cultivated. Parents have to teach their children to care for others. God also instilled goodness into Adam and Eve after they had succumbed to evil. He said to the snake that He would make man hate evil:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
After God put enmity between us and Satan, we have in our hearts these warring factions. Within us is both evil in our genes and flesh, and goodness which God reinstilled into us. We have literally become victims in the controversy between God and Satan. We are born in the crossfire of this great and significant conflict. How are we extracted from this conflict? The answer to this is well described in Romans 5. By Adam evil and death came into the world and to all his progeny. His progeny have a lesser sin than Adam. The only way out of this dilemma is by the second Adam – Christ:
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Adam brought sin into all the World. Christ pathed the way of righteousness to all the World as a free gift. We have to accept the free gift. If we reject it Christ’s death for us is in vain. What is also emphasized is that the free gift of Christ is far greater and stronger than the miss-step of Adam.
We have been born into the crossfire without our consent or doing. Likewise we have a way of escape from the crossfire without our merits or deeds by Christ. Our sinfulness is not our doing, likewise our salvation is not our doing, it is a free gift presented to us by the love of God through His Son.
Revel in God’s love and the freedom He has provided.
Born in the Crossfire
Babies are cute and they seem innocent, but are quick to learn how to exploit and manipulate their mothers and later the father and other members of the family. They have to be trained at a very early age to know their place and learn the routines of life. Inherently babies are evil, and born sinful. The Psalmist reveals to us that we are conceived in sin:
Ps 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
You may exclaim: “It is not fair that I was evil before I could even take responsibility.” What chance do we have to be saved if we are born evil. If righteousness and salvation depends on our own performance and merit, we are lost from the start and doomed to die. It is impossible for us to be good and to gain salvation on our own accord. How did this happen? Let us look at the origin of our sinfulness.
Adam was created in perfection, and there was no evil in him. His wife, Eve, likewise was created in perfection. There was just one way in which they could sin, and this would be their choice. God placed in the Garden of Eden, their home, a tree of which they were not to eat. Why did God place this temptation in their perfect world? He did that because He was involved in a controversy. The leading angel in heaven had challenged God on the way He governed His kingdom, the Universe. God reprimanded him and told him where it would lead to. The angel, Lucifer, eventually did not heed His warnings and openly sowed discord among the angels against God. One third of the angels decided to support Lucifer against God. God could have annihilated them, but that would have been the end of God’s regime of love. The loyal angels would have remained loyal out of fear of being destroyed. For that reason God simply banned Lucifer and his followers from heaven.
Adam and Eve were created after the banning of the angels from heaven. They were created perfectly just as Lucifer and all the angels were perfect before their rebellion. However, to give Lucifer – Satan – a chance to prove his way of ruling his domain, Adam and Eve were given free choice, and the ability to ascribe to Satan’s way if they so pleased. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was placed in the Garden for Adam to be able to subscribe to Satan’s regime – a polling booth if you please. God warned them to not eat of that tree, because in the day that they did, they would surely die.
For many years they lived blissfully in their garden home and had no need to eat the fruit of that tree. They had every type of fruit that they may have desired. Those many years, Satan waited for his chance to subject them to his wiles. One day, Eve wandered off from Adam. She found herself admiring the forbidden tree, wondering what it was that made the tree so bad. While wondering, she heard a strange voice coming from the tree. She looked to see the being that was talking to her. She knew the voices of Adam, God the Father and Jesus only. Focusing on the tree she saw a snake in it, a large one. They knew snakes, but had never heard one speak, or any other animal for that matter. The snake was eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was eating and surviving. He then sowed the seeds of doubt in Eve’s mind:
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Satan in the form of a snake deceived Eve. She ate of the fruit and did not feel the pangs of death. She imagined exhilaration. She then took some of the fruit and offered it to Adam. He immediately recognised the fruit as that belonging to the forbidden tree. His beautiful wife had succumbed to the wiles of Satan. He was faced with the choice between obedience to God, or throwing his destiny in with that of his wife. He chose the latter. He loved his wife more than God. He willfully and consciously decided to eat the fruit:
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Satan’s statement was not all lies. It was a white lie. They did become as gods, knowing good and evil, but the knowledge was not desirable as the serpent had suggested to Eve:
Eccl 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
At the moment they partook of the fruit of that tree, they changed. They lost their immortality. Their genes changed. Incorporated into their genes was the propensity to sin. Adam, who had loved his wife so much that he chose her before God, turned on her when God inquired about their state of being. Before sin they were naked in the garden, yet unashamed. They were clothed in light, but when they sinned the light went out. Becoming aware of the change, they felt exposed for the first time, and hid in the garden and covered their shame with fig leaves.
Gen 3:9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Adam accused Eve of leading him into eating the fruit, blaming God too, calling her the woman He had given him. Evil had entered into their hearts. Eve likewise blamed the snake. From this point on, incorporated into the genes of mankind and his offspring, there was the natural inclination to evil. We cannot help it. We are born self-centred – I am number one! Goodness and care for others have to be cultivated. Parents have to teach their children to care for others. God also instilled goodness into Adam and Eve after they had succumbed to evil. He said to the snake that He would make man hate evil:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
After God put enmity between us and Satan, we have in our hearts these warring factions. Within us is both evil in our genes and flesh, and goodness which God reinstilled into us. We have literally become victims in the controversy between God and Satan. We are born in the crossfire of this great and significant conflict. How are we extracted from this conflict? The answer to this is well described in Romans 5. By Adam evil and death came into the world and to all his progeny. His progeny have a lesser sin than Adam. The only way out of this dilemma is by the second Adam – Christ:
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Adam brought sin into all the World. Christ pathed the way of righteousness to all the World as a free gift. We have to accept the free gift. If we reject it Christ’s death for us is in vain. What is also emphasized is that the free gift of Christ is far greater and stronger than the miss-step of Adam.
We have been born into the crossfire without our consent or doing. Likewise we have a way of escape from the crossfire without our merits or deeds by Christ. Our sinfulness is not our doing, likewise our salvation is not our doing, it is a free gift presented to us by the love of God through His Son.
Revel in God’s love and the freedom He has provided.
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