I have been thinking a lot about how similar we are to Adam and Eve. They did not kill anyone, or steal, or commit adultery. All they did was believe lies, and disobey one command. But it ruined everything, because sin is not about doing immoral things, it is about believing lies that cut us off from the very Source of Life. Sometimes I don’t think of myself as sinful because I do not behave immorally. Our understanding of the nature of sin is important because it impacts our understanding of the nature of salvation. If sin is doing bad things, then when we are “saved,” we will become content to just live good moral lives. But if sin is seeking to find life in things other than God, then salvation is a restoration to our original design and a reconnection to our Life Source. This does not simply lead to moral behavior, it leads to the recovery of our purpose as humans and to joining God in his plan to create and cultivate life. Living a moral life is not a big enough vision of salvation because I could life a moral life and completely miss out on receiving Life from the living God.
I constantly live in sin because I constantly fall back into looking to things other than God for my value, and source of life. Salvation is finding out who I am in relation to God and my true identity, not just learning how to be good. As I grow spiritually, I learn to receive life and pour it back out into the world around me. Morality is a result but it is not the main purpose or focus of my salvation.
We were created to be dependent upon God for life. Adam and Eve were susceptible to believing lies and we are too. They believed the lie that they didn’t need God and that they could find life apart from Him. They believed that they would be better off if they ruled themselves. But it wasn’t true, the knowledge of good and evil didn’t give them the Life that they had hoped for. They disrupted the whole order of everything that God created, and nothing worked as it was designed to work anymore.
We believe these same lies. We listen to the lies that our culture whispers to us, like:
“God is keeping something good from me.”
“It’s okay to disobey unreasonable or unfair authority.”
“I owe God nothing.”
“God’s rules take away my freedom.”
“God’s boundaries keep me from good things.”
“I am my own authority.”
“God doesn’t love me, he just wants to control me.”
“As an educated society, we have the ability to determine what is right and wrong.”
“I can decide for myself what is true and right.”
And we just believe it. And we miss out on all that life could be.
We live according to the disrupted order of things, rather than according to the way that we were designed. Rather than getting our needs for security and significance met in God, we go to other sources to fill us, just like Adam and Eve did. We go to things like achievements, social status, talents, or love relationships to find a sense of identity and purpose. Those sources never fill us though. Any source that we use to find fulfillment, other than God, is unstable, we can lose it at any time. We live in a state of anxiety and fear that we will lose the thing that we are counting on to make us feel like we are enough. We become defensive and angry when we feel that our misplaced identity is threatened. We are devastated when we lose things that we placed our hope in. Sometimes we even feel like there is nothing left to live for. We also stay focused on ourselves and our needs. Relationships are seen as a means to meet personal needs. When relationships fail to meet our needs, we become angry and live in resentment or move on.
The reason for so much relational strife, especially in marriage, is that both partners are willing to meet the needs of the other, as long as the other is meeting theirs. But they are both starting at a place of emptiness, waiting for the other to fill them first. We have nothing to give because we are empty. We are not the creators of love, God is. He is the only source that will fill us and enable us to love others selflessly, the way that we were created to.
Our problem is not that we are so immoral and “bad”, it is that we believe lies that keep us from returning to the Source of life. God wants to rescue us and be everything that He was meant to be to us, and allow us to be everything He created us to be. He wants to return everything to the created order so that we will experience true Life.
God gave Adam and Eve a beautiful paradise to rule over. They were to love, care for and cultivate the land, the animals, and each other. God poured Life into them and they were able to pass that life on to the world and to others from a place of fullness. They were made to be filled with God’s love and care. God was the source of life, their relationship with Him was central, and His authority over them was good.
We can be restored to our original design. We were designed to be filled by God so that we can pour life into others, and the world around us. We must recognize God as God. He is our creator. He does have authority over us. He is good and only wants good for us. He loves us and wants to fill us with that love. His love enables us to have life and pass on life. He made the ultimate sacrifice to demonstrate His love for us.
Salvation is more than escaping the consequence of sin, it is returning to who I was meant to be, and how life was supposed to be lived. This salvation begins to occur when I admit that I have been deceived, and denounce the lies that I have believed about God, myself, and life. I need to admit that I have a need for love, acceptance, worth, and purpose, and that I have tried to use people and things, rather than God to meet those needs. I experience salvation when I begin to depend on God and receive His love, grace, and acceptance in a tangible way. God’s love frees me to take my eyes off myself, because all of my needs are met, and pour out all of the love, grace, and acceptance that He has given me, to others.
