One of the greatest effects of sin's curse when Adam fell in the Garden of Eden was the way it tainted humanity's view of God. Until he sinned, Adam had walked through the garden with God every evening. What a time of intimacy that must have been!
But everything changed when sin entered in. Immediately Adam was filled with fear of God and hid himself. He imagined that God would come storming down upon him in anger and judgment because of His sin. He couldn't have been more wrong. God came that evening for His daily walk. There is no evidence that He came in anger with intentions to condemn Adam. He came for His walk! I wonder what would have happened if Adam had come running out to God from his hiding place and have cried out, "Father, I've done a terrible thing! Help me!" I can only imagine. However, that was not to be. From this moment onward, Adam wouldn't see God clearly again, but would only see a distorted caricature of the true God.
From this day forward, he would smear his own sense of guilt and self-condemnation on the face of God. Adam's sin didn't change God at all, but it radically changed Adam. From now on, He would see God as a Punitive Judge who is first and foremost interested in how we behave. He lost the awareness of the reality that our God is not a harsh Judge but a loving Father whose interest and concern is our welfare. He doesn't hate sin because of its moral implications. He hates it because of what it does to those He loves.
The whole Adamic race would, from that day forward, show all the signs of sin's infection. They would no longer see God as Love but rather would see Him as a Legalist who scrutinizes their behavior for infractions that needed to be judged.
God isn't into punishment. Is there a punishment for sin? Of course, but sin brings its own punishment. The wages (punishment/penalty) of sin is death but be sure that it is sin that punishes, not our Father. (Discipline is another subject. That has to do with being "discipled" when our Father allows us to experience sin's consequence for the purpose of lovingly teaching us its dangers.) Our Father's heart is to pour out His love on us. After all, God is love and Love can do nothing that is unloving or He would contradict His own nature.
Legalism would have us believe that in a world where God isn't out to punish us for our sins, people will go crazy sinning. They think that the only thing that regulates our behavior is Marshall Law imposed on us by heaven. Behave or else. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Paul wrote, "The love of God compels me." It isn't punishment but Agape that motivates us toward godly lifestyles. The need of mankind today is to understand the love of God. When we understand that His interest in us is that we fully live the life He intends, which can never be motivated by fear, we will begin to find the rest that Adam knew before He sinned.
(This blog is excerpted from this week's Sunday Preaching broadcast now online at www.gracewalk.org.)
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