A Contrast of Two Trees

Yesterday we talked about being in Adam when he sinned and therefore inheriting all of his sin automatically. I suppose one of the best ways to understand it is to liken it to a woman who is pregnant and ingests drugs or alcohol and her baby is born addicted or with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

It isn't a perfect analogy, of course, the point of it is that the baby suffers the consequence of a choice his mother made. He did not use drugs, but deals with the consequences. It's similar with us suffering the consequences of sin that Adam committed.

Interestingly, though we did not choose to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, we have chosen time and time again to sin because we have inherited that sinful nature. We sin because we're sinners, and we're sinners because we sin. And so it goes.

Finally, I want to end with the contrast of the two trees that we talked about yesterday. It is pretty awesome!

The First Tree: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.

The Second Tree: The Cross of Calvary

The First Tree was planted by God.
The Second Tree was crafted by man.

The First Tree: God forbade men to eat of its fruit.
The Second Tree: Men are freely invited to draw near and eat of the fruit.

The First Tree: Eating the fruit brought sin and death.
The Second Tree: Eating the fruit brings life and salvation.

The First Tree: When Adam ate the fruit, he was driven out of paradise.
The Second Tree: The thief on the cross ate of the fruit and entered paradise.

I suppose it could be said that eating of the fruit of the second tree (repenting and receiving Christ as savior) is an antidote for the poison you ingested by being in Adam when he ingested the fruit of the first tree.

Thoughts? Post a comment!

Miserably Missing the Mark!

So up until now, we've talked about humankind's deplorable spiritual bankruptcy. We're lost. We're ruined. We're nowhere close to whom God created us to be.

The thing is, though, that we seem to be going along on our merry way with no consequences. But Paul, in Romans 2:4-5 tells us not to mistake God's patience and kindness to be tolerance for sin.

"Do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done."

God's standard is righteousness--absolute perfect righteousness. You might think, "well, I'm a pretty good person." Sorry, but "pretty good" isn't good enough. Perfection is God's holy standard.

Years ago, when Beverly and I were painting our bedroom, we ran out of paint halfway through the second coat. We went back to the paint store and gave them the color number and had them mix up another gallon. We took it home, and painted the rest of the room. It looked great--until it dried, that is! Once it dried, it was obviously a different color. Not a lot different, but just enough different that it was unacceptable.

When I was in high school, I was a part of a music class that performed at various school functions throughout the year. Our class had a picture taken for the yearbook, and on picture day the girls were to wear white blouses and dark skirts while the boys would wear white shirts and dark slacks.

When the yearbook was published, there was one poor soul in the class whose mom apparently wasn't good at laundry. Maybe she had washed his white shirt with some colored clothes. Who knows? But his white shirt stood out in that picture. It was just a bit off, but it wasn't white.

That's how it is with God. We may be just a "little off" of perfection, but it is still not meeting His requirements. That's just how it is!

But God, in His great mercy, knows that we can't possibly be perfect! In fact, as we will discover His whole reason for giving us such a high standard to reach is that we will know that it is absolutely unattainable, and we will call out to Him for help.

That's why He sent Jesus! He knew our sinful helplessness, and responded!

I lift up my eyes to the hills--
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
(Psalm 121:1-2)

The songwriter said it best:

Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate
and hath shed His own blood for my soul!

We serve a God who not only holds us to a high standard, but then swooped in to save us when we couldn't save ourselves! As I've said in previous weeks....stay tuned folks!

Understanding God's Plan

Today, I feel thankful. We've spent the past few weeks in the first chapter of Romans where Paul lays out with clarity the sinful condition of mankind. It would be very difficult if his letter to the Romans ended there, signing off with something like:

"Well, that is the deplorable condition of mankind, folks! We've certainly made a mess of things! Have a nice day! love, Brother Paul"

But, of course, as we will discover in the weeks ahead, Paul is simply laying a foundation for our need of a Savior in this first chapter. He will go on to lay out, brick by brick, God's plan for saving us all from our sin. So stay tuned, folks.

But I digress...why do I feel thankful? There are all kinds of little nuggets of things in Romans 1 to be thankful for:

1:2 "...the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son, who as to His human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord."

(I'm thankful that, clearly, a faithful God kept His promises.)

1:11-12 "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."

(I'm thankful for the body of Christ where we encourage and pray for and support one another.)

1:16 "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."

(I'm thankful for the gospel message that is powerful enough to provide for all people who will believe.)

1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

(I am thankful that God speaks to us even through creation. Our innermost being cries out "There is a God!")

1:24 "Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another."

(God gave them over to what they wanted to do. Gave them permission to go their own way. I'm thankful that it doesn't say that He gave up on them, does it?)

1:28 - 32 "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."

This last section of the chapter, Paul kind of "backs up the truck" and lays it all out. In a nutshell, he said--

"They did their thing and God let them, and this is how it turned out! Not so good, eh?"

He shows us that through all of man's choices, the evil continues to grow. It grows. It evolves. Verse 30 tells us that man invented ways of doing evil. So the Creator created what was good (see Genesis 1:31) and then His creation--man, through his sinful choices, used his own creativity to invent ways to sin. Lovely!

And what do we have? Rampant sin. Mutating evil. Hopelessness. No way to extricate ourselves from not only our personal sin but the thousands of years of the "culture of sin" that we live in.

So why am I thankful? I am thankful that Paul didn't sign off here, just like God didn't write us off. The story will continue, and it will be one of grace, mercy, love, and compassion. God sees. God loves. God redeems.

It's the best story around, and I am excited to tell it!

Nothing Worthwhile is Really Free

No pain, no gain!

You get what you pay for!

There are no free lunches!

Those are some of the expressions we commonly hear that underscore the idea that anything worthwhile will come at a price. The price may be money, hard work, blood, sweat, tears, or whatever, but there is a cost.

When we talk about the wonderful freedom that we have in Christ, we must remember that it came at a great price. A price paid by our Lord and Savior.

Have you ever considered that? Have you ever really thought about not only what He did for you, but what it means in your life? He bought you freedom, yes, but He also bought you peace, abundant life, hope, and a host of other benefits. All for you, a sinner who had no way of extricating yourself from the grip that sin had on your life.

We owed a huge debt, and the tab just ran up and up with every day of our lives. We were born sinners. Ka-ching! (We were in trouble at that point, because the debt was already bigger than we could pay.) Then we threw a temper tantrum when we didn't get our way. Ka-ching! We lied to our mom! Ka-ching! We cheated on a test! Ka-ching! Before long, the tab was enormous.

God intervened, because we were helpless. We had no ability to pay the debt.

Now here's the cool part: If we had died for our sins, it would have been a just payment. But God decided to go beyond that. He decided to have Jesus die for our sins, but not just to pay the debt, but also to set us free and buy us life eternal.

It would be kind of like a guy committing heinous crimes, someone else stepping in to do the time in prison, and then at the same time giving the criminal a special gift. Where in the universe would that happen, folks? But that is exactly what Jesus did for us!

One of my biggest concerns is that we seriously don't get it. We, many of us, see ourselves as people that aren't "all that bad" and we just needed Jesus to "spruce us up a little." Not true. Not true on any level. We were broken and dirty, and Jesus found us in a garbage heap and took us in to His family and His home. He gave us a cloak of righteousness to wear, and put our past behind us.

It is a good thing that God "forgets" our sins and He remembers them no more, but it is also a good thing if we don't. I don't want to see us walking around depressed and feeling guilty for our past, but I do think it is good to never forget what He saved us from. That reminds me of a chorus:

Roll back the curtain of memory now and then.
Show me where you brought me from
And where I could have been.
Just remember I'm a human and humans forget,
So remind me, remind me dear Lord.

If we know where we came from, the natural outcome of that is to walk in gratefulness to a Lord and Savior who we serve faithfully and obediently for the rest of our lives.