Falling Away.

From the beginning of the human race there have been people who have strayed from the faith or even fallen away, becoming an unbeliever. This is because evil is an active presence in our world ever since Satan fell. Adam and Eve started that trend toward unbelief with two major influencers in their “decision” to join the ranks of the Fallen: for Adam’s part, it meant staying silent to the truth; for Eve, falling away was the lure of “better” fruit as well as the desire to “be like God.”

These two issues and more have become stalwart obstacles, causing many to stumble and fall in their journey of faith. The good news is that God comes in softly and tenderly with severe truth and an unbelievable amount of skin in the game. He comes to relieve shame and hurt by making Himself the solution to their falling away.

When paradise was destroyed, God could have thrown in the towel and converted this fallen world into a dump heap. He could have wiped the slate clean and started over immediately but He chose to remain and commit Himself to these burdened and shamed sinners. Adam and Eve both cowered away in a remote section of the garden, hoping to avoid God’s nightly engagement with them: “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).

Fear has many negative effects on humanity; one of the worst is its powerful force to avoid God when we really need Him. The terror and panic sin caused now also isolated them from God. Their only hope of restoration became to them someone [God] who seemed to be an enemy. They were convinced that God looked at them as a pariah. They thought, “Why would the Master want to do anything other than deliver extreme and deadly punishment?” His Words were still sifting through their broken and terrified thoughts: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17).

“When God shows up, we die!” How insightful that is for any of us. We may not utter that thought out loud but it is deep in our DNA. We have natural fear of God’s punishment: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18).

We learned last week that one of the pieces of armor in the Armor of God is truth. Truth displaces the half-truths and full out lies that Satan loves to sow in our thinking. When the truth of God relaxes our anxious soul, it is because He truly cares for us. Yes there is anger toward sin; there is justice that must be carried out. But that justice and holy anger were already released on Jesus and we now possess the breastplate of Jesus’ right behavior. We already have the helmet of salvation - heaven has been won. Adam and Eve were able to grasp enough of this gospel message, this good news; and now they have returned to the ranks of those who are incredibly grateful for God’s good character and grace.

Thank you Jesus for being our salvation and for securing our righteous record! May we forever praise your name.