My Death in Life

This weekend was a hard, surprising, and weird. But the title sums up a very general principle that I've discovered in life: The unnatural things in life are the hardest to overcome. There are two things that came to my mind when I came up with this trite little saying; Death and Sin.

I don't want to claim that I knew God's original plan or that this life wasn't part of the plan or his foreknowledge, that discussion is of another blog post. But I want to speculate with you for a second. And I will be utilizing "intention", because whether God wanted or did not want, I believe there are some evident intentions that God had when He made man.

First let us look at death. God created the garden of Eden and created Adam to become a worker in the garden. Through God's inspired word, Genesis only makes a distinction of two trees in the garden. The first is the knowledge of good and evil, which God commands Adam and Eve not eat of, and the second is the tree of life. God never commanded Adam and Eve to not eat from the tree of life, just the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The effects of the tree of life seem to be eternal life:

"Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—'" -Genesis 3:22, ESV

But the problem was that Adam and Eve ate from tree of knowledge of good and evil, thus sinning, thus separating themselves from God. In order to not make this separation permanent, God had to keep them from eating the tree of life:

"Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." -Genesis 3:23-4, ESV

From our linear-time perspective, maybe God's original plan was for us to live forever with him. I can't say this for sure, but it seems like even in the curses that God lays on man the curse of death, which was a new idea (since it was the beginning of time):

"'...By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.'” -Genesis 3:18, ESV

So from a brief look, Death does not seem to be a part of the natural way God intended us to be. And I think that's obvious in events today. Have you ever had someone you were close to die? Why, even if we know they believed and claimed Jesus Christ as their Lord, Savior, and Forgiver of sins and that we will see them again, do we grieve when they are lost on Earth "forever" (Forever in the sense of the world, not Eternity). I would argue because there is a part of us that still doesn't recognize that it was supposed to happen. That our creation and manifestation was a temporary occurrence.

There is never a more growing experience then asking the question "why?" and many others after you lose someone. I believe that is an honest question that cannot be easily answered and spoken to in that time of grief. But whatever a person comes out with, whether a "good enough" answer or the answer that we will not fully know, they will be stronger and better for it. And hopefully closer to God.

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The second unnatural thing in life that a soul will struggle against is sin. It seems, like death, God never intended for us to sin. If God created us to be in relation to him, sin is an element that we add to the equation that interrupts that relationship. I think I cannot fully grasp this concept though, because I'm not a parent. But I can imagine having a young son or daughter that disobeys me and how that changes the dynamic of our relationship momentarily.

A Holy God cannot be with that which is not Holy. But that's the beautiful thing of the Gospel.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

Not only does sin affect our relationship with God, but it is probably at the very core of every problem between people as well. Sin creates difficulty in relationships whether you are the offender, they are the offender, or in some way or another you both are- sin creates dissension.

Try to think back to a time that you have sinned, either when you thought it was against someone or against yourself (most cases, it's both). How hard was it to move on from that sin? Not only do you have to go through the situation of repenting and confessing to people involved, but how do you move on from the realization of what you've done? How do you accept grace, exactly? We wouldn't have to deal with these questions, problems, and awkward situations if sin were not involved.

Have you ever been sinned against? Try getting over that one. This one is especially potent when the person who has sinned against you either doesn't recognize their sin or does and doesn't show any sign of remorse or sorrow- almost like they want you to hurt.

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I don't know. Maybe I just want things to be simpler so I can understand the world around me and know exactly how to go about fixing things. But that's why we have the Bible. Even when we don't know what's going on with other people or the world around us we know what God asks of us. We know how we can "love God rightly" (Churchwell, Moody Prof). When we know how to live in relation to God these hard things to overcome... don't go away, but it's easier to accept when we know that God is loving, just, and merciful.

When we strive to be God's, the rest will follow.