While our passage picks up with Eve’s disobedience let’s back up and observe the temptation that preceded it. Here we find the Serpent laying the groundwork for his attack. It is simple. He starts by raising a question about the integrity of God’s words…..

“Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden‘?”

Eve walks right into the trap and does what we too typically do; add to what God has said then misquote and misapply it. In this case Eve responds (in a conversation that should not have even been taking place)….

“From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.‘”

While God draws us through his Spirit. the Serpent draws us through our flesh (our God-given, but vulnerable, human appetites). With the exception of the domain of power, sinning is often a momentary gratification of a gland through an unsanctioned use of our God-given appetites. As Eve’s unprofitable dialogue continues, her appetites are being aroused. While she has already imagined and begun to anticipate the sweet juices on her tongue, the Serpent adds…..

“You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The Serpent is systematically inviting Eve to remove all barriers between her and her now anticipated object of desire. He has already challenged the authority of God’s word; he has now positioned Eve to hear a blatant lie which not coincidently is the very thing she now must accept if she is to get what she has grown to want. The lie? It is twofold; that sinning will cost nothing and that the One who told her it would is shortchanging her. Does this conversation sound at all familiar?

When the “wow” saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Adam, knowing more acutely now, that it is most assuredly not as good for man to be alone, is drawn into the treason. (Read yesterday’s post. Wow is what I think Adam would have named Eve after she had awakened his senses in ways that animals A to Z had not). Understanding what happened next will enable us to have our eyes opened to the dynamics of temptation, human nature and sin. This is Life in Christ 101 for all Christians who would be his apprentices. By the way, there were no other kind of Christians other than apprentice-disciples in the New Testament.

Here is a question that haunts me; Where did we get the idea that we could be saved and opt out of surrenduring our lives to him? Stated differently; How do we imagine that He is rescuing our souls (as Savior) from hell while we are indifferent to the ways he would rescue our lives (as Lord) from a less-than abundant life on earth?  Are we attending class? Were we even made aware that was a class where Jesus (as Lord) would train us up as his apprentices in the midst of our daily life’s trials, tests and temptations?

Whatever our life is is the classroom for Life in Christ.  As we progress along the aprrentice’s way, we will become transformed more and more into His likeness by way of the renovation he has undertaken in our hearts.  It is in the classroom that we come to know Him and discover Him as our abundant Life.

I guess, while I’m being honest, I am even more deeply haunted by why this question seems so far from the minds of most local churches and its leaders.  While they have been entrusted with the souls of men, it would seem frequently that after the primary business of getting a soul saved is resolved, the matter of teaching that soul how to live in the kingdom as a disciple takes a back seat to the duties of maintaining the health of the non-profit and its assets.

In our tradition, this task has come to primarily mean providing a few stimulating meetings each week and in return hopefully receiving an offering suitable to cover the overhead of preaching the gospel (in western tradition).  Note; the overhead of the kingdom gospel is only a fraction of the western-gospel since it is spread out over all the disciples that were to have been made in Judea and Samaria (before going to the ends of the earth).

Is this not what Jesus meant when he said to go into the world and make disciples (apprentices) of all men, teaching them to observe all that I commended you?  We have taken this command, called it “Great“ (which it is), formed foreign mission boards, raised money and sent people out to assist in getting foreign souls rescued from hell (which is truly great). However, in light of the Christian religion’s waining influence in enlightened western nations (those whose eyes have supposedly been opened), I ask myself if we have not failed to actually make apprentices to Jesus right here in our own Judea’s and Samaria’s thus getting our cart before the horse. When this is corrected and the gospel of the kingdom is actually preached, I look forward to hearing of The Greatest Commission, one that remarries the gospel and the Lordship of Christ and commissions believers to go out and live as disciples in whatever circumstances the normal courses of their daily life may find them.

When the Lordship (and correlating apprenticeship) is excluded from salvation, the seed of the gospel is robbed of the multiplication powers of its native kingdom DNA. Salvation without lordship is like a sterile seed that is incapable of reproducing. There is no head of grain. What happens to the harvest if its this type of seed that is sown?  If there is a yield at all, it per-acre numbers will certainly not be a kingdom sized 30, 60 or 100-fold.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

While the fruit initially had a sweet taste it soon turned bitter and poisened the well inside the earth’s two initial rulers. The consequence was a self-awareness God had not intended and a new capacity to see and think about God and themselves, and about right and wrong, through a distorted time-bound lens. It now became the burden of men to make their way in the world; to wrestle with the eternal ways of their Creator with their fallen temporally-conditioned wits. In scripture this is called the mind of the flesh and it is by nature, spiritually barren. Paul tells us that the mind set on the flesh is death.  Our story, in Adam, continues…

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. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Men, hiding themselves from each other and their Creator; is this not the story of the human race and the origin of most all of our woes?  What is there to hide that was not there in us originally? It is (at least in part) shame . Shame flooded into man’s soul (along with other spiritual toxins), extinguishing his light just as God had told him it would. While it is natural to the flesh, which is man’s heart (or mind) in the absence of the Spirit’s influence, to lust after flesh, things and power, it is also in its fallen core make-up to compensate for this shame which dominates and leads man into myriad forms of slavery, including religion (man’s attempt to cope with shame with his own temporal wits). This is why you can usually find a spirit of rejection (and surprisingly pride) at the core of most all religiously devout persons.

We know the next scene by heart. The man shifts the responsibility for his sin to Eve. Adam cannot bear the burden of shame and shifts it to Eve. It’s never our fault is it? I was recently impressed with the candor of a friend. His email address came right out and said it all, itsyourfault.com.

When things in us are awry at the level of our identities the Serpent’s job of deception just gets easier. When we think of ourselves as stepchildren whom God tolerates through Jesus (I am speaking to born anew Christians), it is quite simple for the Serpent to recommend a course of prescriptive ideas to fix ourselves up and get right with God. This would be the equivalent of us sewing our own fig leaves. Regardless of how good a string of moral thoughts and deeds we might string together, it will not effect our core issue (or standing with God) one whit. On the contrary, it will deepen the deception. God must provide the remedy…..

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

God has provided Jesus to us as our sole remedy. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Religion, as we have spoken of it today (and yesterday) is an inadequate and even deadly covering. We must be clothed in Christ alone. He is the garment that God has provided to clothe us.

As they grow accustomed to its fit, the wearers always testify that they no longer feel like tolerated step children.  Far from it! Rather, in Christ, they come to see their identities as cherished sons and daughters who are welcome in God’s presence, permanently free from shame and condemnation. They are able to declare in unity…..

He keeps me from stumbling, and makes me to stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy. In the sacred place of their innermost being they continue…. Now to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24)

Father help us to recognize and honor the authority of your word. Help us to recognize the enemy’s initial attempts to intrude upon our thoughts with innocent sounding questions designed to undermine what you have said and tempt us into sin. May what awareness we have be focused on Jesus and not ourselves. May our hearts acutely grasp the cost of our sin and may we repent of the notion that in any way we have been shorted.  May we live with an exclusive dependency on Christ and out of the fulness of his life within us. You are our sole remedy and you are in every way sufficient. Truly Lord, our cups are running over. In your strength, may we complete our mission to subdue and rule over your earth. Thank you, Thank you.