by Vanessa Shipowick
And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17 NIV
Less than fifty words and every possibility for humanity is foreshadowed - live or die.
You choose. Such a succinct future. No gray, foggy mist hinting at other possibilities; just live or die. Yet this clarity is confusing for here we are millennia later, still living and dying. Reality is not the either/or proposition of Eden. It is a confusing cauldron of choices boiling endlessly between the parentheses of life and death. In this confusion would perspective help? Would accepting the clarity of God’s succinctness, as reality’s hypothesis, delineate a way to clarity?
In far too many small group settings, the dialogue suggests we are like children with the donkey’s tail, groping frantically trying to pin God down. “What does it mean, ‘…for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ Adam and Eve lived for hundreds of years after the eating. And we live on too.” The comments and questions continue. Knowledge increases, but we still run to and fro. That donkey is so very elusive.
So, let’s assume God is right. A safe assumption, shall we presume. When the fruit was eaten the bite rent reality asunder. Paul says, “Now we see things imperfectly…” Our perceptions are skewed, especially concerning this life and death choice. God dwells in eternity. The reality beyond time, where Adam and Eve once lived. It was from reality that they were banished. Dead. Dead to the reality that only in God had they moved and breathed and had their being. God’s spirit of eternity no longer flowed freely to them. They existed by the sweat of the brow, childbirth, and the remnant life of God’s first breath upon them. Cursed. Mortality, the new reality. Separated from the source of life and eternal reality, every choice brought death. Some choices, thought good, would delay the inevitable, but none could erase the finality. Death reigned.
Some would say reigns. But that is no longer true. The bite of the fruit was superseded by the bite of the heel. The crushing of the serpent’s head. The vacant tomb.
Life reigns - The Second Adam lives!
“So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 5:21 NLT
Choose life for Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!
