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Authority Eph 1:1-2

Authority

A while ago when I was a little less wise. I was to make my way to a place to prepare for being a missionary to unreached peoples. Being from the Bahamas I didn’t have many contacts in the USA, nor did I have a home base to set our from.

I had one contact in upstate NY, so I reached out to him, and he helped me to find a vehicle. I needed a vehicle because this training institute was in a rural part of the United States, then once I was done there I needed to move myself to another part of the USA to continue on with training.

He helped me find a vehicle that would get the job done, I purchased it and got on my way. Things would happen that I was not prepared for.

This car had New York plates, and had been used as a winter commuter vehicle for some years, so it was not in the best of condition. I got in this car, and made my way to Pennsylvania, got settled into the training institute, and began to get on with life.

Several months later I was pulled over by a policeman. He was a bit curious I suppose. This was a kind of beat up vehicle and I’d bet he’d seen it before. In the course of this encounter he discovered that I was living in PA studying and my vehicle was registered in NY with NY plates. It ended up in a fine, but I was left perplexed. As far as I was concerned the vehicle was legal because it was a licensed and insured vehicle. I knew nothing of “Separation of States.” NY plates meant nothing in PA.

Each state sets its own laws concerning the use and operation of vehicles on the roads of that state. I was in violation of the laws of PA, but totally unaware of that fact.

We as people fall under the laws or authority of what ever municipality we reside in. Not knowing those laws cannot excuse violation of those laws. Many times we live under the authority of law that we have no understanding of. Or sometimes we may travel to a place that has different laws in place, but while we are there, we too fall under the authority of those laws. Not knowing the law will not save you from an infraction of any of the laws of that place.

A few years ago there was a high profile cace involving a WNBA athlete Britney Griner. She was allegedly in possession of CBD oil in a vape canister. That was a major drug offense in Russia, even though it may not have been where she had left from. She had fallen under the authority of a different land. Ignorance of their law cannot excuse us from the law.

How does this relate to Ephesians?

Vs 1 NLT

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.

  • This letter is from Paul,
    • Who is Paul?
    • He will now set his authority to write this letter.
  • chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.
    • Chosen by the will of God.
      • Paul is chosen by the ultimate authority
      • This means that what he is about to say is a message from God Himself
      • You must listen.
    • to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.
      • An apostle is a messenger. One sent with a message.
      • So Paul is establishing that he is Christ’s messenger, chosen by God for this job.
      • His authority is established to delver the message.
      • His purpose is given.
  • Writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus,
    • The recipients of the message
      • They belong to God.
      • They are under the authority of God.
      • They are set apart for God(holy).
    • who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
      • Pauls message is for those who are FAITHFULLY following Jesus.

So Paul in verse 1, Introduces himself, states the authority under which he will give the coming message, and alerts those for whom the message is meant.

Without belonging to God, the words of these messages are not possible to keep. They are not just wise words to live by, but they are words, instruction to a group of people set apart for God, dedicated to God, Faithful in their lives for God.

Vs 2 NLT

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

  • our Father here is interesting. It would seem to indicate that God is the father of all mankind.
    • This is all people, those who believe Him, and those who don’t trust Him.
    • God is the God of all mankind, regardless of our belief.
    • Since God is the God of all, He is the final authority over all.
    • He is the one who decides right from wrong, just from unjust.
    • This is like going into a country and without knowing it being subject to law that you don’t know.
      • Ignorance of that law will not excuse you from that law.
  • Christ’s grace and peace is also available to all mankind.
  • To receive this grace and peace, one has to follow God’s way to receive that grace and peace.
  • It cannot be won by ignorance, or the rejection of God’s way cannot be excused by ignorance.

God is the God of all mankind, His being God is not dependent on our belief of that fact or not. We all fall under His Devine authority, if we believe we do or not.

He is a gracious God, who has provided for any who believe to be forgiven of all sin, and for those who believe to be adopted by Him as His own children.

His authority stands! There is no way out from under that authority. The question is, what do you do with it?

God’s Special Creation

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Genesis chapter 2 God circles back to add some detail about the special part of His creation. The part of creation that is different from all the rest. The part of creation to which He gave very special attention!

Man, God’s Special Creation

Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

For all the rest of creation God said and there was. God spoke all other parts of creation into existence, but not man. He formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God was much more intimate with the creation of man. The creation of man was not simply a word. God took time to form man, and the biggest difference between man and the rest of creation, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This is not simply life, but the spirit of man was breathed into him. His soul was given to him at this point. This is the part of man that is not shared by the rest of creation, man’s spirit, man’s soul. Man’s spirit is what really sets him apart from all other created creatures. It is the spirit of man that is the image of God.

It is because of this spirit that we are able to commune with God. It is this spirit that gives personality. The spirit that allows us to form abstract thought. To ponder the meaning of life. It is this spirit in fact that gives us meaning of life. It is why when we talk of the deep things of life, we speak of spiritual things. It is on the spiritual level that we meet with God, that we commune with God. The spirit of man is the eternal part of man. The spirit of man is what makes us know that there is more to existence than simply this short life. The spirit of man is eternal, our spirit will always exist!

Man’s Task

God planted a garden, a special place with all the things that Adam would need for life. The garden was planted with all the trees that were pleasant to look at, and all the trees that Adam would need for his life. God Mentions two trees in particular: 1. the tree of life, and 2. the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These were both in the center of the garden. Man was put in the garden according to vs.15 to “tend and keep it.”

As a bit of a side note, God gives a bit of a geography lesson of the land around the garden, it’s rivers, and where they went. All of this geography is not the same now as it was then. We will look at an event later on that would reshape the face of the earth.

For now we need to know that God had created His master piece of creation, man, and had given to him all that he would need for life.

The Commandment

Adam was given the task of keeping the garden in which he would live. God also gave him one single rule, or commandment.

Vs. 16-17 “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 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.”

Talk about a truly simple life! Adam has everything he needs, and every beautiful plant on earth surrounding him. All he needs to do is tend to the garden, and obey God’s one commandment to not eat that one fruit.

Adams Companion

vs. 18 God said “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

God would make for Adam a companion like him, to complete him. It is worth noting here that God did not say that He would make a companion to serve him, or who was lesser than he. God said that He would make a companion “comparable to him.” God created them equal, but not the same.

For the remainder of chapter 2 God goes through an exercise with Adam. He made from the ground all the creatures of the earth to have Adam name them, so Adam did. He named all the animals, but vs. 20 says “But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.”

God then went on to take a rib from Adam, and from that rib He would make a companion for Adam. Adam called her woman because she was taken out of man.

She was literally a part of him. Woman was created to be man’s companion, of all the other creatures of creation, there was no other animal that was comparable to man. Because of this when a man and woman are joined in marriage they are considered by God to be one. The bond of marriage cannot be broken in God’s eyes. He sees a husband and wife as one and the same.

In these days of confusion it is also important to note that the God prescribed marriage is one man with one woman for life. To deviate from this plan is to deviate from God’s plan, that is called sin.

God’s Creation Narrative

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The nation of Israel had been held captive for hundreds of years by Egypt. They were slaves forced to do hard labor. All they knew was pain and oppression, and God had decided it was time for them to be brought out of this suffering. Many of them had a vague idea of who God was.

God would introduce Himself to them through His servant Moses. He would also through Moses bring them out of the captivity of Egypt, with the goal of taking them to a land He, God, promised would be a good land, a land of fullness. He promised them He would go before them making the way.

It is during this Exodus of Egypt that God would have Moses write 5 books. These books would introduce God to the people of Israel, and let them know what He expected of them. They would see and experience many great miracles in their journey, as God became very closely involved in their lives.

One of the books Moses would pen is called Genesis, the beginning of all things. The book of Genesis is the history of the world in narrative form from the beginning of all things up to the time of Israel’s move to Egypt.

The Beginning of All Things

God starts Genesis with the words “In the Beginning.” Before this there was nothing. Only God existed and nothing else. No earth, no space, no light, no darkness, no sun, no stars. You get the picture. There was only God!

There are several important ideas to take away from the first chapter of Genesis. The first being that God, the almighty created everything that we see and know. He created the soundness of the earth that we walk on. He created the depth and vastness of space. He created time and the ways that we track time and seasons.

The Creation Timeline

He is also very careful to announce through His narration of the events of creation a time period for each creation event. Each creation event is marked by the phrase, “So the evening and the morning was the first day.” “So the evening and the morning was the second day.” And so on. There is no room for believers in God to accept anything other than God created everything in 6 days. He made sure to explain this very clearly.

God is Plural

We learn another important piece of information about God during this narration. Genesis 1:26 God said “Let us make man in Our own image, according to Our likeness…” God somehow exists in multiple persons! But He, God is one, vs. 27 says “so God created man in His, own image; in the image of God He created them.” God refers to himself in the singular.

Man

It is also important to note that the creation of mankind is different to the creation of all the rest of creation. There is nothing else created according to God in the same way He created mankind. All the other living creatures are simply spoken into existance. For example vs. 20 says “Then God said “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.””

In one statement God created all the creatures that live in all the waters of the earth, in multitudes. The waters teamed with life and the skies were filled with every species of bird. In the creative awesomeness of God His word is enough to bring all of the variety we see in the waters of the earth as well as all the varieties of bird we see covering all the earth.

Man, however is different. Man we see is created in the very image of God. He is also created to have dominion over all of creation. Man is God’s special part of creation!

The Goodness of Creation

Genesis 1:30 says “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”

God created a perfect work. A thing of beauty. He was very pleased with all that He had created. There was no flaw in it, no disease, no evil… So what happened? Why is our existence now difficult, full of disease and disappointment?

Who Is God? And Why Should I Care?

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Who is God? Is there a God? Why should I care? Three important questions.

Who is God

Here we are sitting and pondering the most important questions of life. Who is God? I suppose we really need to start from a question of, who are we?

These days we find ourselves confused about who or what we are. We are being told that we can be whatever we think we want to be. Is that true? I believe to answer who God is will put into perspective the question of who we are, and what we are.

We are being taught things like there are no genders, that the human species is going to cease to exist because of overpopulation of the earth, that there are no absolutes. We are observing a world where there seems to be no justice. People who are trying to play by the rules seem to be getting squashed. The wealthy seem to be getting more wealthy, and those who are not a part of the wealthy club seem to be struggling more and more to be able to make ends meet.

We are taught that our existence has come about by a great accident and all life, kind of generated itself over billions of years, totally on its own, and by total accident. So because all of life is an accident, there is therefore no god.

The more we accept these thoughts the further into chaos society gets. The more we accept these thoughts, the more confused we get. Each day there are more children who have decided that they should just end their lives, life is not worth living. Why? All of these thoughts are contrary to God and His purpose for our lives! The more we accept the things that are contrary to God the further we get away from normal, the more depressed we get, the more chaos surrounds us. Just what does God expect of us?

According to NASA planet earth is rotating on its axis at a speed of more than 1000 miles per hour. Earth is also at the same time making its trip around the sun at a mind blowing 67,000 miles per hour, that is 87 times the speed of sound. Beyond that our solar system is hurling through space at a mind bending 448,000 miles per hour. They tell us “speed kills,” well our planet is doing some serious speed, and without incident. How is this possible?

How is it possible that we can count on things like the length of our days? We can count on things like the seasonal calendar? We can count on knowing when the next eclipse will occur. The Mayans had predicted the position of constellations a thousand years into the future, and made record of those calculations. None of these things allow for chance, they are all predictable, Why? The answer is pretty simple. There are constants. There are rules that govern our solar system. The whole thing was designed by God, and is governed by Him.

God set about to tell us who He is. He set about to tell us how we got here on planet earth, how the stars came to be, how earth was formed with everything on it. He even took the time to tell us the exact amount of time it took Him to make all this stuff.

Simply look around you at all the wondrous bits and pieces of the world we live on called Earth. All the growing things, the mountains, the seas, the animals and bugs. Look at the way all these things work together. There is no way all of this is an accident. Order never comes from disorder, an accident never produces a new thing, just a mess.

God through His profit Moses introduces Himself to us. Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning God created…” In the beginning of all things there was only God. Everything else was created, made by Him. He takes the time to lay out briefly how he created the world and universe, and how long it took Him to do it. We will look at God’s account of the beginning of all things to attempt to learn what He would like us to learn from the creation account. Obviously He had it written in order to introduce Himself to us, we, His creation.

Is There A God

I believe all of creation points to God as the maker of all things, as the origin of all things. I believe there has to be a God because it is impossible for anything to exist otherwise. Look at our world hurdling through space at nearly 500,000 thousand miles an hour, without impacting anything else around us. This in itself is impossible. The scientists know this. That is why they spend so much time tracking comets and the like. Just one stray rock impacting earth at these kinds of speeds would be the end of all things, with no way to escape. Those scientists, most of them, would not admit there is a God. Because they don’t believe that there is a God, they stress about the precarious nature of earth moving through space at such ludicrous speed.

If our atmosphere would change in any way, we would probably be poisoned and die. This is why the scientists stress so much about any changes to our climate. They are worried that we will destroy ourselves by changing the climate. Life goes on today as it has for thousands of years, we are living in the very same atmosphere, regardless of the horrible things we have done on this earth. God is the sustain-er of our world, of our atmosphere. This is why life continues on. There is for sure a God! We are not an accident, our world is not an accident.

Why Should I Care If God Exists

Well, if God truly does exist. What does He want from us? Why did He make us? Why are we so different from all the other living things around us?

Why should I care if God really does exist? If God does exist, wouldn’t we do well not to offend Him? If God does exist, would we do well to acknowledge Him, if that is what He wants? If God does exist, what is He going to do with us, with earth?

The mainstream idea now is to erase the idea that God does exist. What if God is offended by that? What if the creator of the world, the universe, decides to deal harshly with those who try to do away with Him? If God is creator of all things doesn’t He have the right to do with all created things what He sees fit to do? If God does exist what kind of arrogance does it take to think we can erase the very thought of God?

If God does exist, I think we had better care! We had better find out what He expects of us. We had better shed our arrogance, and humble ourselves before God, the almighty creator of all things.

God The Creator

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God introduces Himself in the first chapters of the book of Genesis as the creator of all things. This includes all that we see and experience around us, including the great expanse of space and all that is in it.

This has several implications.

The first is that before the beginning of the creation that we observe around us, both near and far, only God existed! There was no time, no earth, no life, no space, no stars, not even light or darkness. Just God and God alone.

Everything that exists was made, created by God. So without God there is no life, no matter, no light and no darkness, not even time.

Everything created is His to do with as He wants. He can keep creation as it is with no changes or He can decide to change things up. For example a big subject today is “global warming.” God if He wishes can heat things up, or cool them off, and there is nothing that can be done about it. If God decides to change the temperature of the climate, or anything else for that matter, the result will be God’s desired result. That means that we, mankind, can’t change the workings of creation or destroy it either.

Most of the things created by God were spoken into existence. This is important because there is one part of creation that is different to all the rest. When it comes to mankind, God teaches that He formed him from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him. God made man differently, He made man much more intimately, more personally. We are created differently in order to interact with God, to relate to God. All the rest of creation is created for mankind, while mankind is created for God. This is truly what sets man apart from all the “animal kingdom.” Not thumbs, not upright mobility. We, mankind, are created differently, with a different purpose, that is why we are different.

Because all things are created by God there is design and purpose in all things and beings. There are no accidents, every part of creation is planned and purposed. Things did not accidentally become the way they are, life did not evolve from one lower form to another. God created all things as they are.

God has no need for anything provided by our universe, our world. He exists completely independent of it and from it. The universe and all in it was created by God for God, and He has no need of it at all.

Because everything is created by God, He can and does determine what happens to everything in this created world. Because everything is His design, He has the right to determine how all things should function, how all things should act and react. God has the right to interfere in the daily functioning of all things. He also has the right to end this world when He desires. There is no fairness or unfairness where God’s dealings with His creation is concerned. How can anything that is made, complain to, or, about it’s maker that one thing is fair or unfair? God determines what is right, wrong, fair, or unfair.

Abraham

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God introduces us to Abram in the final verses of the 11th chapter to Genesis. No great pomp or circumstance just an introduction, who he is, who his family is, and where they were.

The first verse of chapter 12 finds God telling Abraham to leave his country and family and go, to a place that was not defined, but God would show him when he gets there. Not exactly circumstances that would excite the majority of us, but Abram does what God had asked him to do. God also told Abram that He(God) was going to make Abram a great nation that would be a blessing to the whole world. Through the lineage of Abram the whole earth would be blessed, but there were again no specifics given to Abram. He and Sarai, his wife were without children, but Abram was not bothered by these details. I would like to say that this is faith, faith in a God that Abram knew would do exactly what He said He would do. Lots of us believe that there is a God, but not so many of us are willing to act on that belief. We want a plan from beginning to end, with quantifiable goals along the way so that we can be sure the plan is working. That is not the way that God wants to interact with us. Faith is only real when we are able to act on a belief regardless of possible outcomes. Abram had no idea of where he is going, or how he will be perceived by others.

Abram and his household continued on until God appeared to Abram again, letting him know where to stop.

There is a saying “put your money where your mouth is.” That can be put as, you have faith, act on it! When we know what it is that God want’s of us we must act on that knowledge. to not act is to not really believe.

Abram was not a perfect man, but he was a man that believed strongly enough on God to do what he knew God wanted of him. We will take a look into his life to see his errors and then his faith. Each error is a moment that faith failed, failure of faith causes our focus to go to something other than God, some problem we have that at that moment obscures our faith. We will see that these errors are overlooked by God, and Abram picks up where he left off, believing God.

Noah After the Flood

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The whole earth was wiped clean by the flood. There was no more evil, no more violent acts. The earth was green and awaiting the passengers of the Ark to repopulate it. The waters of the flood were on the earth for ten and a half months before the earth was dry enough for Noah and his family to begin life again on it. According to the text it had rained for one hundred and fifty days with out a stop or break, then it took slightly more time again for the waters to clear and dry from the earth.

There is no more mention of Angels marrying and having children with the women of earth. It seems that there were at least two limitations that God put on the earth and mankind at this time, one was to shorten man’s lifespan, and the other, not spoken of was to put an end to angels and humans mixing. We also see in the ninth chapter that God requires the life of a person who commits murder. So capital punishment is in fact set in place by God Himself. God sees human beings as precious, and a person who would destroy another human intentionally should according to God be killed. To not do so results in more deaths by the hands of people who have no value for life. We also note that at this time animals will have a fear of man that did not exist up to the new beginning. Animals were also added to man’s diet. Just the opposite to the idea that we came from cave man who was a hunter and gatherer, then learned to farm.

With all these new limitations God now made a covenant to not destroy the earth in this way again. This covenant is between God and the inhabitants of earth, all living things. He would not destroy every living thing again with water. The token for this one sided deal, contract is the rainbow. It will be seen to remind us of two things. One God did destroy every living thing save one family by a great flood, and two He will not do so again.

God is a god of grace, He saved Noah and his family along with every species of animal of earth instead of destroying the whole thing by the flood waters. God is all powerful and the earth is under His power to do with as He wishes. God is a judge who judges with integrity and surety, His judgements can’t be overturned or changed, there are no appeals. His requirement of us is that we do not decide to turn away from Him. To turn away from Him, to deny His existence, is an intentional act that will bring His judgement to bear. He desires of us to trust Him, to acknowledge Him. He has the grace to overlook and forgive our shortcomings.

Jealousy Rage and Murder

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It didn’t take very long for things in the new earth to hit rock bottom. Strife surfaced pretty quickly between Adam and Eve’s first children.

We see the two making an offering to God. It is a voluntary offering just as we do in our church services today. The problem arose with God’s acceptance of one and not the other. The first impression I get is that God was very personal with these boys. He was speaking with them one on one. God was please with the offering brought by Abel, but not the offering brought by Cain. He must have expressed as much to the two boys. This lead to Cain feeling rejected, although that was not the case. God did not reject Cain. God was speaking very closely with the boy, but none the less he felt very put out.

What was the difference in the two offerings? Why did God receive one and not the other? The text is short but pretty telling of the two gifts. The giving of gifts is a touchy point with most of us. It is also a touchy point with God. The importance of God in our lives is very easily seen by the way we give gifts to Him. Our giving to God reviels our true thoughts about Him, His worth to us. So what was the difference in the two offerings? We are told in the passage that Cain brought an offering of the fruits of the ground. It just happened to be some of what Cain had on hand, nothing special really. Abel on the other hand brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. Abel had brought to God the first and best of what he had. He did not bring to God some of the left over of his belongings. This shows God what we think of Him. Do we fear Him? Do we love Him? Do we trust Him to provide for us? God expects our best, not the left overs. Cain had already consumed the best of the first fruits and so God was not pleased with the offering that Cain brought. Many times in my own life I have done exactly as Cain did. I looked at my bills, the things that I may have liked to have, covered those things, then given to God if there was anything left. This does not show any reverence for God. Then I complain when nothing seems to go right, I feel rejected just as Cain did. God expects us to trust Him with all of our life, yes even with the material possessions.

Cain became jealous of Abel to the point where he called Abel out into a lonely field and Killed him. We have a tendency to blame shift. We like to find a reason for why things are not the way we want them. Cain had decided that Abel was the reason that God had rejected his offering, and the only way to fix it was to murder him.

I find it very interesting that God approached Cain in the same way He had approached Adam and Eve when they had disobeyed Him in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit. God asked Cain “where is your brother Abel?” God knew full well where he was, but He put the question to Cain. This has not changed in how God deals with us. He want’s us to confess our failures to Him, to ask His forgiveness. We too have not changed, we try to deflect God, to deceive Him. God knows everything, He can not be deceived. The result of our pushing God away is always more pain, more suffering. If we do not do right sin waits at the door, sin will take us.

God want’s us to trust Him.

God knows everything, there is nothing that can be kept from Him. He is the judge of the world, He made it all and He has the right to judge it.

Results of Sin

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Sin: the opposite of God’s desires. We look for many technical definitions of sin, usually to see if there is any way to justify our actions or thoughts. The true and simple definition of sin is anything that is different to God’s desires. God created all that we see and don’t see. He has the right to define how those things He created behave. He has the right to set limits.

God’s limits are not difficult to understand. Adam and Eve were asked to not eat of one fruit. They had all the rest of the fruit to eat from, to enjoy. How hard is it to obey God in this simple request? God even took the time to explain what would happen if the fruit was eaten, but that explanation was not enough. Things have not changed with mankind or with God. His desires for us are still very simple, but we embellish them, then we ignore His desires for our own desires.

To sin, to do the opposite of God’s desires always leads to the same result. Hurt, pain, trouble, heartache, DEATH! I’d like to mention that God at this point put no further rules on the new couple. No law, no guide lines. I wonder why. Could it be that they now knew the difference between good and evil. Now there was evil, and they could tell which was which, evil is evil (to do the opposite of God’s desires), and good is good (to do God’s desires). We still carry this knowledge within us. It is inherent, we call it a conscience.

The immediate results that Adam and Eve experienced when they disobeyed God were quite striking. Shame of their bodies. The very first thing they did is try to cover their bodies. Mankind has struggled with sexuality ever since. The next thing they experienced was a fear of God. Until now they had conversed with God as if He were no different from them. They now hid from Him, which by the way is not possible. They now experienced confrontation for the first time from God as He questioned what they were  doing and why. They experienced panic as they scrambled to hide both themselves and what they had done. They now felt the need to justify themselves by shifting blame to someone else. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. Things have not changed at all! This is a full description of how we perceive God. We feel that we can hide the things we know to be wrong from Him and if we feel He knows, we blame someone else for those problems. God always knows!

The earth too was affected by this disobedience to God. We see God telling Adam that now he will have to work really hard to grow things, weeds and other problem will present challenges to Adam as he struggles to grow food. We also see God expelling Adam and Eve from the perfect garden that He had put them in. We see death for the first time as God killed animals and clothed Adam and Eve with their skins. We see that Adam and Eve’s lives would end, they would die and return to dust. None of these things were what God wanted. He wanted them to live forever in a perfect place under perfect circumstances. Disobedience of God will always lead to these problems. All of mankind is now stuck in this world of death, and struggles. This is still not what God wants for us. That is why He puts a limit on this life. Sin has a limit.

God has the right to put limits on everything. He made it all.

God has the right to tell us how to live our lives. He made us all.

God has set a limit on sin. He will not allow it to go on forever. That is not His plan.

God is the judge of all things. Death is the result of disobeying Him.

The First Sin

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The first sin and the fall of mankind into a need for salvation from death came very soon after the new couple were placed in the perfect garden that He had made for them. What happened? What was the cause? Who did the sin?

I wonder how long it took for the disobedience to set in? I really think it was within the very first moments of their touring the Garden of Eden that this folly occurred. The reason I think this is, a perfect man and a perfect woman naked together in a perfect place would quickly lead to conception. But they would not conceive until after they have been removed from the garden. I don’t think they wasted any time in going to see this tree from which they were not supposed to eat from. This perfection was doomed before it even got started! But why?

I am convinced that the first disobedience toward God hinges from DISCONTENTMENT! They had it all, well almost, but they were not content with almost all. We find ourselves in the very same condition today. Nothing has changed, discontentment drives our lives. It causes us great misery each day, it causes us to sin each day. Just take a look around. We are not satisfied with the home we live in. The brother-in-law has a much bigger, newer place. His furniture is really nice, they never drive a car more than two years old. I’d like to do the same. The debt we carry says it all.

God had given Adam and Eve everything they could ever need. All the food they could eat, a perfect climate that never changed, companionship, face to face communication with God Himself. Wow! But, they weren’t content. We can see this when Eve was questioned by the serpent. He asked the question that was on her mind. Her answer to him was very interesting. “God has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Did God say that? No, He said don’t eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. She had already embellished what God had said. Isn’t that what we do as well. As we work things over in our minds that we see and encounter with our friends and family we make situations much bigger than they are. You see things have not changed with mankind. We are still not content with the life and possession that God has so graciously given us.

Because of our discontentment we still risk it all. We get our minds working in overtime to get the things we desire, even it they are out of our reach. Our discontentment is what still tears our lives away from God. We are so caught up in discontentment that we forget that He is there. You see, God was there when they ate that forbidden fruit. He is everywhere! He is not surprised by anything. He knows it all. Just as discontentment drove Adam, Eve, and all the rest of us into the problems of sin and death, discontentment drives us into problems of sin, and death.

Discontentment has forever changed the earth and all it’s inhabitants. What are we to do with it?