The Fall

“Adam and Eve didn’t eat from a “tree of evil.” They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Herein we see an important distinction. They weren’t pursuing sin as we normally think of it. They were pursuing a form of godliness. They made an attempt to be like God. The serpent successfully lured them, and the bait was godlikeness. Even today, this is seen as a worthy goal...

“The original sin was not Adam and Eve’s thumbing their noses at the goodness of God. Instead, it was their wanting to author their own system of right and wrong so they could make sure they did right and avoided wrong. Today, we can be deceived by the same offer. We may find ourselves pursuing the knowledge of good instead of listening to our heartfelt yearning for an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.”—The Naked Gospel, pages 70, 71

“While some view Christianity as a behavior improvement program, the Eden story reveals that a desire for behavior improvement was the cause of spiritual death. Lack of moral laws isn’t our problem. A plethora of socially and morally acceptable behavior improvement programs abound across world religions and even in many nonreligious movements. We could benefit from many of them if our primary need was merely a code of ethics to guide life choices.

“Radically, the Bible teaches that humanity’s main problem is not what we’re doing. Instead, it’s our lack of life as we do it.”—The Naked Gospel, page 72

<idle musing>
It sure looks spiritual! It sure sounds spiritual! But, it results in death because it is done from death. Death gives birth to death. It is only the new life in Christ that can give birth to life.
</idle musing>