Thoughts On The Fall

In Sunday School yesterday, I was struck by many new thoughts about the Fall. (As in the fall of man, not fall the season. Just to clarify.) Here we go:

First, it wasn't like the fruit automatically flipped a switch in their brain and they knew good and evil. It was the conscious choice to "make" their own definition of good and evil. By choosing to eat the fruit, they took what God had said was bad, and declared it to be good. Now, God is the only one powerful enough to decide what is good and what is evil. So by deciding that they "knew better", the first man and woman attempted to set themselves up as gods. (This was actually something D.A. Carson said on a video we watched, not my thought! Also, this conclusion was drawn from Genesis 2:16-17 and Genesis 3.)

Secondly, making a compromise is choosing to invent good and evil. So if you're talking to someone who is slandering God, and you point out where they're wrong but then decide to compromise and complain just a bit about Him, you chose your own good. It is equivalent to thinking "This person liking me is good, and God's glorification in this instant isn't so good." 

Third, God didn't step in during the temptation. He didn't make an appearance and say, "Excuse me, but this snake is leading you astray." Even in a crucial moment like this, He allowed humans free will. Along those lines, can you imagine how painful it must have been for Him to allow them that choice, and watch them choose to partake of the one thing He had forbidden them, thereby ruining the paradise He had placed them in? The teacher did say one thing that hit me in the gut. "Think about it this way: If you knew your very best friend was going to betray you, would you still be friends?" Ouch. But God didn't immediately kill Adam and Eve for their impudence. He banished them, yes, and they had to live with their consequences. But He also promised to send a Redeemer, His very own Son, to save them. 

Puts the Fall in a whole new light, doesn't it? A simple summary of all that is that man attempted to de-God God. God was (and is) merciful. And yet we still struggle to glorify Him. Aren't we pitiful? 

And on a slightl unrelated subject, someone quoted this to me, and I really liked it. 

"When you can't see the hand of God, you just have to trust the heart of God."