The FREE gift of God

When God created man in His image (or likeness), He created him so that He could have unrestricted fellowship and communion with him.  Adam (man) was given a task to look after the garden.   He had free access to anything in the garden with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The word knowledge means “to ascertain by seeing; a familiar friend”. He was warned that if he ate of this fruit, his fellowship with God would come to an end and he would die spiritually.  Adam and Eve then lost out on the incredible intimacy that they had had with God beforehand.  heir perception had not been based in the flesh but in the higher realm of the spirit with spiritual eyes and spiritual ears.  Before they ate the fruit, they gave no thought to their nakedness because they were the image of God! Afterwards, however, their physical eyes were opened by their disobedience and they saw themselves as God saw them – in their sinful state, naked and without covering.  God cannot look on sin so He sent them away from His presence, out of His garden.

You see, sin separates us from God and the Bible tells us that ALL have sinned.  Through the centuries since the fall of Adam, man has continued doing things his own way; occasionally turning back to God during times of crisis but always going back into his sin.  When God gave His law to Moses, the only thing that law did was point man to his sin, show him what his carnal or fleshly nature was.  It did not remove sin, it highlighted it!  With the sacrifices that were required under the law, man’s sin was covered over by the blood of the animal but it was not removed.  There was always a reminder that man had an inherently sinful nature.

So if the blood of the old covenant sacrifice could not remove the sin, where is the hope?  Is man then destined for nothing more than merely drawing breath? Never!

God provided a way for man to be permanently released from the guilt of sin.  When the time was right, He sent Jesus to die as the perfect sacrifice and atonement for ALL the sin of mankind – then, now and in the future. What a relief.  So am I saying then, that we can be released from the agonising, unbearable pain of guilt that we feel every time we think of the things we have done?  Yes!  The blood that Jesus shed and presented as a propitiation to God bears eternal testimony to the forgiveness of God and forever makes intercession for us.  The way has been opened for every man, woman and child to boldly come into the very throne room of God and re-establish communion and fellowship with Him.   He loved us so much that, while we were still sinful, He sent Jesus, His only begotten son to die for us and remove the stigma of that sin.