Hello again!
This blog became dormant again and now it’s going to have a
reboot. I know that the last time this blog had a reboot way back two years ago
I promised to write more often. Sorry guys, I wasn’t able to follow through
with this promise due to busyness and just simply the distractions of life. This
time I’m not going to promise anymore but what I’m going to do for sure is to
try to write more often. Though I know, the entries would only come if and only
if I cannot fight the urge to write. So here you go, I’m writing again.
For those who visited this blog for the very first time, let
me tell you that this actually started back when I was still in college. Back
then, it was a very personal space and the things that were shared here were
very personal things. So, if you try to go through the archive, you might find
some things that are quite immature and some thoughts that I may or may not
necessarily believe right at this moment. This was the very reason why I
decided to make an overhaul two years ago and renamed my blog “Sojourn”. Nope, “Fantasies
and Realities” is no more. Most of the entries on this blog from way, way back
have already been deleted. The reason? They were too immature and just plain
useless. (Hehehe…) The ones that were retained were not necessarily mature and
useful, but they mean something deep to me until now and maybe, I just didn’t
want to delete entries that I wrote so passionately. I am hoping that you
wouldn’t find the urge to scroll through the archives… please don’t. J Despite the overhaul though, this
space is still going to be a personal space but with a different focus – God,
and my sojourn here on earth. So yes, I am willing to share this space to
anyone who wants a share of it.
So, going back to the very reason why I decided to write
again…..
In our cell group called TGIF (short for Thank God I’m
Fireproof), we have an activity called Synchronized Bible Reading which is
actually being led by my husband. In this activity, all members are supposed to
read three chapters from the Bible and during our weekly TGIF sessions, we
recap these chapters together. Last week, we read Genesis chapters 1 until 3.
I have learned from some people that reading the Bible the
way it was intended to be read (meaning, reading it without chapter and verse
divisions but in the same way you read a normal book or a novel) had a profound
effect on them. They purposely purchased a version of the Bible in its original
form and without such divisions. I wanted to do so as well but I found that it
was quite expensive so I decided against it. So when I read Genesis 1 until 3
last Sunday, I ignored all the titles, chapters, and verses altogether and
tried to read it just like I read a normal book and finished all three chapters
in one sitting. The insights, however, didn’t come until I read the passages
again the following night.
On Monday evening, I re-read Genesis chapters 1 until 3 in
the same way and I was struck by a realization that hit me at that very moment.
And it still grips me until now. As you may have correctly guessed, this is the
very reason I am writing this.
What really made me think long and hard was Genesis 2:5-9,
which read,
“5When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
I thought long and hard on this, because, if what I was reading
between the lines is correct, this would have a profound effect of my
understanding of the first sin and a deeper appreciation of Romans chapter 1.
I have started memorizing the book of Romans around November
or December 2015, I cannot remember exactly which date. I started on Romans 8
then moved to Romans 9, and then I went back to Romans 1, 2, and now I’m on 3.
While I was going through Romans 1 verse by verse and word by word, I realized
that what Paul was stating in verses 18 to 25 was actually an explanation of
what really happened in Genesis 3. And though the parallels of Romans 1 and
Genesis 3 were inescapable for me at that time, both chapters didn’t have a
profound effect on me until I read Genesis 2:7-9.
Here are my reflections.
1. Adam
was created first, then God planted the Garden of Eden.
I came up with this conclusion because
of the way verses 5-7 were worded. Verse 5 and 6 tells us that though God has
already created everything by the 6th day, there were still no
bushes and no small plants because God has not caused it to rain yet and there
was no man to work the ground. It seems to me that one of God’s purposes for
the creation of man is so that man would ‘work’ the ground, implying that man
is supposed to exercise dominion over all the earth, not just to rule over it
but to care for it and be responsible for it. This becomes plain a few verses
later when God brought all the living creatures to the man so that he would
give a name to these creatures. Thus, we see that verse 7 is a direct result of
the events of verses 5 and 6, giving us an impression that this account is
being told in a chronological order. Consequently, we can say that the events
of verse 8 happened after the events of verse 7. Adam was created first and then
God planted the Garden of Eden.
2. If
God ‘put’ Adam in the garden, Adam must have been created outside the garden.
Something cannot be put into a place,
which it already inhabits. I cannot be put into my house if I am already in my
house. Adam must have been created in a place outside the garden, or, at the
very least, Adam might have been created in the exact same place but prior to
it being called ‘The Garden of Eden’, which would imply the creation of Adam
prior to the planting of the Garden of Eden.
3. God
planted the Garden of Eden by the Word of His Power.
Verses 8 and 9 tell us of God planting
the garden and causing all kinds of trees that are good for food to spring up
from the ground. If God created the heavens and the earth by the Word of His
Power as narrated in Genesis 1, there is no reason to believe that God planted
the Garden of Eden in a different way. He surely must have just said the word
and it came into being.
4. If
Adam was created before the planting of the Garden of Eden, and God planted the
garden by the Word of His Power, then Romans 1:19 is not just a figure of
speech and a mystery, but it must have been literal.
Romans 1:19 reads this way, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”
I have always struggled to understand how
Paul says God has made it plain to man what can be known about God. The reason
for this struggle is probably the fact that there are so many people in this
world who don’t know God. But probably, a much more hindrance to the
understanding is the difficulty of imagining Adam, in the fullness of his
understanding, knowing who God is on his very first day on earth. He must have
come into being with an innate genius, perfect, and perceiving who God is
because he saw Him. But he must have also an innate innocence, in the same way
that a child is innocent when he is born into this world, because of the fact
that he had to ‘work’ the land implies that he also had to learn how to ‘work’
the land. And this also by experience, we know that we cannot learn something
if we are not taught about that something. (That’s why we go to school right?).
So, if Adam knew who God is, God must
have told Adam who He is. Or, better yet, God showed Adam who He is. So, in
creating man before He planted the Garden of Eden, God made it possible for man
to see who He really is. He didn’t just create Adam, told Adam He is God and
left him wondering about the truth of what He said. But He showed Adam that He
is God by planting the Garden of Eden with Adam’s full knowledge. He showed
Adam His eternal power and divine nature by causing all kinds of trees to spring
out of the ground by just His word. Thus, on the very first day of Adam’s
existence, he didn’t just know that God is God but he also knew that God is
eternally powerful and that God is the one who made everything he could see.
So, Romans 1:19 doesn’t just make
sense now. Couple it with the verse after it and you will see a resounding
truth.
“19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
So Adam, the representative of man,
the father of all the people and peoples that ever existed on earth, knew
exactly who he was defying when he ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and
evil. He knew exactly who God is and saw His beauty, His power, His nature. And
so there was no excuse for him. Neither is there for us.
5. If
Adam knew who God really is, then the first sin was not just a simple
disobedience of God’s simple commandment but a dreadful, despicable rejection of
God’s glory in favor of a much lesser glory.
Believing in God, worshipping God,
putting your trust in Him does not just mean you go to church every Sunday, or
attend Bible studies and small groups, or even professing that He is your Lord.
But making Him your God, Lord, and Master mean that you prefer Him over all
other things. It means that over yourself, you choose Him. It means you prefer
Him over your family, your spouse, your children, your job, your riches, your
relationships. It means that you love Him, desire Him, treasure Him above all
things so that even if everything will be ripped away from you, He will still
be your all in all. Thus, in Adam knowing perfectly who God is and seeing with
His very eyes the supreme beauty of God’s glory, yet, preferring to ignore all
that chose to eat the forbidden fruit, he was effectively exchanging the
supreme glory of God for another. The
first sin was not the eating of the forbidden fruit. The first sin was Adam’s
rejection of God.
Thus, Romans 1:21-25 says,
“21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
The stunning parallels of Romans 1 and
the account in Genesis 3 gives an insight on why man fell. Genesis 3:6 says,
“So when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was
to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also
gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”
Eve took the fruit and ate it because
she perceived it to be desirable to
make her wise. Adam implied his agreement with Eve when he also ate the fruit.
Therefore, both of them perceived the fruit to be more desirable and rejected
the supreme glory of God because of their desire to be wise – essentially, the
desire to be like God. So yes, man committed the same sin that Lucifer did. Can
you imagine the gravity of that now?
That’s the very reason Paul says in
Romans 1:22-25,
22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and
birds and animals and creeping things. 24Therefore God gave them up
in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies
among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God
for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is
blessed forever! Amen.”
In conclusion, man smeared the supreme
glory of the supreme eternal God by preferring a lesser glory over it. And this
should have a just punishment, a punishment that is fit for the gravity of the
sin committed – the punishment that is eternal damnation in hell because that
is the only way a finite creature can pay for the sin he committed against the
infinite God. But God, in His mercy, love, and unfathomable wisdom, devised a
way to repair His smeared glory and fulfilling the original purpose He had for
man from the beginning at the same time. Who’s the way? It’s Jesus Christ – the
only one qualified to repair the glory of God -- for an eternal sin can only be
paid for by an eternal being.
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