FRIENDS

Friends

Nowadays it is so easy to keep in touch (almost instantaneously!) with friends all over the world. Gone perhaps are the “Nights in white satin / never reaching the end. Letters I’ve written / never meaning to send. (Moody Blues). Few take the time to put pen to paper anymore. Now it is finger to keyboard or touch-screen to “like” or to “share” as you dialogue with friends. And it only takes the press of a button to “unfriend” someone you have gone off! Old acquaintances from schools and hometowns are being renewed. Like never before people are catching up the missing years and decades via the Internet. It is all so easy to reunite with long-lost friends.

I can relate to Joseph M Scriven sending letters from Canada to his mother. In one letter he wrote some words that were to become the well-known hymn, “What a friend we have in Jesus.” Scriven, for his mother’s comfort, penned the words of that hymn. But how many nowadays refuse to have Jesus as a friend, or witnessing little or zero activity or interaction from Him in their lives “unfriend” Him?

I still get teary whenever I think of the pain I caused my own (now deceased) mother. I found out many decades later that she spent three days in heart-broken sobs in her room after she had farewelled me to Canada. Alas! and she never got to see her grandchildren growing up. Now a grandparent myself I can see how much my spirit of wanderlust deprived her of that honour and joy! Oh that I could have written such comforting words to mother as in “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

God called Abraham and Moses “friends” and God-with-us calls His disciples “friends.” He never “unfriends” us. Once reconciled to God by Jesus Christ His friends are His friends forever. Never will He leave us or forsake us. He is with us always. If I could have only one friend I would make sure that friend was Jesus.

As the pre-incarnate Christ He went with Abraham on his travels and even sat down to a meal with him. He spoke to Moses from a burning bush and met with Him on the mountain speaking to him face to face. He travelled with them in the pillar of fire and of cloud.

Friends, true friends displaying true friendship, are but faint pictures of Jesus and those for whom He shed His blood. He died for His friends. Nay, He died for His enemies so that He could make them His friends! Yet He invites all of us to be His friends. We can confirm or decline His “friend request.” Who is Jesus to you? Is He just some religious guy you were briefly introduced to as a child at church, school or Sunday school? Was He just an acquaintance of your parents perhaps?

With Jesus as a friend you are in touch with God instantaneously! As a friend He will not judge your every move. For your comfort as a friend He has sent you the letters He has written. In them He shows you how much He loves you as a friend. If you are His friend you have everlasting life and will be raised bodily on the Last Day to dwell with Him and the rest of His friends forever on the New Earth.

Yes, what a friend we have in Jesus!  

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY (A Triune Publication – Part 3)

God’s Sovereignty is Comforting

There was a scene in a movie about “Stonewall” Jackson, a Christian general during the American Civil War. He and his men were in the open and there were bullets and shrapnel flying all around them. “Stonewall” calmly sitting on his horse said, “One place is as safe as another!”

Look, if there is something we can do we should do it. But if there is nothing we can do then we might as well trust the providence of God. However, we are not to be fatalists. As Oliver Cromwell said to his men who were ready for battle, “Trust God and keep your powder dry.” In other words, though God is 100% sovereign, He holds you and me 100% responsible for our actions. We are in God’s Army! He wants us to trust Him. We might not understand what is going on at any given point in our life but we are to trust in His leadership!

Alfred Tennyson wrote that famous poem called “The Charge of the Light Brigade” about a cavalry charge against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War.

2. “Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismay’d?

Not tho’ the soldier knew

Someone had blunder’d:

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

3. Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volley’d and thunder’d;

Storm’d at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of Hell

Rode the six hundred.

Now, the good news is that not all of the six hundred (actually it was 666!) lost their lives. Apparently one hundred and ten of them died! Be-that-as-it-may, what about the line, “Not tho’ the soldier knew / Someone had blunder’d: / Theirs not to make reply, / Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die.”?

Someone may have “blunder’d” in ordering the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. However, unlike the light-horsemen (at least the way Lord Tennyson portrays them), God wants us to “reason why”! He says in Scripture, “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be as red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18.

How does God reason with anyone living today? Covenantally! – which means simply that we are to search the Book of the Covenant, i.e., the Scriptures for the answers. By Covenant we mean a promise, i.e., a conditional promise. The Good News is that God keeps all the conditions of His promise for us. How so? “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

It is by His grace that the sovereign God opens our hearts to believe. He gives us the gift of faith. Therefore, are you believing in Him? Are you really believing in Him, even when you see misery, suffering and death around you? Do you believe that God is in control, sovereign control?

Listen to the writer to the Hebrews, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son.’” Hebrews 12:5b-6.

Or, as it says in Lamentations 3:39, “Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?” Why indeed! To complain would only be to grumble against God’s sovereignty!

God’s sovereignty is confronting. However, when understood covenantally it becomes comforting! In the words of David in the Shepherd’s Psalm, Psalm 23, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4.

And what about the glorious future He has promised us? “Then I saw a new heaven and new earth … He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:1a; 4.

Trust in God. Trust in His sovereignty. Think about it: If God were a pool-player and the universe a pool-table He would sink every ball on the table non-stop. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows every contingent event, every ricochet! For He is the One who made creation and He made it for a purpose – His own glory! Therefore let us continue to glorify God and continue to enjoy Him forever! Let us applaud Him! Let God be God!

(Listen to the full sermon at): http://wavellpc.org.au/resources/bibletalks/
 

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY (A Triune Publication – Part 2)

God’s Sovereignty is Covenantal

Who can speak and have it happen
    if the Lord has not decreed it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that both calamities and good things come?
Why should the living complain
    when punished for their sins?

Lamentations 3:37-39 (NIV)

Okay, in my last post we saw that everything that happens happens because God has decreed, i.e., commanded it to happen. God is Commander-in-Chief. Therefore, everything that happens happens because it is His intent.

How are we to make head or tail of this? How are we to understand God’s intent at a ground level?

Creation, Fall, Flood, Redemption, Resurrection, New Heaven and Earth is all covenantal. The Bible is the Book of the Covenant. God has a grand plan, a covenant plan. For us who are “the boots on the ground” the Bible is God’s command to us to “Repent and believe the Good News.” Mark 1:5.

What Good News? The Good News that we can escape the punishment for our sins! As the verse in Lamentations says, “Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?” Lamentations 3:37-39 (NIV) Yet complain we do!

Why is God punishing us, i.e., the living, for our sins? Well, before we consider the “why?” question we first need to acknowledge again that, even though my neighbour might swing the punch that hits me on the nose or the Devil may blow my house down, the decree, command or order has come out of the mouth of God beforehand.

Yes, we’re left with the mystery of how God is not the author of evil when He lets Satan kill Job’s sons and daughters and destroy his property and livelihood. However, there is not a speck of sin on God’s righteous garments!

Take Adam: Scripture likens His Old Testament peoples’ rebellion against God to Adam’s breaking the covenant. Listen to what God says He did to His people. “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth—then my judgments go forth like the sun. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:4-6. Then the Lord says, “Like Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to Me there.” Hosea 6:7.

Now, I have to tell you that some theologians don’t like the thought of there being any covenant between God and Adam in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. So, even though it is perfectly permissible to translate into English the Hebrew words the way we have just read them, they would rather Hosea 6:7 say, “As at Adam, they have broken the covenant” or “Like human beings, they have broken the covenant.”

Look, to break covenant with God is to suffer everything Adam suffered, viz., sin, misery and death. Where do sin, misery and death come from? From Adam’s disobedience to God: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” Romans 5:12.

Next question: What is sin? 1 John 3:4 gives the answer, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.” Therefore, sin, misery and death came to us from Adam’s sin. Sin is the breaking of the law. Thus Adam sinned by breaking God’s Law. Adam was unfaithful to God, which is to say that he broke the pre-Fall covenant.

Now, if God truly is sovereign would He not have known that Adam was going to be disobedient to Him and in so doing bring all creation into a state of bondage? Romans 8:20-21 gives the answer, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”

Right, so we see that God had a plan. The plan was this: God would covenant with Adam who would represent the whole of mankind. Adam would exercise his freewill and choose either everlasting life with God or everlasting death without Him. In other words Adam would remain either faithful to God by keeping the covenant and receive everlasting life, or he would break it and receive death (including the rest of mankind to come).

When Adam sided with Satan and then rebelled with him against God by eating the forbidden fruit (which was the outward test of the covenant) he ended up where each of us is today, i.e., in a state of sin and misery and in need of a saviour, THE Saviour!

Enter Jesus as per God’s Covenant. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:23. If Adam had kept God’s covenant for the undisclosed period he would have received the gift of life and not the penalty of death that all humanity receives!

Jesus is the new Man, the replacement Adam. He did what the first man failed to do. He kept God’s covenant perfectly. He kept every jot and tittle of God’s Law as representative of those who believe in Him for salvation. Jesus perfectly kept the covenant Adam failed to keep.

Where’s the sovereign God in all of this? Well, Scripture speaks of Jesus as, “The Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” Revelation 13:8. Did you get that? God had in His mind the picture of His Son slain as a human being right from the very beginning of creation!

Therefore, everything went right according to God’s eternal plan, His Covenant. In eternity past the Father covenanted with the Son as witnessed by the Spirit, that should the Son become also a human and keep the Law perfectly unto death, the Father would give Him a people innumerable and a place where the Lamb and His Bride could live with each other forever, i.e., on the future New Earth.

Let’s summarise: God’s sovereignty is very confronting when you have no idea what is going on with misery, suffering and death in creation. However, the apparent chaos becomes ordered when reality is viewed covenantally, i.e., in terms of God’s covenant.

God has a plan, a covenant plan. Though He’s not the author of it, the evil we see around us has been factored into that plan. Everything is on course for the future New Heaven and Earth, which includes the resurrection of our bodies on the Last Day.

Can we receive any assurance, any comfort from God’s sovereignty?

(Listen to the full recorded sermon at): http://wavellpc.org.au/resources/bibletalks/

SANCTUARY!

Sanctuary

Though more popular in past centuries some seek to escape the law by claiming ‘sanctuary’ upon entering a church building. The Old Testament Tabernacle and then the Temple contained a room called the ‘sanctuary’ or the ‘Holy of Holies.’ This was where the presence of God was. It was where God ‘dwelt.’ In the sanctuary was the ark of the covenant. The ark was a box containing the tablets with the Law, i.e., the Ten Commandments. The lid of the box was the ‘Mercy Seat’ attached to which were two angelic beings with wings outspread looking down on the seat. God dwelt between these cherubs.

It will help us to understand what the ‘Holy of Holies’ represented if we keep in mind the picture of a human being fleeing into a church building to escape justice, i.e., by seeking ‘sanctuary.’ Now, before we get into the thick of it let us remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus, ‘If I have told you earthly things and you cannot believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?’ John 3:12. We are about to talk about heavenly, i.e., invisible or spiritual things.   

The Old Testament ‘sanctuary’ ‘was a copy and shadow of heavenly things’ (Hebrews 8:5). Therefore, God, by giving instruction for the building of the Tabernacle/Temple, used physical things to illustrate spiritual truths. God, ‘the Judge of all the earth,’ (Genesis 18:25b) dwelt in the Sanctuary. How do we escape the condemnation of His Law? Now that the Temple is gone is there a sanctuary to which we can flee for protection from His justice upon our sins? Let us look again at the physical things in the Temple's Holy of Holies.  

God cannot look upon evil (Habakkuk 1:13), yet, with the cherubs, He looked down on the Mercy Seat under which were the Ten Commandments (which all of us have broken), in the ark of the covenant. Therefore, once a year only one man, the high priest, was allowed to come behind the veil into the sanctuary. However, he, after he had been washed, had to bring the blood of sacrificed animals with him and sprinkle the blood on the Mercy Seat. ‘Without the shedding of blood there is no remission’ Hebrews 9:22b. The shed blood covered the sins of the people each year, that is, until the One being pictured entered the sanctuary with His own blood.

We have God’s Law written on our heart, which is to say that our conscience tells us that we have broken His Commandments. We all have lied and lusted, cursed and coveted. God looks upon the heart. Our hearts are calloused and corrupt and the Law He wrote upon them when we were conceived and born is hardly discernable. God cannot live with us or in us. Our sin separates us from God. We need to flee the wrath to come. We need to find the shed blood. We need ‘sanctuary’!

The Temple and everything in it pointed to Jesus. The physical pointed to the heavenly. We need to come to Jesus. ‘Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new a living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.’ Hebrews 10:19-22.

My Mother & The Robin

My own mum, Catherine McKinlay (nee Nugent) went to be with the Lord over twenty years ago (17^th Nov, 1989). I was living in Canada at the time and went back to Scotland for her funeral. The following is an excerpt from my From Mason To Minister book. It tells a little of the story:

“My mother would feed the blackbirds pieces of cheese as they came to the kitchen window for handouts. One of her favourite birds was the little robin who would appear from his travels at a certain time each year. She seemed to have some sort of mystical rapport with the birds. A red-breasted robin entered through her bedroom window and perched on the foot of her bed the day she died. I penned the following while living in Canada:

Blackbird’s on the telegraph pole,

Singing songs of love,

Songs that elevate the soul,

Tunes from up above,

My mother’s in the kitchen cooking,

Singing harmony,

The music drifts across the miles to me.

(P. 7, “From Mason To Minister: Through the Lattice,” Nordskog Publishing, 2011).

My eldest brother, Fearghas, on the morning of my mother’s funeral went outside the house to put something into the bin. A robin red-breast fluttered in his face! He came back into the house only to hear me talking to a brother-in-law about the American Robin displayed on the back of the Canadian $2.00 bill I was holding up! I was saying that the American robin is different to the Scottish one. I mentioned something about the robin getting its red breast from being splashed with Christ’s blood or being pierced by a thorn on His crown of thorns.

After the funeral we all climbed into the back of funeral car. Fearghas said, “Look! A robin!” We all looked out the car window to where he was pointing. There was a little robin red-breast on the end of a branch about a metre away peering in the car window!

Shortly after this time I moved to Australia. Many times when I thought of my mum I would shortly afterwards see a robin or rather a picture of a robin, be it on a roadside billboard or television or whatever! When I moved to Tasmania I was on top of Mt Wellington when a robin appeared! I managed to snap a photo of it!

I know it is rather subjective but I just take it that God, by the robin-appearances, is showing me that all is well with my mum. It all seems too fitting to be coincidental.

(The photo is one I took at the top of Mount Wellington while living in Hobart, Tasmania. A wee Tasmanian Robin landed on the pinnacle with the River Derwent in the vbackground. So there you go!)

SIGNPOSTS

Signposts

Signposts engender different responses from different people. For some a ‘Wet Paint’ sign is merely an invitation to touch the paint. ‘Keep off Grass’ may bring out the rebel in us. However, because of possible consequences ‘Thin Ice’ or ‘Beware of Dog’ signs tend to be obeyed more readily. Failure to see a street sign can get us lost. Ignoring a speed sign can get us fined. From traffic-signs to street-signs, whether warning signs or information signs, signposts are designed to assist us.

From Paradise to Patmos the Bible is full of signposts. The opening chapter informs us that God put lights in the heavens ‘to serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years.’ Genesis 1:14 NIV. The sun, moon, planets, and stars are signposts pointing to God’s existence. ‘“To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.’ Isaiah 40:25-26. ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.’ Psalm 19:1. ‘Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.’ Romans 1:20. Who are without excuse? All human beings including those who ignore the signposts that point to God.

Then there are those who confuse the signpost with the thing signified. For example, creation is a signpost to God, but some worship creation and the creature instead of the Creator. (Romans 1:25). Others confuse the signposts of Old Testament Circumcision (Romans 4:11) and New Testament Baptism (its replacement, Colossians 2:11-12) for that which they signify, viz., salvation. Perhaps this could be illustrated by Magritte’s ‘The Treachery of Images’ painting of a pipe which has the following caption underneath, ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’, (‘This is not a pipe’). The idea being that it is merely an image of a pipe and as such is not a real pipe! Circumcision was merely the image of the removal of sin through the shedding of blood by the Promised One who was to come from the loins of Abraham. Biblical Baptism is merely the image that the Promised One has removed our sins by shedding His own blood. Water baptism is a picture of Jesus pouring His Spirit and His blood upon the recipient as per the Promise of the Father. ‘[Jesus] commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ Acts 1:4-5. Thus baptism pictures the outpouring of the Spirit who comes to the redeemed to apply the benefits of Christ’s cross, i.e., that which the blood He shed on the cross accomplished. The poured out or sprinkled water on the recipient is merely an image of the ‘Promise of the Father’ who cleanses us of our sins. (Acts 2:38-39). The rainbow in the raincloud is a signpost to that same promise. (Genesis 9:11-17). The Flood was the removal (i.e., the circumcision) and cleansing or washing (i.e., the baptism) of redeemed flesh. Every human being (albeit distorted by the Fall) is a signpost (i.e., an image) of God. (1 Peter 3:18-22; 2 Peter 3:6)

What kind of response do God’s signposts engender in you?

Man: Fallen in Nature

Man: Fallen in Nature

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned … as through one man’s offence judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many were made righteous.” Romans 5:12 & 18-19.

Introduction

            As the above verses attest the Bible teaches that the first man, Adam, federally represented mankind before God. After God had created Adam (and the rest of His creation) Scripture says, “Then God saw everything He had made, and indeed it was very good.” Genesis 1:31a. Therefore, Man and the creation in which he lived, was morally “very good” in the eyes of God its the Creator. However, Adam, as humanity’s covenant head, rebelled against God. As God was to say later on to His people, “Like Adam, they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt treacherously with Me.” Hosea 6:7 (margin, cf. Hosea 8:1b).

Good News

Scripture teaches that “Adam … is a type of Him who was to come.” Romans 5:14b. Thus Jesus Christ is the replacement “Adam” God sent into the world (see e.g., 1 Corinthians 15:45). Jesus is the new federal representative or covenant head. Through Adam’s disobedience all humanity were made sinners (i.e., covenant breakers which is another way of saying that we are transgressors of God’s Moral Law), but through Christ’s obedience (i.e., His perfect keeping of the covenant’s conditions and also paying the penalty owed for the breaking of it) those whom Christ represents are now righteous in God’s eyes. The Gospel is the Good News that God has reconciled fallen man to Himself through the perfect works of Jesus Christ. This reconciliation is attained by the individual by grace through faith in the completed works of Christ (see e.g., Ephesians 2:8-9). Thus the Gospel.

Fallen World

The context for the aforementioned Good News (i.e., the Gospel) is that Man no longer lives in a morally “good” universe but a fallen world. This is not to say that creation itself became evil when Satan and subsequently Adam rebelled against God. For only moral agents (i.e., angels and human beings) can become evil.[1] God’s Moral Law is spiritual (Romans 7:14). Thus morals are spiritual.

What happened when Adam sinned against God by consciously disobeying Him? Scripture says,

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Romans 8:20-22.

We see then that on account of Adam’s sin everyone thereafter and we today live in a fallen world. Therefore, we ought to expect that at times things will go wrong for us. However, as human beings (i.e., as “moral agents”), we shall know both good and evil in the fallen world around us (Genesis 3:22a). (The “good” serves to remind us that God has not abandoned us. The “evil” or “bad” reminds us of our need for God’s refuge and daily protection, as the Scripture reminds us, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8a.)

Life’s a Struggle

God had created Man as the pinnacle of His creation (see, e.g., Genesis 1:28), but when Adam sinned as Mankind’s representative before God we became distanced from our Maker. This (moral and therefore spiritual) separation caused it to become hard for Man to eke a living on and from the earth. It is worth quoting in full what the LORD God said to humanity’s federal head,

Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it”: ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”’ Genesis 3:17-19.

Thus life on earth is a struggle for all on earth; plants, animals and humans!

Fallen Man

Human nature has undergone a great transformation. We (collectively) have gone from being morally pure (pre-Fall) to morally corrupt (post-Fall). Another way of saying the same thing is that when Adam sinned we became spiritually dead. As the Scripture says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.” Romans 8:7.

The character of God is expressed in His Ten Commandments. Like a coin with the sovereign’s head embossed on it so God minted us as His own image and likeness. However, we are like old worn-out and tarnished pennies. It is hard to see the Moral Law stamped on us. It is difficult for us to see it in ourselves. Thus we make morally wrong choices.

Adam and Eve made a morally wrong choice and all mankind thereafter suffered and still suffers Moral Injury unless and until God remedies it by grace through faith.

Moral Injury & Post Traumatic Stress

The Bible records the actions of Adam and Eve after they had, as moral agents, sinned against God. Their guilty consciences started accusing and excusing them as they tried to deal with their guilt and shift blame for what had happened away from themselves. Adam said to God, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12. Eve said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:13b.

With Adam and Eve and their demise in mind let us remind ourselves of our definition of Moral Injury,

 

Moral Injury is an inner conflict based on moral self assessment of having inflicted or failed to prevent significant harm. Its symptoms are excessive guilt, loss of meaning, anger and shame.

 

Some may wonder why God was so upset with Adam and Eve and why they were so upset with themselves simply for eating a piece of fruit. However, it was not that simple. God had given to Adam and Eve (including us in them), as His moral agents, the Great Commission or Cultural Mandate - a portion of which is recorded in the following Scripture,

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Genesis 1:27-28.

The command not to eat of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were merely an outward test to see if Adam as our representative would keep the Covenant, i.e., to see if Adam would remain obedient to God. Adam broke his probation and thereby forfeited the life that was promised him (and his descendants in him) for his obedience. Thus Adam by his action caused the deaths of every human being!

How did Adam and Eve set about dealing with their present demise? Did they immediately seek to draw near to God so that He would draw near to them? We need to remember that God had threatened Adam with death for disobeying Him (which conversely was the promise of life for obedience). As Scripture says,

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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.” Genesis 2:16-17.

What happened? Scripture says,

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Genesis 3:6.

Upon eating the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve went from loving God and their neighbour as themselves to becoming totally self-conscious and self-absorbed with their own problems. Thus they began to suffer Moral Injury – i.e., “excessive guilt, loss of meaning, anger and shame.” Quite possibly they also began to suffer some form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” (PTSD), which we have defined as, “A fear – victim reaction to a perceived life threat. It has clinical symptoms of flashbacks, nightmares, hyper-vigilance, dissociation.”   

Anyway Adam was afraid of God and what God was going to do to him! But what did God do to Adam and Eve? First, God came “looking” for them.

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:9-10.

Second, God spoke to the serpent, to Eve, and to Adam, in that order. When speaking to the serpent God said,

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 3:15.

Theologians refer to this as the protevangelium, i.e., the promise of the Gospel. Therefore, Adam and Eve heard the Good News (albeit in embryonic form). Third, God also showed Adam and Eve the Good News,

Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Genesis 3:21.

Conclusion

On account of the Fall all of Mankind suffers Moral Injury. Moral Injury is spiritual. Those who have been diagnosed with Moral Injury, if they were not before, are now aware of their spiritual problem. God is able to heal Moral Injury – for good! Thus the Gospel.

---

[1] Stars, planets, rocks, trees, dinosaurs, snakes, sharks, crocodiles, lions, tigers etc., are not inherently evil because they, (unlike fallen humans and fallen angels), are never disobedient to God’s Covenant or Moral Law, i.e., the Ten Commandments. Only fallen humans and fallen angels are “moral agents.” However, animals dangerous to humans are to be controlled which may include putting the creature down should it maim or kill someone (Genesis 9:5; Exodus 21:28-32).