Excerpt from “Christ & Self-Defense”
Part 1
The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the inexorable fact of human history. It’s the logic of sin and redemption. To misunderstand the cross is to disconnect authority, freedom, human responsibility, and self-defense from God’s righteousness. Since we’re prone to think in “brute facts,” let’s look at the logic connecting all this.
Man was created good in that he was in fellowship with God. So long as he obeyed the Lord by acting in accord with His principles of life, he had responsibility but no fear of failure or death. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were working. Yes, there was labor. Their efforts weren’t prone to the frustrations and failures that ours are today, though. They didn’t have to worry about economic failures, high taxes, going out of business, an investment going bad, an order not arriving on time, etc. Importantly, they didn’t have to worry about a hurricane ruining their property or a bear eating them. Labor was sweet! It was productive and they didn’t have to worry about security cameras, lawyers, insurance, and all that goes into protecting us from the sin of others.
But when Adam insisted on judging reality outside of God’s word/law (Genesis 3:6) he placed himself in direct opposition to God. Shame and guilt immediately poured into the human experience (Genesis 3:7) and Adam and Eve hid from their creator (Genesis 3:8). Not only that but they turned on each other too (Genesis 3:12). This explains how disobeying the Lord is the cause of all human conflicts and estrangement. Sin destroys souls by destroying relationships. The first relationship it fractures is the one between us and God. Our battles with one another follow suit. Sin isn’t an abstraction. It’s a challenge and offense to a person…and that person is God.
This act of rebellion has far reaching consequences. To rebel against an authority is to threaten force against it or try to outright overthrow it by violence. Since overpowering God wasn’t an option for Adam and Eve, they did the next best thing: they hid. What better example of the stupidity that sin causes is there than this? The first act of moral rebellion led to the first moronic tactical blunder in history. Adam and Eve attempted to hide from the omniscient and omnipresent God! Sin makes us do stupid things. The emotional responses of fear, shame, lust, and anger can and will bring us to impressive levels of stupid.
Even still, the fear they must have experienced would have been incredible – especially since they’d never encountered such an emotion, nor had cause to until they disobeyed. Think about all this dread and shame when you read “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1-2, emphasis mine).” Faith in Christ for our salvation means we can cease from our hiding and rejoice in the glorious reality of God! But this access, as Scripture calls it, is only through faith. Without faith, we can’t please God and must try either to overpower Him or, as in this case, hide. Both are impossible, which underscores the tragedy of our rebellion.
Our sinful condition, as evidenced by Adam and Eve, causes us to be traumatized by God’s holiness. We know in our heart that we’re guilty – and not in some vague and general sense either, but before Him.
Anytime someone in Scripture encountered the Almighty One, the Eternal One, they ended up instantly regretting their humanistic fantasies. In the life of Jesus, for example, notice how He’s never reacting to anything. He’s not afraid of demons…they’re terrified of Him! And He wasn’t trembling before Rome’s power either. Pilate was in fear because of Him! He didn’t die because he was overpowered. The Scripture says:
“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” John 10:17-18
Notice His reference to His authority there. No one has the power to do anything to God.
If you’d like to chuckle, look at Job’s audience with God. Or Joshua’s. The Lord doesn’t get in the dock. Ever. He’s the one who asks questions and gives commandments; men don’t interrogate Him. Or look at Isaiah and Moses. Their encounters with God make it clear that He’s in charge. Or, for that matter, the Roman soldiers who went to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane – they ended up flat on their faces when He spoke, yet He went willingly to His murder.
So, Adam and Eve rebelled, which demanded the counter action of God’s judgment. He couldn’t ignore the action any more than He could ignore His eternal power. Again, we think that because we routinely ignore some of our own rules in life that God must work that way too. But we do well to remember that none of God’s rules are arbitrary. Because God is the authoritative creator of life and completely righteous, Adam’s rebellion invited immediate death. All rebellions are a clash of arms and struggle for authority. Power versus power. One side must consent to the other. Adam’s rebellion was an act of war against God. We miss this fact because the declaration of war was so insane and the sides so uneven. Should a mouse pick a fight with a lion he would have a million times greater chance of victory than Adam had, or we have, against the holy God.
The proof that this is true, mind you, and not some fanciful story from an ancient book, lies in the fact of death. The soul that sins will die (Genesis 2:17; Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23). Disobeying the Lord is serious business and a low view of His authority and righteousness is at the heart of human misery.
When the Bible says that “the soul that sins must die” or “those who do such things deserve to die” (Romans 1:32), we’re tempted to think it’s all an overreaction on God’s part.
We complain and say, “C’mon…really? What’s the big deal? How can someone get thrown into hell forever?” The mocking tone of this is evidence of our self-deceit and war against truth. We’re like a company of traitors surrounded by the King’s forces, with no hope of victory, asking what all the hubbub is about. It’s as though Hitler’s 6th Army, out there on the frozen ground near Stalingrad, encircled, starving and broken, said, “ah, man…it was all just a joke…we were just playing.” We try and play dumb all while demanding an answer, which proves that we know truth and authority exist! The very objection proves our lie!
The rebellion in the Garden of Eden, and ours to this day, are joined in the principle of war against God. He must either stop trying to be God or we must start being His men and women. One side must relent. Neither side can go their own way by virtue that this is God’s world and we’re His creation. God can’t just go away. He can’t pass out of existence and He can’t bargain off His righteousness. And this is why the cross was necessary for salvation. Our battle with Him demands His response. In faith, we accept the unthinkable sacrifice of His Son for us; in rebellion, we go to meet Him with force. But on that Day there will be no war, only justice and weeping.
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