This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad. Psalm 118:24. Chapter 5. Our first Parents and what they did.
Where do you fit in all of this? How can you blossom in such a creation? What are you to do? Where are you to go? How will you get there and who will go with you? What are your responsibilities? What talents do you have to do these things?
You must first have a good look at where you came from and the world you were born into. We begin with our first parents, father Adam and mother Eve. You will recall in Genesis 1:1-25, our heavenly Father made humankind in His image, and then said these loving words to our father Adam and our mother Eve, "you may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die." (1)
5.2 What "eat of all the trees in the garden" means.
"Eat of all of the trees in the garden," means that our first parents could explore, discover and use everything in our heavenly Father's wonderful creation. He made it for them and for you. He made everything for our pleasure in government. It's all there for you and me to reign over.
5.3 The one tree you must not eat from.
You may "eat of all of the trees in the garden," He said, but you may not eat from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." This means they must not do bad things saying they are good things or say good things are bad things. In other words, moral autonomy is our heavenly Father's and His alone. Why? Because He alone is God. He told them (and through them to us), "on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die." (2) This means, the day they decide they have the right to moral autonomy, to arbitrarily define what they can do and what they cannot do- the day they decide to do bad things and say they are good things, on that day they will surely die. We will see this very clearly as we go on.
5.4 Why God placed a limit on our first parents.
Why did our heavenly Father admonish them so? To test them? To tease them? To toy with them? To keep them in their place? To show them who is boss? Of course not. A father does not do these kinds of things to his children. Very simply, our heavenly Father did not want them to die. In His Love, He made them in His image, to live and to walk with him. He wants them filled with awe and wonder and to marvel at all He has done for them.
5.5 Moral autonomy is not ours.
God told our first parents, that should they claim it as their right to arbitrarily define what is right and what is wrong, they would, in effect, be setting themselves up as God. This rejection would separate them from Him, from Love and from Life. On the day they choose to arbitrarily define what is right and what is wrong, they shall most surely die. On the day they, "eat of it" they shall most surely die. On the day they decide to sin against God they shall most surely die. Why? No one can live without God who is Truth and Love and His Life that gushes therefrom.
5.6 The voice of Deception.
How do we eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? We do this by doing things contrary to our heavenly Father's loving counsels. We do this by believing the Tempter instead of God . . . our conscience. (3) Here are but a few examples of the arguments the Tempter uses as he tries to convince you that YOU have the right to do what YOU want and not what God wants.
He will tell you:
"It's your body, you do what you want!"
"It's your life, you have the right to decide!"
"What do they know about it?"
"It's your money, spend it any way you please!"
"That's his problem, why worry about him?"
"Let them look after themselves!"
"What they don't know won't hurt them!"
"You're old enough, go ahead!"
"Why shouldn't YOU know what it's like?"
"You don't have to accept those responsibilities!"
"Don't worry, just this once won't hurt."
"You work hard. Shouldn't you have some fun?"
"You won't make the same mistakes he made."
"Sure you can, why not? Everybody's doing it."
"No one will ever know."
"What can happen? It's not going to kill you."
"No one has control over what you can do."
5.7 The fruit of sin is death.
What happens when in response to the counsels of the Tempter you agree that you (and not God) have the right to decide what is right and what is wrong? (I tremble each time I read that sentence.) You die. Our heavenly Father said, " . . . on the day you eat of it, you shall most surely die." (4) On the day that you arbitrarily decide that something bad is good or that something good is bad, you shall surely die.
5.8 Sin kills.
How will sin kill you? The process begins with temptation and ends in terrible anguish and despair. We will examine this in detail. Remember, our Father's admonition is as true for you and me today as it was for our first parents, father Adam and mother Eve. You must understand this if you are to reign with the other Monarchs in the Kingdom of God. I repeat, His admonition is as true for you and me today as it was for our first parents. The consequences of not believing our heavenly Father are serious and very frightening.
5.9 The bottom-line.
Turning your heart from God by saying, "Yes." to the prompts of the Tempter, begins a chain reaction of very painful heartbreaks that will turn the rest of your life inside out and upside down. Everything you then do will be an opposite to what you expected from life and for your efforts. This happens because saying "No!" to our dear Lord and saying "Yes!" to the Tempter is to live what you are not, a lie. When you become a living lie, you then live in a world of opposites, a world without knowledge of the Truth, a world without the solid footing you need to prosper. You will follow men when you should be with Jesus, your King. Your life will be in black and white (5) when it should be in living color. (6) You will live for earthly things when you should be living for heavenly treasures. You will slowly die instead of enjoying the happiness and exhilaration of Life. Your eyes will sadly turn downward instead of happily looking upward. You will focus on self instead of caring for Others.
Every decision you make will produce the opposite of what you really need (and must have) to fully blossom. Why? Because your very first decision, the one on which all your other decisions are predicated, was that your heavenly Father was wrong and you were right. This is the essence of sin. How can the creature take such a position before his or her Creator? If you choose to live this lie, your experiences will be those of the dying, "you shall most surely die" (7) instead of those of the living. If you allow the Tempter access to your Kingdom, you cannot even hope to succeed, to surpass yourself, to blossom and bloom. If you allow the Tempter to live in your Heart, in your Kingdom, in your Home- you cannot have a blessed and fruitful marriage and know the sweetness of Love.
And so 'your sin' begins to pursue its terminal objective, to separate you and isolate you from receiving eternal Life from the heart of your host body, Jesus. If you persist, 'your sin' (your "No!" to His Love) will eventually enclose you. Like a cancer, it will completely isolate you from God's life-giving grace. You will then shrivel and die in your own lonely, dried up world of "Me."
Now, let's look at what happens when the Tempter bangs on your door
Our heavenly Father made humankind in His image, and then said these loving words to our father Adam and our mother Eve, "you may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die."
Our first parents, Father Adam and Mother Eve.
Adam and Eve, by Rubens
"It's your life, you have the right to decide!" Satan.
Google images.
Moral autonomy is not ours.
Raphael. Adam and Eve (ceiling panel). 1509-1511. Fresco. Vaticano, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome.