FREE FROM FEAR PART 10

God told Adam and Eve, regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “When you partake of it, you will certainly die.” Did they die? Well, we know that they did not die physically. So, what kind of death was God talking about? 2 Corinthians 3:7 says that the law brought death, and Romans 8:2 calls the law, the law of sin and death. What kind of death was it? 

When Adam and Eve became intimate with the knowledge of good and evil, they realized that they were naked. They had been naked all along, and that was a part of God’s perfect plan (Gen 2:25). But why did they, all of a sudden, realize they were naked, and how did they step into death? 

To understand how they stepped into death, we must know that there are only two ways to live this life – by the power of self or by the power of the love of God. When Adam and Eve became intimate with the law of self (law of Moses – knowledge of good and evil), they did it by an act of adultery. They rejected intimacy with God and became intimate with the law of self. 

Before this act of adultery, Adam and Eve lived utterly dependent upon God and his love, but after becoming intimate with the knowledge of good and evil, they became bound to a life of dependency upon self. Dependence upon self is a life of death because, without God, the life of feeling entirely right and whole cannot be attained. 

Nakedness speaks of transparency and vulnerability. Adam and Eve were entirely transparent before God. There was no need to hide from God because everything that God was and is, they were. They were perfect in his sight and, therefore, lived before God as those who are completely loved, adored, and unashamed. Nothing outside of God is fully righteous. Adam and Eve’s decision to be governed by self removed them from living inside of God and immediately plunged them into a life void of feeling right or righteous. After partaking of the law of self, they recognized their transparency and lack and proceeded to make coverings for their private parts from fig leaves. Later, we see that it was the fig tree that Jesus cursed, pronouncing all attempts to be righteous without God as cursed. 

Therefore, the death that God was speaking of was the death that is the opposite of life, life that you love living. In contrast to the death that Adam and Eve stepped into, Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10b Jesus was declaring that he was the gate that all must go through to get to God to have real life. John 1:4 says, “In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” The life that Adam and Eve had before the fall was a life that they loved living. It was free from fear, condemnation, and failure. The second that Adam and Eve became intimate with the law of self, fear, shame, and condemnation began to dominate. 

So, here’s the question – are you trusting in your own efforts to be right with God or are you completely dependent upon God’s provision for your righteousness through Jesus Christ? Are you living in fear, shame, and condemnation, or are you living completely free, knowing you are perfect in God’s sight by the blood of Jesus? Remember, “God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind!” 2Tim 1:7 

God has called you to live his amazing life! Paul told Galatians, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 Jesus is the gate to the amazing life that Adam and Eve lived before the fall! It is time to rise! It is time for us as the body of Christ to enter into all that Jesus came to give us! Oh, yes! It is time to be… 

FREE FROM FEAR

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