While the traditional Christian faith provides a satisfying, self-consistent world view, this is hardly its most alluring offer. Christianity's most poignant promise is that of knowing God. What picture could be more alluring than that of Genesis 3:8, where the Lord God walks in the Garden in the evening, looking for Adam and Eve? The message that our Lord and Creator cares intimately for us as individuals--not just as members of the human race--gives hope, security, meaning, and purpose to our lives.
Nevertheless, the Bible tells us that men and women make choices that separate them from their loving Creator. It is also in Genesis 3 that we read of the woman who chooses to believe the Serpent rather than God because of the allure of the beauty of the Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the promise of God-like wisdom (Genesis 3:1-6); it is in Genesis 3:6 that we read of the man who chooses to believe the woman he loved and needed rather than the loving Creator who had given him the freedom to choose to obey (I Timothy 2:14). Adam's and Eve's sins are only examples of sin; all of us sin (Romans 3:23).
Finding out that you have sinned is bad enough. Finding out that sin separates us from God is worse. It prevents us from ever knowing Him. The Bible calls spiritual separation from God "death" (Romans 6:23a). When Paul wrote in 63 AD to the citizens of the ancient city of Ephesus that they "were dead in [their] sins and trespasses," (Ephesians 2:1), he meant that they could not know God as long as their sin continued to come between them and God. As Isaiah told the inhabitants of Judah in 750 BC, "Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." (Isaiah 59:1,2) Each of us falls into the category of being a sinner separated from God.
The "Good News" of the Bible is that God has removed our sin through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Paul wrote to the ancient Romans that "God shows His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 6:23). We sin and we should die for that sin. Nevertheless, Christ died in our place so that we need not die. God, Himself, has removed the barrier of sin that we could never have removed by trying to stop sinning.
God did not coerce Adam and Eve in their sin. He does not coerce us today in our belief. We do not experience the effects of Christ's death for us until we receive Him into our lives by faith. When Jesus walked the land of Palestine, many saw and heard Him, "but as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become sons of God, even to those who trusted in His name" (John 1:12). Faith and trust are very nearly interchangeable words. All of us live lives made possible by trust. You are probably sitting in a chair you trust to hold you up. You pull through a green traffic light trusting other drivers to obey the traffic laws. You deposit your money in a bank, trusting the bank not to try to cheat you. You buy food in the grocery store trusting that it is free of poisons. Some decisions to trust are good decisions; other decisions to trust are poor decisions. God asks us to trust Him; unless we trust our lives to Him, in believing that Christ's death on the cross clears away the barriers between us built by our sins, then we can never know God or experience Him fully.
For many people, the simplest first step in starting a new life of trusting God is to talk to God. This is what we call prayer. Many have taken that first stop toward knowing and experiencing God by praying a prayer like the following: "Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I thank you that you loved me so much that you died for my sins on the cross. I trust you that your death for me has broken down the barrier of sin between us, so that I can now experience your love. Please come into my life as my Savior and Lord and show me how to trust you each day." The words themselves are not important; rather, it is our decision to place ourselves in His hands based on what Christ has already done for us.
After this first step of trust, the extent to which we experience God's love and purpose in our lives will depend upon our willingness to work out our trust on a daily basis. Just before His crucifixion Jesus told His disciples, "He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me; and he that loves me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21). It is easy for someone to say they love God; it is easy for someone to say they want to know God; but if we really love Him and really want to know Him, we will try to keep His commandments. We will do an imperfect job. That is OK. He knows what He is getting into with us. And we will need help both in understanding His commandments and in finding the strength to keep them. He has also planned for us in those areas. This is where the church comes in. If you want to know God, and you are willing to take that first step of trusting Christ and His death on the cross to remove the barrier of sin, then find the courage to take the next step. Look for a church where people believe in Christ, believe His words, and seek to please Him with their lives, then become a part of their family. You will be starting on the most exciting adventure life has to offer, that of knowing God. In John 14:23 Jesus says, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." This is even better than what Adam and Eve lost in the Garden.
Jeff Harwell
Professor/Director
Chemical Engineering
If you have any questions or comments you can E-Mail me at JHARWELL@OU.EDU