Thursday, September 27, 2018

 

 

In the beginning, everything was perfect. In six days, God created the world and everything that was in it. Afterwards He contemplated the work of His hands and said to himself, “this is good”. Then He decided to give Adam and Eve complete power over everything, but He said to them, “do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil because if you do, you will certainty die.” In the beginning it was perfect, Adam and Eve had power and dominion over everything that God created while at the same time they enjoyed a perfect relationship with Him. That is until the day they chose to distrust God by eating from the tree that God had told them no to eat from. Now Adam and Eve lost all power and authority, death had entered their bodies and they decided that it was best for them to hide from God. Perfection had been lost.

 

Most people believe that Adam and Eve’s downfall was a result of their sin. However, sin was the fruit of their problem and not the root cause. Distrust was the root of their problem. Their distrust gave birth to sin. Before Adam and Eve carried out their sin, they first had to decide that God could not be trusted. Before this, everything was perfect. However, because of distrust, sin and death entered the world. Nonetheless, God immediately went to work to rescue His prized possessions; He sent His son Jesus who would pay the penalty of death on behalf of all mankind.

 

Following the death of Jesus on the cross, things still were not perfect. God took care of the fruit of the problem through the sacrifice of Jesus, which was sin. However, now it would be up to mankind to deal with the root cause of the problem, which was trust. In order for things to be perfect again, mankind would have to voluntarily choose to trust God. Distrust ruined God’s perfect work. In order to rebuild God’s perfect work, it is going to require trust.

 

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4 NKJ

 

James, the brother of Jesus, does not describe a perfect Christian based on their level of knowledge, title, or position. James describes a perfect Christian as someone who despite his or her trials and despite how difficult their circumstances might be, they never stop, trusting God. These people choose to persevere by keeping their faith in God and in His promises even if everything around them screams out; where is God?

 

Perfection was lost when we decided that God could not be trusted. All sin results from a lack of trust in God. God however, chose to deal with the issue of sin by paying for our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. For perfection to be restored, we must learn to trust God. Distrust ruined perfection, but trusting God will restore us to perfection.