Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him,
‘Where are you?”
(Genesis 3:9)
In the beginning God’s creation was an unspoiled environment of perfection; free of all affliction, pain, trouble and suffering. All of creation was a revelation and reflection of the Creator, from the heavens, (sun, moon, stars, etc.) to earth and every creature on the earth—especially man who was made in the very image of God the Creator. Both the Old and the New Testaments deliberately root themselves back into the early chapters of Genesis, insisting that they are a record of human events. (Francis Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time)
The first book of the Bible is Genesis, the book of beginnings. It is there we read the account of our own beginning, Adam, created in the image of God. Man was magnificent, beautiful, and intrinsically brilliant.
It was into this pristine and wonderful environment – a creation that reflected the Glory of God Himself – that Adam was created and placed. He was given dominion over earthly habitations, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and all animals on earth. We know nothing of the grandeur and perfection recorded in Genesis chapters one and two; it was into that exquisite garden of splendor that Adam and Eve were placed. In this painless, trouble-free, beautiful home man was endowed with freedom to love and obey God unhindered by a sin nature. Such a true freedom man has never enjoyed since that day when sin and corruption infused both mankind and the universe. And, that joyous and perfect state will not be experienced completely again until the Lord and Creator returns and makes all things right. And, the last will be better than the first.
In that element of freedom given to Adam and Eve lay the potential in man for rebellion, disobedience, and failure. Sadly, man exercised that potential and disobeyed His Creator, fell into sin, and became a failure. Was it God who failed? No! God is no more a failure than is a teacher who gives a test with a potential for failure by the students. When Adam chose to sin, he fell from his created state and transferred his loyalty from God to Satan who immediately established himself as the god of this world (see 2 Corinthians 4:4).
The earth changed; the universe changed; man changed. Sin had entered with its perversions of good and degenerative sludge that flowed through all that God had pronounced “good.” The poison of sin flowed into everything; decay, deterioration, death. All was corrupted; even creation itself groans as a result (Romans 8:18-23).
As soon as sin hit the scene, just as God had warned, it brought spiritual death and all the miseries, troubles, blindness, and depravity associated with it. Human nature was now a corrupted nature.
Man lost his relationship with his Creator;
Man’s relationships became selfish;
Man lost self-esteem (Genesis 3:7);
Man experienced shame and alienation (3:8);
Man became full of fear (3:10);
Man became dishonest (3:12);
Woman suffered pain in childbearing (3:16);
The earth was cursed (3:17);
Man would have to toil in futility until he died (3:17-19).
By the time Genesis 4 is concluded, Adam and Eve had suffered terribly. Not only had they suffered the loss of fellowship with God and the paradise of the Garden, but now they experienced the trauma and consequences of jealousy between their sons; anger, murder, and the violent loss of a child. The first man and woman now lived in a godless society, the sad and heart-rending consequences of their sin. And the corruption and suffering and sin was passed on through the fallen nature in man.
There is no part of man that has not been affected by sin. Therefore, we should not be surprised at any act committed by any man, woman or child, and especially the deeds and intents of people who are unregenerate. Neither should we be surprised to learn that all human efforts ultimately fail when men seek to undo or disguise the sad results of sin and sufferings by their own ingenuity. Apart from the mercy and grace of the God of the Bible, the dark picture of corruption only spirals into further depths of alienation and depravity. (Romans 3:10-18). And, as J.C. Ryle said, “Even the best of men, are still only men at best”.
So what can be done? When a person begins to see the truth of the corruption and sinfulness of his own heart and mind, (and all do to some extent), he has at least five roads which lie before him; five roads he may take in seeking to deal with sin, guilt, corruption and alienation. But, only one of those roads is scripturally the right road, – the path of righteousness. Probably most of us have taken one or more of these roads before taking the narrow road which leads to confessing our sins, repentance, and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)
The road to home for the lost corrupted heart and mind is the road that Christ Himself made which leads to Himself. Man is like the prodigal son in Luke 15; rebellious, goes his own way of rebellion, gets the wages of his rebellion, becomes sick of his corrupted life, and finally wants to go home. In the world we live in, many false roads offer peace but only one leads to real life.
- The first road men will try is the road of DENY GOD. They deny the existence of God. The Lord said through David, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalm 14:1). This road appears easy because if there is no God, then there is no sin; and if there is no sin, there is no judgment; and if there is no judgment, then life may be lived “as I please” with no accountability to anyone. So, men try to deny the existence of the God of the Bible.
- If the road DENIAL doesn’t work, the second road he may try is he often will try the road CHANGE GOD. This road has a deceptive entrance gate, but, quickly leads downward into snares and dangers; eventually a dead end. Romans chapter one describes this graphically. They did not want to retain God in their minds. “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man- and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.”(Romans 1:22-23). They created gods they could control. These gods were not sovereign, holy, just, etc. They were the product of men’s imaginations; they were idols.
- A third road sinful man may be attracted to is the road named CHANGE SIN. If they cannot find the remedy for the corruption they see and feel within their own mind and heart by denying the existence of God, or by attempting to change the God of the Scriptures into one more accommodating to them, they easy fall onto this third road. They will try to deny the seriousness of sin. They will attempt to argue that sin isn’t really as bad as religious people say it is. After all, they argue, we are all human and make mistakes and if there is a God, He is surely all loving and will overlook my mistakes. Just like Santa Claus does. As you can see, all the roads so far run close together, often intersecting.
- When the roads marked “Deny God” and “Change God” and “Change sin”, do not bring relief from sin and guilt, men will try the road marked HUMAN EFFORT. They reason something like this, “if God does exist and sin is serious, then man needs to get serious and change himself.” So, a society may build nice comfortable prisons where the environment is conducive to rehabilitation so that when men have served their time for crimes committed, they will come out of prison completely cured of their sinful desires. However, you can cloth a man in a $1000 suit, $300 pair of shoes, give a $200 haircut, and the result is still a sinner in need of a new heart. But most searchers looking for relief from the heart’s corruptions and selfish desires are not in prison facilities. The guilty troubled corrupted sinner may attend church, do charity work, or stay busy as a good mom or dad. The road of human efforts is one of busy, busy, busy; and temporary pleasures……but no real cure and peace.
- The only road that leads home is the road that leads HOME; it’s the road that leads to the LORD JESUS CHRIST who is the only true solution for man’s sin and corruption problem. There is only one place where my heart can be changed, and my sins forgiven. That place of change and forgiveness is a person; the Lord Jesus Christ. If you come to Him, you will have to come on His terms. Those terms are confession of sins and total surrender to His will for your life. He demands worship and obedience and He will accept nothing less. He will have to be the central focus of your life; or, your life will have no focus. Jesus must come first; He never comes second, He never comes next. This takes a Divine work of grace in the heart. No man will come until drawn by the Holy Spirit of God. And, all that come to Him by His appointed road, will never be turned away from Home, — the Lord Jesus Christ.
“If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God,
it will make in the end no difference what you have chosen instead…
Does it matter to a man dying in a desert,
by which choice of route he missed the only well?”
— C.S. Lewis