Returning to The Garden: biochemical existence, the purpose of the law, and nudity

When I was a 19 year-old non-Christian, I argued that if the Bible was true, sin was God’s fault. At the time, it made sense to me that sin was a result of biochemical survival, in which an entire being’s existence is predicated upon—in theory—selfishness. Without the drive to eat and procreate and amass wealth for safety, the concept of sin seemed meaningless, and I was well aware that Adam and Eve had been eating in the Garden of Eden.

Of course, what eating implies is that the capability for sin already existed before Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, since satiation and perfect circumstances prevented the need for selfishness. But when God expelled us from the Garden, that is when our real problems began, making the present-day human evils more His fault than anyone else’s. As a young socialist keen on the idea of crime reduction through government subsistence for all—an idea I now firmly reject—it seemed sensible enough to conclude that God had built us to fail, as though God should have built us differently so that sin wouldn’t have had to exist.

But my argument was missing another fundamental event before the fall: that after eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve suddenly became aware that they were naked, as though before that point they were not aware of any problems public nudity might have brought about. Since God had already ordained their nudity in His garden to be good, the problem could not have been with nudity itself, but rather the capacity for the evil it could bring when His will and human will diverged. The human creation had been well acquainted with good, but now it was well aware that another possibility arose outside of God’s character, and man became terrified.

This implies one of a few things, first that in the time leading up to the original sin, human beings had little need for moral foresight, as God was supervising and providing for every possible need, guiding when necessary. Something within us changed when we ate the forbidden fruit, as though our disobedience had signaled a sharp change not in nutrition, but rather in autonomy, as though God’s presence had left the mind as well as ending the physical companionship we had enjoyed. Adam and Eve knew this so deeply that they began to understand moral ramifications for situations they hadn’t even encountered at that point: the crushing responsibility of maintaining the garden’s perfection–without Jehovah–was suddenly upon them.

Interestingly, the book of Genesis does not specify whether or not the forbidden fruit was actually responsible for the sudden appearance of Law within man, but merely states that Adam and Eve’s eyes “were opened.” I would submit that the original sin didn’t herald the entrance of the law, but rather the exit of unity with the Almighty. It is because of this that the first sin—the only one which was needed to separate us from God—was not selfishness, but rather pride. All other sin is completely contingent upon our personal pride, and it will be that way until the human race has run its autonomous course.

What the sudden realization of nudity displays is that a law existing beyond the human faculties becomes very real when more than two people who were made in the image of the Almighty suddenly exist independently of Him. The human mind’s continual projection of the self into an uncertain future necessitates our preoccupation with moral law, as our very survival depends upon the instinctual prudence God’s very presence had given us, and any fall from His standard yields nothing less than tragic results. In short, when we left Jehovah’s will and presence, the law arrived, and from that moment existed unflinchingly beyond present circumstance. We know we were not meant for a fallen world because our souls yearn for the Garden through this Law, and when it is presented to us, we know it well whether it is convenient or not.

The law which was later revealed to Moses and governed the Israelites was already understood by Adam and Eve so deeply and fundamentally, and they became so utterly aware of their separation from God that they began to try to replicate God’s perfection on their own (almost seemingly out of instinct), which is exactly what The Law and all our subsequent legal inventions attempt. This isn’t to say that The Law is evil, but rather that it is a deeply ingrained desire which hearkens back to the days before man lost his perfect existence, becoming our accuser because man wanted to live life apart from the source of life Himself. Although God’s character is revealed through perfect Law, The Law’s presence in the human mind need not take full effect until Jehovah’s presence is removed. When He is gone, we feel it deep within our being, a longing which we ourselves can never satisfy, though we have ourselves to blame for its loss.

Because of this, it’s important to note that the law itself cannot bring eternal life, or perfection, or reinstate total harmony; Jesus clearly states that the Scriptures only point toward the God who can give us these. Following the law does not bring us into the Garden of Eden or keep us from dying, or even get us into heaven; and if we could correct our past wrongs by following the Law, we would still be in the Garden of Eden.  Rather, our separation from Jehovah God and eternal life was determined long ago, and requires nothing short of His intervention to reverse, as God’s sinless perfection requires fellowship of the same nature.  But what the law can do is remind us of what we were intended to do and where we are intended to be.

It is precisely because of this reason that Christ’s morally perfect life was a solid indication of His divinity: He understood and was able to accomplish what humans over the years had perverted beyond recognition, and those who rejected His otherworldly example through the Law were so hopelessly lost and satisfied with their own Edenic attempts that they killed Him. We had become so encapsulated by a Godless existence that we refused to recognize exactly from where this God Man came, and where He wanted to take us.

It is this same law which we desperately need to survive in a world without God, as we are made in His image, incapable of either living in a moral void or being happy without (at the very least) trying to humanly replicate our original circumstances. It is this law which Jehovah God commands us to follow, so that we can be free from the effects of sin and serve as a shining example of His light in a world darkened by human autonomy, our very selves as mirrors reflecting the light of His grace and strength. It is this law which simultaneously curses us and which points the way home through essential revelation of the Divine Character, acting as the soul’s very compass.

Because of these reasons, though the law was born into humanity upon our rebellion, it is important to understand that if we discard the law, we discard God Himself. What our rejection of the Law says is this: “I don’t want Eden, and I don’t want the presence of God. I want to live my life according to my own terms and seek existence apart from Him.” This is why breaking His law is damnable: because we’ve already thrown away our purpose, and then by breaking the universal law refuse to even look back. Although some would suggest that sending humans to hell is unjust, our rejection of His law in our hearts is proof enough that we don’t deserve Heaven.

And this is why Christ came back to rescue us by reuniting us spiritually with The Father, all through His sacrifice for us. When we are reunited with the Father, what we find is that our old self, the chemical existence encapsulated by rebellion against not only God, but also against His perfect original purpose of the self, dies, and the new life through unity with the Godhead begins. It is after this reunification that we are given a full revelation of His perfect character and begin to change, not before. It is after salvation that we attain the glories of Heaven, not after attempting and failing to follow the law perfectly and recreate the Garden on our own. The account of creation proclaims that when the presence of God indwells the human race once more, our will becoming synonymous with His, something greater than Eden will again and forevermore arise. All by His grace, of course. Never by our works.

This entry was posted on 20. February 2010 at 15:28 and is filed under Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

| Print