Loss of Innocence

When the  catastrophe of 9/11 happened, I had just quickly grabbed a final sip of coffee in the teacher's lounge. The TV was on in the room and then out of nowhere, the scene of airplanes flying into buildings was  breaking news. The bell rang and I had to run to class. I will never forget the feeling in my heart that 'Eden' was now changed. Oh! if only I could turn back the clock. In my classroom 26 teenagers waited. The TV in my classroom was already turned on for morning announcements. The announcements that morning were replaced by images of disaster.  The kids were reacting to the news in such different ways. There as fear, unbelief, silence and even laughter because they were thinking that someone was pulling something over on them with some sci-fi flick. It was strange. If only this didn't happen. It drove home the stark contrast between good and evil.

This morning I was thinking about an article I read about 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil' in Genesis 2-3. God had put many abundant trees in the garden of Eden and he mentioned two specifically, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam and Eve that they could freely eat of all the trees in the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told them if they did eat of that tree they would surely die. The tree of life was immortality and the tree of knowledge of good and evil was mortality. We know what happened, something in them died the day they ate of the wrong tree and it had a profound effect on humanity.

Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

In making the choice that they made, they became changed forever. Something got them to focus on  themselves, on what they might be missing and what it would mean to them. They lived in a perfect world, yet they chose something else and the world came crashing down on top of them spiritually.

The coming of the law with Moses established what was good and what was evil. The law of Moses had its limitations however and was not God's first choice of establishing a relationship with man.

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

God's remedy came with the second Adam, Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Galatians 4:4-6But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

We have access to our Father today not through the law, but by grace.  Evil exists in the world, but because of all that Christ accomplished we are free from from being pulled down into it. Our focus is on Jesus Christ and our fellowship with the Father through the spirit. That is how we gracefully stay above the fray and are forever changed.

Check out my post: On September 11, 3BC http://truefrase.blogspot.com/search/label/9%2F11