| Trying to FIX SIN |
| by David A. DePra |
| And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they |
| were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made |
| themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God |
| walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife |
| hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the |
| trees of the garden. (Gen. 3:7-8) |
| This story of the fall of man contains many Truths which tell us |
| about our condition in Adam. This condition is important to |
| understand for one main reason: We -- as did Adam -- have a |
| pension for trying to fix our sin. But doing so works at cross- |
| purposes with God. We need to see this Truth so that we can |
| be set free from trying to fix sin through the redemptive work of |
| Jesus Christ. |
Two Characteristics |
| The first thing it says about the spiritual condition of Adam and |
| Eve after the sin is that "they knew they were naked." The second |
| thing it says is that "they made themselves aprons." |
| Here we see two characteristics of fallen man: First, fear. But |
| fear of what? Fear of our own condition of nakedness before God. |
| Adam, who had possessed total communion with God, was now |
| afraid of Him. He said he was afraid because he was naked. And |
| at that point there wasn't anyone Adam and Eve had to be afraid |
| of except God. |
| The second characteristic we see is that Adam had acquired a |
| compulsive pension for trying to do something about his |
| nakedness. He tried to compensate for it by sewing fig leaves |
| together. In effect, he tried to FIX sin. And we have been trying to |
| fix it ever since -- using some very religious means. |
Nakedness |
| Before Adam and Eve sinned, they were naked. The Bible is |
| quite clear on this point. It says, |
| And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were NOT |
| ashamed. (Gen. 2:25) |
| What is interesting about this is that the sin of Adam did not |
| cause them to become naked. Did you ever notice that? They |
| were already naked BEFORE the sin. But the sin DID cause |
| something else to change: Their attitude TOWARDS their |
| nakedness. |
| Adam said so. He said: |
| I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was |
| naked, and I hid myself. (Gen. 3:10) |
| So what we have is this: Adam naked BEFORE the sin -- but not |
| ashamed. But then we have Adam naked AFTER the sin -- now |
| ashamed and afraid. And he stated clearly that he was afraid |
| BECAUSE he was naked. Indeed, he was afraid of GOD. |
| The change then, was not in Adam's nakedness. The change |
| was in his attitude TOWARDS his nakedness, and more |
| importantly, in his attitude towards GOD. |
| We can scarcely imagine what kind of fellowship and oneness |
| Adam must have had with God before his sin. But we get a bit of |
| an idea in this term "naked." Apparently, Adam had not one area |
| in his entire being which was covered up from God. All of him, |
| into the innermost parts of his heart, was open and exposed to |
| God. This had resulted in a complete absence of fear, and in the |
| complete presence of God. |
| This picture of "nakedness" shows that God had complete |
| access to Adam. And the result in Adam was not fear. It was total |
| fulfillment and completion. Adam, before the sin, was naked |
| before God and NOT ashamed. There was NO fear. There was |
| not desire to hide himself. There was only perfect agape love. |
| This is actually where God wants to bring us in Jesus Christ. |
| Think about it. What would it be like to come before God and |
| simply let down your guard? All of it -- especially the religious |
| part? Drop all of the religious games, and all of your secret |
| agendas for living. Simply stand there, totally naked and exposed, |
| without anything to compensate for it. If we would dare to allow |
| God to bring us to this place, we would find that we would indeed |
| be naked -- but without shame. Without fear. We would no longer |
| want to hide from Him. He'd experience His love. |
| Why? Not because WE are wonderful specimens. But because |
| of the love of God in Jesus Christ. |
| But -- we don't believe this. We really don't. We SAY we do, |
| and are able to recite all the doctrines which teach it. But, in |
| practice, we are afraid to be naked before God. We are scared. |
| Thus, we continue to sew fig leaves long after we are saved, and |
| we continue to hide behind a safe tree in the garden, lest our true |
| condition be exposed. |
| Yet God is saying, "Adam, where art thou?" He is saying, "I |
| know you are in there, somewhere behind those fig leaves; |
| somewhere behind those trees. The real you is there. Why don't |
| you come out from behind the tree and face Me? There is no |
| reason for you to fear. I have resolved your condition in my Son. |
| But many of us won't come out. We don't believe. And the |
| REASON we don't believe is ironic. It is not because God has put |
| something between us and Him. It is because WE have put our |
| sin between us and God. This, despite the clear Truth expressed |
| through the gospel that, "It is finished." |
| If you want to know what God is trying to do in His people, we |
| find it right here. He is trying to bring us back to the garden. He is |
| trying to reduce us down to what we are in Adam after the sin: |
| Naked and needy. And then He wants us to see that the only |
| solution for our condition is Jesus Christ. |
Dependent Upon God |
| Adam was naked before the sin, and he was naked after the sin. |
| But now he was afraid of God because of his nakedness. Why? |
| We hinted at it earlier. "Nakedness" stands for complete and |
| utter openness unto God. It stands for total DEPENDENCE upon |
| God. And this nakedness was GOOD. Indeed, it was NORMAL. |
| Adam was MADE to be dependent upon God. His dependence |
| upon God was central to his life. It was his very SOURCE of life. |
| Now, after the sin -- and precisely because of the sin -- Adam's |
| relationship with God was destroyed. But Adam was still naked. |
| That had not changed. He was STILL a completely dependent |
| creature -- with no capacity to fend for himself. Yet he had chosen |
| to do so. Adam had chosen to reject God and live in a way |
| contrary to that for which he was created. The result was fear, |
| moral distortion, and spiritual death. He now couldn't cope with his |
| nakedness. |
| So here we have a creature who was MADE dependent upon |
| God. He was MADE naked. Nothing could change that. But he |
| chosen to live OUTSIDE of that. He had chosen to be live naked -- |
| independent of his only Source for life. |
| And what happens when a completely dependent creature |
| chooses to live independently? Death. Fear. And a continual |
| obsession of trying to do for himself what he is incapable of doing. |
| This is the human race. And we have been trying to fix what sin has |
| done ever since Adam. |
Adam's Choice |
| Now, here is where a common misunderstanding occurs. Many |
| of us think that the reason Adam lost his relationship with God was |
| that God punished him by severing their relationship. But this is |
| error. No. Adam severed the relationship. That WAS his sin! |
| Get that. God did not cut-off Adam BECAUSE Adam sinned. |
| No. Adam cut himself off from God and that WAS his sin! Adam |
| had deliberately and knowingly rejected the God who made him. |
| Not once do we see God withdrawing Himself from Adam |
| because of the sin. In fact, we find God seeking out Adam AFTER |
| his sin. God cried, "Adam, where art thou?" And immediately, |
| God begins a redemptive work. |
| God did, of course, kick Adam and Eve out of the garden. But |
| that is because they could no longer live in there. God is perfectly |
| just and holy and you can't live with Him unless you allow Him to |
| make you just and holy. If you insist God defile Himself down to |
| your level, you have no affinity with Him. You cannot live with Him. |
| So Adam HAD to leave. He had declared independence and |
| God gave it to him. |
| When God banished Adam from the garden He was serving |
| notice: You can't have it both ways. You must choose. Either let |
| God give you everything -- OR -- try to get it yourself. But if want to |
| try to get it yourself, you can't live in the garden with God. Such a |
| situation would not only compromise the holiness and justice of |
| God, but it would be morally destructive for you. |
| We have to get it settled: Man was made for God. There is no |
| such thing as life apart from Him. Therefore, if we choose to sin |
| against God by rejecting Him, we will die. There is no other |
| possibility in a moral universe. |
Knowing Good and Evil |
| Before the sin, Adam apparently did not know he was naked. |
| But afterwards, he did know. God asked, "Who told you that you |
| were naked?" What does this mean? Was Adam so dumb that he |
| did not realize he had no clothes on? |
| No. We have seen that Adam's nakedness embodied much |
| more than physical nakedness. It was a moral openness and total |
| dependence upon God. The fact that Adam "did not know" he was |
| naked before the sin indicates that, to him, nakedness was |
| NORMAL. Being naked before God, and "not knowing" it, shows |
| that "nakedness" was so much a natural part of his relationship |
| with his Creator that he never gave it a second thought. |
| "Naked" is a relative term. Do you see that? The minute you |
| use the term it infers something you DO NOT have: Clothes. But |
| if "not having" is normal and good, then you don't need what you |
| "don't have." Thus, you would have no consciousness of it -- no |
| consciousness of any need or of any nakedness. |
| Adam did not know he was naked because before the sin there |
| was no such thing as "need." If you had walked up to him and |
| said, "Where are your clothes? You are naked!", he would have |
| said, "What are clothes? What do you mean, 'naked?' I have no |
| no knowledge of what you are saying. I am normal. I live in God." |
| All of this directly relates to the tree of the knowledge of good |
| and evil. Indeed, choosing to eat of this forbidden tree is what |
| caused Adam's eyes to be opened, and caused him to know that |
| he was naked. |
| Note: Adam chose to break his relationship with God. By eating |
| of the forbidden tree, Adam was declaring his independence. But |
| once he did that, he got exactly what he chose: Independence. |
| Thus, the nakedness which had been fully satisfied in God was now |
| exposed. The dependent creature -- Adam -- now had no one |
| upon whom to depend. He was on his own. |
| Adam was now fully conscious of his nakedness. He was not |
| only fully conscious of it, but it was fearful of it. What else could be |
| the result when a creature who is incapable of living on his own |
| decides to to it anyways? Thus, we see ourselves in Adam. We |
| are naked and needy. Fearful and hiding. Dead and without hope. |
| The forbidden tree, or tree of the knowledge of good and evil, |
| was not a tree which gave Adam discernment. No. If you ate of |
| that forbidden tree, you were saying, "I'm not going to believe |
| God. Neither will I any longer allow Him to decide for me what is |
| good or evil. Instead, I'm going to expose myself to both good |
| and evil and decide for myself which is which." It is, and was for |
| Adam, an absolute break with God AS God, and the establishment |
| of himself as his own god. |
Fig Leaves |
| From the time we are born to the time we die, we are |
| compensating for our nakedness without God. We are sewing |
| together fig leaves -- or some other kind of covering for our |
| nakedness. Have you ever wondered what drives human beings? |
| Have you ever wondered, when all is said and done, why human |
| beings act the way they act? The answer is found in the story of |
| Adam. Without God, we are naked. And because we are naked, |
| we are tormented. We WILL spend our lives trying to sew fig |
| leaves together. Trying to cover ourselves. We MUST. |
| Some of us are better at sewing leaves than others. That's why |
| some of us are more comfortable with ourselves, and don't seem |
| to be too afraid or tormented. We think we have got ourselves |
| covered. But if God ever came along and gave one of our fig |
| leaves a "tug," we'd have a fit. We could not bear having Him |
| expose us like that. |
| Unfortunately, tugging at fig leaves is exactly what God is doing |
| in this age. Indeed, He wants to strip us of all of them. He wants |
| us to stand before him naked and poor. Only then will we realize |
| the solution in Jesus Christ. |
| Just as God took the fig leaves from Adam, and covered him |
| with the skins of a sacrificed animal, so God wants to do to us in |
| His Son Jesus Christ. Back to basics. God wants to show us our |
| need, and show us His full and finished deliverance in His Son. |
| And then, as His people, He wants to take us onward in Christ. |
The Great Sin |
| It isn't often taught today, but sewing fig leaves is actually the |
| greatest sin we can commit. This is especially so as Christians. |
| Why? Because we are trying to do for ourselves what Christ has |
| already done. And that means that sewing fig leaves is nothing |
| more than unbelief and a denial of the Redemption. |
| Now, we would never actually put it that way. And certainly, for |
| most of us, denying the Redemption is not our motive. In fact, the |
| reason why we are sewing our leaves is because we WANT the |
| Redemption. It's just that we think this is the way we can implement |
| it. But no. We ARE denying it. We are NOT believing. We |
| wouldn't be sewing the leaves otherwise. |
| We all try to fix sin. And Christians always try to fix it using |
| religious fig leaves. We try to fix sin by confessing it. Or by putting |
| in our "guilt time" over it. Or by feeling condemned. Or by |
| promising God we will not sin again. Some of us try to fix sin by |
| by offsetting it with obedience. We break off a branch from one of |
| the trees in our garden, and try to beat sin to death with some sort |
| of obedience. None of these -- even though some of them ARE |
| good things -- will fix sin. |
| Why? Because a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. And in |
| Adam, we are bad trees. The problem, therefore, is not the things |
| we DO, or don't DO. The problem is what we ARE. Never think |
| that the problem with humanity is that we do wrong things. No. It is |
| that we are wrong creatures. And wrong creatures cannot do |
| anything to make themselves right. They have nothing in |
| themselves to so much as even start the process. |
| There is an even greater reason why we cannot fix sin. We |
| cannot fix sin because sin is already fixed. In fact, it was killed. |
| Jesus Christ bore all sin on the Cross, in His body. He became |
| our sin. And when he died, our "old man in Adam" died. "He" no |
| longer has any power over us, for "he who has died is freed from |
| sin." |
| Now, that being the case, it is rather silly to try to fix sin. In fact, |
| is actually SIN to try to fix sin. This might seem like a strange |
| contradiction, but it is not. The great sin against the New |
| Covenant is not acts of sin, or even the sin nature. The sin against |
| the New Covenant is UNBELIEF. |
| John says this in his gospel: |
| And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, |
| and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds |
| were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither |
| cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that |
| doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made |
| manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:19-21) |
| God does not condemn us for being born in Adam. We did not |
| choose that. But once we see the light of the gospel -- and refuse |
| it -- we ARE judged. We are totally responsible once we see the |
| Truth in Jesus Christ and choose to remain in darkness. |
| Now, most of us would probably say that we are not refusing |
| Jesus Christ. And that is probably so. We aren't. We WANT Him. |
| But we have never been told the Truth. So we do the natural thing. |
| We go out and start sewing fig leaves -- big religious ones. We |
| try to do for ourselves what Jesus Christ has already done. |
| This is no small problem. And it applies to each of us. If you |
| are not yet perfect you have the problem. To one degree or |
| another, you are trying to do for yourself what Christ has done. If |
| you want proof, notice how you react the next time God exposes |
| your nakedness. The chances are, your first reaction will be to try |
| to grab back you fig leaf. You don't like being without it. |
| Thankfully, God knows us. He knows our patterns and habits. |
| And He is way ahead of us on solving them. That's why He is busy |
| pulling off fig leaves. It is good to know that at any time we can |
| stop resisting and let Him. Then we will be exposed. We will see |
| our need. This will be uncomforable and sometimes terrifying. But |
| it is only for a moment. We will also see the solution in the Son of |
| God. THAT will be for eternity. |
Losing My Life |
| The more I try to fix sin, the more I multiply sin. This is ironic, |
| but a fact. This principle works like an infection. The more I touch |
| the infection and try to fix it, the more I get infected. It works like a |
| spider's web. The more I try to get free, the more I become |
| entangled. Trying to fix sin is like trying to forever take a shower. |
| But the trouble with this shower is that the more I scrub, the dirtier |
| I get. |
| There is nothing new about this Truth. Jesus taught it through |
| many examples. One of them is found in Matthew: |
| For whosoever will save HIS LIFE shall lose it: and whosoever will |
| lose HIS LIFE for my sake shall find IT. (Matt. 16:25) |
| The "his life" in this verse is our life in Adam. We cannot save |
| that. We cannot fix it. But if we will surrender it uncondtionally into |
| God's hands, then we will find "it." |
| What is "it?" IT is the new man in Christ Jesus. IT is the real us, |
| the redeemed us. IT is a life which is fully dependent upon God. |
| IT is naked and poor, yet unashamed, because there is no want |
| or fear when a person fully belongs to God. |
| When all is said and done, the issues of this life really aren't |
| all that complicated. The human race lost everything through |
| the sin of Adam. All God is saying now is, "I have restored it all |
| back to you in Jesus. I freely give it to you." But we won't believe. |
| We try to fix things ourselves. Only we CALL it "Jesus." We CALL |
| it Christianity. The incredible Truth is, however, that if we are doing |
| it for ourselves, it is not Christianity. At best. it is legalism. |
| If you want to know what is wrong with the Body of Christ today, |
| you need not look further than this one point. We have failed on |
| many points, yes, but all of them come back to the fact that we have |
| lost the basics. Our faith, our relationships, and our personal walks |
| with God are not based on faith in the finished work of Christ. And |
| until we get back to the simplicity which is found in Jesus, things |
| will only continue getting further off the track. |
| Christianity is not a religion. It is not a self-improvement program |
| with God's help. It is not a life insurance policy in case things go |
| bad. It is not a social club. It is what happens when God meets |
| humanity through Jesus Christ. God is bringing us back to the |
| garden. He is stripping us of all of our man-made coverings. And |
| for those of us who will let Him do so, God has an eternal purpose |
| for us in His Son which will surpass all the sufferings of this present |
| time. |