What If

So the command in the garden of Eden was "don't touch or you will die". As I think on that for a while, it becomes clear that it is simply a choice between being selfish or Godish. The command ushered in choice and freedom. Boil the issue down, and you get "don't be selfish or you will die".

Then, they go ahead and become self-centred and self-aware and the curse falls. The command then changes; "Obey my commands and you will live". But the irony of the command insures its failure. Only Noah found favour. The very idea of obeying for life is in itself selfish and self-centred. Even a list of rules to guide humanity into love lost its power to selfishness. All our actions, if they are seen to benefit us in any way, or earn us anything, are doomed to be self-centred. So we will die in our trap.

Then God says "what if I created a scenario in which your obedience to love earned you nothing?". Then selflessness would be possible,(as long as you truly believed that your actions didn't benefit you) and you could live. Enter Jesus....

What if we really believed that the Christ event created this scenario? What would change if we truly believed our obedience gives us life ONLY when we believe it doesn't? What if we believed the only way to make our deeds count is to believe they don't?

This is what it means to do something in Jesus' name.

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Tim Bailey