In our current series we’ve been going through an old list of questions and answers contained in the Westminster Larger Catechism published in 1648. We’ve been considering what sin is and then how we are sinful. This week I want to start looking at the consequence of our sin. Firstly I want to show that sin brings a loss of communion with God.
Before the first humans Adam and Eve sinned, they had perfect communion with God. God had communion with Adam and Eve by being present with them in the garden of Eden. In Genesis we learn this when we see a wonderful image of God walking in the garden ‘Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day’ (Genesis 3:8).
God also had communion with the first humans by verbal communication. God spoke to Adam and Eve and they heard and comprehended what God was saying. ‘And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die”’ (Genesis 2:16-17). We know that Adam and Eve understood God’s speech because they later tell the snake: ‘The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die’ (Genesis 3:2-3).
But sadly this communion with God was broken when Adam and Eve sinned. God cast them out of his garden and communion with him: ‘So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life’ (Genesis 3:22-24). And now humans do not comprehend God’s speech. For example when God speaks from his word, like in the book of Moses, people do not understand: ‘Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts’ (2 Corinthians 3:15).
But thankfully we can get back in communion with God through Jesus Christ. Paul says that the veil can be lifted so we understand God when he speaks again: ‘But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away’ (2 Corinthians 3:16).
Have you turned to the Lord through Jesus Christ so that you have communion with God again?
Joel Radford
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