It’s in Our Nature

Principle 1: God created us to live in communion with Him, but man’s sin fractured that communion.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband. Genesis 3:6

As I was walking out on the still-frozen lake recently, I saw the thin ice signs and wanted a photo. As I approached them, ironically, I discovered why they are there, as I put my boot through the ice. I got the photo, but I was rewarded with a wet foot and a cold walk home.

Boundaries exist for a reason. We don’t have to like it, but God made the world this way. In Genesis, we’re told that God created man (and woman) to live in beautiful community with him. Creation was paradise, and everything was harmonious, as long as man maintained his side of the relationship. You can eat anything except the fruit from this one tree.

Even before the first sin though, God allowed man to desire something other than God. He made man, and he loved him. It is the nature of this love to desire to be loved back (Matthew 22:37). For love to be real, there has to be some alternative or it is not love, it is forced behavior.

This, apparently, is why God allowed Adam and Eve, and why he allows us, to desire something other than him. It is why he allows us to wander, pursuing our own way. He allows this, because if and when we do follow him, he finds pleasure in our choosing him. It wouldn’t be much of a choice if we could choose only between loving him and something horribly painful. In God’s wisdom, he allows the alternative to be attractive . . . but with consequences.

Adam and Eve ate the fruit because it looked and tasted good, but when they ate, they damaged their relationship with God. I got too close to the thin ice signs because I wanted to, but I also got cold and wet. When I used drugs, it felt good, but I became addicted. This is the way God made the world. He created us with a desire to know him, but he also allows us to go our own way, causing destruction. It is simply in our nature to wander from God, injuring ourselves and damaging our relationship with him.