God created man completely holy; and the fair earth as it came from the Almighty’s hand was exquisitely profound. Man was originally endowed with divine powers and a well-balanced mind. He was perfect in his being and in harmony with his maker. He had pure thoughts and holy aims. God commissioned man to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth and possess it. This commission was conditional. It was to be carried out on the grounds that he obeyed the divine mandate to depend only the father for all his needs; a condition that was to be based on obedience; the kind of obedience that was to spring from man’s freewill; a freewill that originated from the magnanimity of the selfless love that flowed only from the unconditional love of the almighty, man’s creator-owner; the kind of love that overlooks the shortfalls of others, forgiven and forgetting past hurts and looking into the future with hope and faith.
Man, in his original Adamic form, was indestructible. He was the most complete being ever created – even more complete than the angels; a unique combination of all that is absolute and perfect; a perfect reflection of the creaseless beauty of the Almighty; the most original of His creations; the most powerful of all beings; loved by the father, envied by the angels and imbued with the capacity to live a full, victorious life; an immortal being, simply put. Man was to be the ruler of this earth. In his perfect, sinless state, he constantly held joyful communion with his Father. He had easy access to the “Ancient of Days”; lived in the loving presence of Jehovah, the “I am”. Man had everything at his beck and call. All the pleasures of life were his. All he had to do to live eternally in this blissful paradise was to simply obey the instructions of his maker; to be loyal to a loving father who had giving him the breath of life; that breadth that had made him a living soul. That was all the father require of him; nothing more.
However, man thought otherwise. He decided to disobey the will of his loving father; decided to wrongly express his own free will; a will freely giving to him by a father who loved him and wanted the best for him. Man consequently fell from grace as a result of his rebellion against the almighty. Things completely fell apart for him. His life has never been the same since then. That great mistake at Eden has continued to define the miserable plight of man on earth today.
Since his fall from grace, after the Eden debacle, man has become a caricature of his original perfect self; the complete opposite of what the creator intended him to be from the onset. Man’s current piteous state commenced from the moment he decided to disobey his maker; a fatal mistake that has continued to define his tragic conditions on earth; a stupid decision that could have been avoided. By turning against his maker, man sealed his fate once and for all. By rejecting the love of his creator, he opened himself up to the negative attacks of the vicissitudes of life; his natural defenses where shattered and he was now open to the attacks of the evil one – Satan – who then moved in to implement his evil design – to permanently incarcerate man – God’s most priced creation – in his hellish hole. Man now had to fend for himself; now had to do those things that had already been secured for him by the benevolent and selfless love of the almighty; just because he aligned himself with the devil, the father of all lies, hater of good and humanity’s greatest enemy. From that moment of inanity, man died spiritually, physically, mentally and in every other significant dimension. Like a fruit prematurely plucked off the branch of a tree, man simply lost his privileged position as the apple of God’s eyes. Like a rudderless ship hopelessly navigating through a tempest, he lost his way and started groping in the dark.
Truly speaking, humanity has fared very badly since the unfortunate drama at Eden. Since the creator decided to let us be, we have had it very rough. Like babies left to the vagaries of the merciless elements, we are helplessly defenseless; like dispirited prize fighters being mercilessly pummeled by enraged opponents, we desperately search for means of escape. How helpless we have become since that moment of madness. How hopeless we have become since our decision to have things our way. How we wish we could turn back the hands of time. How we wish things could be better. How we wish father Adam and mother Eve had listened to the Almighty’s wise counsel. How we wish we were there to stop the looming disaster our first parents brainlessly walked into; the curse they brought upon themselves; curses they have passed unto the present generation.
The truth of the matter is that man has continually shown that he is helpless without the fatherly love of his creator. Despite all his much-vaunted advances in different facets of life – science, technology, philosophy, arts etc – he continues to bungle everything. He gropes in the dark for what could have been easily gleaned had he stayed connected to the ultimate power source. Every attempt he makes to solve the challenges afflicting him leaves him more confused than he was when he commenced on his quest for the so called truth. He is confounded by all the wonders of life; all the mysteries that are thrown at him by the present realities. From the challenges of sustenance, survival and other formidable challenges of life, man is constantly battered by an avalanche of pitfalls restricting his every attempt to break loose from the chains of servitude that hold him bound; a servitude he freely walked into. What a pity!
However, in the midst of all the challenges man faces on earth due to his sinful nature, God’s eternal love is revealed. God had a reason for cursing the ground; it was for man’s sake (Gen 3:17). The thorns and thistles, which represent the challenges of live, were for his good. They were part of the training program required in God’s plan to ultimately redeem him. Such love is without parallel. The unconditional love of our heavenly father for a world that rejected him! God’s love for us despite our treacheries should naturally have a subduing effect that brings our soul into captivity to the will of the almighty. When we reflect on the nature of God, as depicted in John 3:16, we come to a better understanding of His divine nature; the kind of nature that is defined by His mercy, tenderness, forgiveness, combined with justice. When we do this, we begin to clearly picture the nature of God’s love for His wayward children; an eternal and timeless kind of love that exceeds a loving mother’s endless affection for her naughty child.
Any sane human being must regard the mercy of God for stupid humanity. He has done so much for us, despite our immoralities; our lecheries and debaucheries. Let us place ourselves in right relation with Him who has loved us unconditionally. Let us avail ourselves of the opportunities provided for us that we may be re-transformed into His image and likeness again, and be restored to our first estate; our original form of immortality that we may re-acquaint ourselves again with the ministering angels, and be in eternal harmony and communion with our loving Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. We must repent and be born again in other for this to be possible. We must give up all our selfish desires and pitch our tenth with our father. The devil is a liar and the father of all lies. We must resist him that he may flee from us. We have been great transgressors of God’s perfect standards, but Jesus died that we might be saved. He came down from His gracious throne in heaven to sacrifice Himself for our sins to be forgiven. He died that you and I might live. It is when we fully comprehend the love of God that we best realize the sinfulness of sin. When we understand the priceless, eternal sacrifice that was made that we m
ight enjoy everlasting life in paradise, our stony hearts will melt with tenderness and remorse.
Man’s tragic conditions on earth can only change for the better when he returns to the loving care of the almighty God. We are prodigal children of a loving God who is ready to forgive us whenever we ask Him to. It is left for us to make that one significant move. A word is enough for the wise. Praise the lord!
