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Have you ever moved furniture in your house to a new location or rearranged your living room?  What we lived with before was the ‘normal’ location of the furniture.  But what did it feel like returning home the first time after it was rearranged?  It felt unusual and strange.  But after a while, it becomes the ‘new normal.’  Months to years go by without changing it again, and we maybe only reminisce about the way the furniture used to be, perhaps through pictures of a birthday party that you hosted.  

Before ‘The Fall’, humans' relationship with God was harmonious.  God dwelt with us in the garden, such that we could talk face-to-face.  But sin came by Adam and the effects of sin thereafter.  Death entered.  Estrangement came.  Sin took over.  Sin became part of the identity of mankind and could not separate from it.  

In discussions about theology, this effect of sin on man is called total depravity.  This is not that each man is as sinful as he can be (if it were: logically, we would see a lot more sin).  Total depravity means that sin affects all areas of man.  Every area of man is corrupt, including, but not limited to: his mind, affections, actions, and physical body.  What does this look like practically?  

Part of this is found in Genesis 3 (and then look to the rest of the Bible to find the rest).  Adam and Eve evaded God and ran from Him.  They were ashamed.  Our sin brings us to not wanting to be in the presence of God.  But how the furniture was before was being in His presence and wanting to abide there.  It was not unusual for God to dwell with humanity.  But the furniture changed after The Fall.  We evade; and God didn’t dwell with humanity again till Jesus’s first coming, and now we are waiting for His second for the furniture to be put back in place.  

Adam and Eve aren’t the only ones who evaded.  We evade.  On a daily basis.  We sin.  We are ashamed.  We run from God.  But by the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to turn to God and not evade.  To find our Father ready and willing to forgive any transgression if we confess our sins.  We often find ourselves thinking, “Why does it feel like you are so far away God?”  But is this changing the text in Genesis 3?  God came for Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve ran from God.  So, when we are tempted to think that God is far away.  Ask yourself these questions:   

  • What is my tendency when I sin? Is it to run and hide?
  • What does running and hiding look like?
  • What is the actual character of God towards me in my sin (from His Word) rather than what my sinful mind tends to place upon God?
  • What sin have I not confessed to God and to others (to those to whom it is appropriate) so that I can restore fellowship between God and others?