One Commandment, One Sin

What began as a way to segue back into the subject of law on Good Friday has become what could much more accurately be called a hiatus. However, despite the fact that almost nothing is the same in this world as it was seven months ago, the Word of God stands as sure as ever, its words eternal and its principles timely and applicable to any day or hour.

This morning I was reading once again the account of the foundation of all things—the first few chapters of Genesis. Without that revelation from God surely we would be lost in a labyrinth of imagination and a quandary of speculation, as evidenced by the philosophy of evolution all around us. Furthermore we would have no means to understand the source of the obvious problems in the world around us, that being sin.

If, in fact, the way to God is through keeping a set of rules and regulations, then surely Adam and Eve should have been able to retain God’s favour. After all, they were created with a perfect physical form in an innocent moral state and placed into a garden of incredible beauty and splendour with all their needs freely supplied. They had but one rule to follow, that being abstaining from the fruit of one tree amongst a myriad of choice selections. They, however, did not abide by that one simple commandment, and thus “sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men.” (Romans 5:12)

What hope then do we have of winning God’s favour through law if Adam and Eve, in an environment free from sin, disobeyed God’s ONE commandment, when we live in a world saturated by sin and must keep MANY commandments? None whatsoever!

Our tendency then, is to reduce the number of commandments, and try to convince ourselves that God will overlook some of our deficiencies if we have good intentions or make good moral choices most of the time. Unfortunately God is perfect and holy—that means he requires the same of us to accept us into his presence.

There is, then, only one option: to be like God. There are many in the world today that continue with the lie of Satan put to Eve so long ago “ye shall be as gods” (Gen 3:5) apart from God. That can never be, for God is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14) and will never share his glory with another.

God has, however, “made us accepted in the beloved” through Christ his Son! (Eph 1:3-6) Why would we even want to win God’s favour through law when he has given us his Son?

-Andrew N. Scharf