Creation and the Fall

HIV

A couple of days ago I came across an article that featured the works of artist Luke Jerram who had taken the time to make glass sculptures.

Looking at the different glass sculptures I was impressed with their beauty, in my opinion, that give a sense of delicacy and fine taste, until I started reading the article entitled: "The Unsettling Beauty of Lethal Viruses."  Yes, the artist took the time to recreate in glass lethal viruses such as HIV and Malaria. The artist explains the reaction of the different people that saw his art, some of them coming closer to appreciate their beauty, but stepping back with some level of fear or respect once they knew what they represented.

Malaria

The Bible states that sin, and its tragic consequences, was not presented to Eve as something lethal, but as something good, pleasant and desirable (Genesis 3:6). Under the idea of ​​achieving what Satan himself was looking for, to be like God (Genesis 3:5, Isaiah 14:14), Eva sacrificed her own freedom. If we pay attention, the prohibitions of God, protect our freedom. In Genesis 2:16 God said, "Of every tree of the garden you may eat." There was only a single tree they could not eat (v17), and the serpent was clever enough to focus Eves attention on the one thing Eva could not do, and forget about the many she could do, and felt "repressed".  Do you get it?  The DO NOT of God identifies the few things we can't do, so we can enjoy the many things we can do. For example, when God says: "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14), He identifies the element that will bring unhappiness and threaten our freedom, and frees us to fully enjoy the many blessings of marriage. However, as in the past, Satan often manages to focus our concentration in the few No's, so we may forget the many Yes's, and thus leading us to feel imprisoned by the Law of Liberty that God gave us (James 2:10-12). Just as with the rest of the Commandments.

In this encounter between Eve and the serpent, a harmful and lethal feeling  aroused in humans, the ME feeling.  Satan wanted to be like God, to draw attention to himself, ignoring that God does not live for himself. The serpent managed to introduce a spirit Eva outside the kingdom that God directs. Now Eve, who until then lived for God and Adam (as Adam lived for God and Eve), began to focus on herself. She began to covet all the benefits that eating from the forbidden tree would bring to her alone. She forgot about God and Adam and concentrated on herself. Get it? The number one enemy of any relationships, including marriage, is the ME approach. Marriages where its members live for themselves, are bound to fail, because they are going against the eternal principles of God's kingdom and being deceived by Satan and his ruined kingdom.  It frightens to think on the capacity of our self-centeredness, which has perpetuated through history much suffering: war, injustice, greed, abuse, murder, and the list is long.

However, the biblical record is not as interested in emphasizing our shortcomings as to exalt God's love. In math we find the law that, in addition and multiplication "the order of the factors does not change the product," as well as 2 + 3 = 5, 3 + 2 = 5 also. However, in the plan of salvation is not. In the plan of salvation does matter the order of the factors, as these do affect the product. In the Divine formula, Grace + judgment = Gospel. God is not interested in punishing us for our sins, but to rescue us from them. The accuser is Satan (Revelation 12:10, Zechariah 3:1) who installs the same spirit in us.

Yes, the Bible speaks of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. However, its priority is to let us know of the love and grace of God that "gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). That is the wish of God, the promise, that when you believe there is no condemnation for us (Romans 8:1), but eternal life (Matthew 25:34).