ETERNAL SIN
"The man and his
wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the
garden" Gen. 3:8
That is the first revelation of the sense of the soul
towards God, resulting from distrust and rebellion. It is the sense of sin.
They hid because they were AFRAID. Their FEAR was not the outcome of any change
in God. The change was in themselves. They had yet to learn that there can be NO HIDING from God. And, moreover, they had yet to learn that their only chance
of restoration lay in that fact that there could be NO HIDING from Him. They
had cut themselves off from the possibility of COMMUNION with Him, but they had NOT ESCAPED either from His law or His love. These are the highest revelations
of this account. How true all human experience is to this first picture! The fear
of God which prompts men to desire to escape Him, and to hide from Him, is as
potent today as ever. The hiding may take the form of denial of His existence,
of rebellion against His law, of indifference to His claim. It is always the same,
a dislike of God, born of fear; and it is always caused, not by what God is,
but because of what MAN IS. The fear of God is always a witness to the holiness
of God, even though it is a proof of IGNORANCE OF HIS LOVE. In so far,
therefore, it is a principle of real value. In that sense the fear of the Lord
is the BEGINNING OF WISDOM as the Psalms and Proverbs teach (Psa. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 9:10). But it is only the beginning. If when, in spite of
our hiding, He find us and make known to us His love, we yet persist in
fleeing His presence, and refusing His claims, then we commit the sin that has NO PARDON, nor can have. That is what Jesus described as ETERNAL SIN. The only
safe hiding-place from the holy wrath of God is in the wounded heart of God.
There is a Tree which will hide us, but that is the Tree where we find God in
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.
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