Rose Colored Glasses

No more attention is due to the fallen state of man.  We are a new creation, humanity perfected in Christ.  Now, that's worthy of losing yourself in.

The love of Christ resonates within us and leaves us with one conclusion:  Jesus died humanity's death; therefore in God's logic every individual simultaneously died. (Greek: to echo, embrace, resonate...  Only the love of Christ can make a calculation of such enormous proportion!  Theology would question the extremity of God's love and perhaps prefer to add a condition or two to a statement like that!)

2 Corinthians 5:14

It's no longer about what Adam did wrong, albeit a tragedy of mass consequential proportions.   Disobeying and eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil shut down Adam's brilliant emotional understanding with God.  He had everything prior to that bite, no doubts about God's love toward him.  They were the best kind of friends, sharing vulnerability in love.  Sinking his teeth into that piece of fruit shut down his emotional quotient(EQ).  Adam and Eve's diminished understanding left them questioning their standing with God.  Momentarily changing the course of man-kind with few exceptions.   Notice, in that perfect space that Eden was, it was creation that misunderstood God, not God who disapproved of his creation.  Adam and Eve hid, covering themselves.  God still went walking in the cool of the day, looking to meet with them.  He didn't go storming through Eden with a switch in hand ready to bring down his wrath.  When he found them hiding, covered by vines stringing leaves together over their nakedness, he had one question:  "Who told you you were naked?".  The shame, sorrow, and distance came from creations end.  God, in his kindness, clothed them in animal skins(possibly the lamb of God, --it was the foundation of the earth) and removed them from the garden.  It wasn't a God-sized rejection, it was his protection that sent them out to work.  It's possible this was the only scenario their new understanding was capable of comprehending; an exchange program.

Hosea put it well:

I'll call nobodies and make them somebodies: I'll call the unloved and make them beloved. In a place where they yelled out, "You're nobody!" they're calling you "God's living children."

Isaiah maintained this same emphasis:

If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered and the sum labeled "chosen of God," they'd be numbers still, not names; salvation comes by personal selection. God doesn't count us; he calls us by name. Arithmetic is not his focus.

This is pre-messiah scripture.  Doesn't sound like a God of rejection, does it?  His affections for us have always burned hot.  We were only separated from God in our minds by sin. This is evident in David's life.  David was a chief sinner and God refers to him as, "A man after my own heart"; it sounds like grace is already in motion.  David discovered he could lean into and be loved by God early on.  I'm convinced his time in the fields with sheep was really an unfathomable God experience.  He had a remarkable Godfidence, something that can only be gained by the first-hand experience.  Seeking Him beyond the sin-life.

The separational state man-kind felt was as real as a mirage as far as heaven is concerned.  We could've turned and embraced the God of love at any given moment.  It's our feasting on the knowledge of good and evil that needs addressed, not the Love of God.

Herein is the extremity of God's love gift: mankind was rotten to the core when Christ died their death.(We were bankrupt in our efforts to save ourselves.) If God could love us that much when we were ungodly and guilty, how much more are we free to realize his love now that we are declared innocent by his blood? Our hostility toward God did not reduce his love for us; he saw equal value in us when he exchanged the life of his son for ours... Romans 5:8-10

One man opened the door to sin. Sin introduced (spiritual) death.  Both sin and death had a global impact. No one escaped its tyranny. The law did not introduce sin; sin was just not pointed out yet.

In the meantime (spiritual) death dominated from Adam to Moses, no one was excluded; even those whose transgression was different from Adam's.  The fact that Adam's offense set sin into motion and its mark was globally transmitted and stained the whole human race. The only similarity in the comparison between the offense and the gift, is that both Adam and Christ represent the masses; their single action therefore bears global consequence.  Spiritual death introduced by one man's transgressions is by far superseded by the grace gift lavished upon mankind in the one man Jesus Christ. Romans 5:12-15

Grace is out of all proportion in superiority to the transgression. The conclusion is clear: it took just one offense to condemn mankind; one act of righteousness declares the same mankind innocent. Romans 5:17, 18

Why we are set on embracing a life of separational sin, death and a defeated enemy is beyond me.  The finished work of the cross bought a new life that stands taller than those defeated(dead) effects of Adam's bite; humanity's blundered far too long on the juices running off of Adam's chin.  I've got a sneaking suspicion that if our sights were fixed on grace, sin would no longer be an issue, let alone the infatuation with good and evil. Look, the trinity ripped 1/3 of itself apart for us. Sent to earth in flesh like me to experience life as we know it. He lived victoriously, without spot or blemish. He purposed to run into every kind of sin, sickness, and death, collecting it unto himself. Succumbing the most brutal, barbaric beating and execution; sin and death would be conquered leaving us hiding no more. The only thing holding us is the Grace of God; it's safe to rest here, permanently. Change focus and lean into Love, live the victorious life of 'Christ in me'.  It boils down to: love God, love yourself and love others. As prescribed, rose-colored glasses, of course.