YES, LORD

In the garden, our original parents committed the original sin - they denied the veracity of the word of God and they disobeyed His command.

We, their children, have been committing the same sin - over and over, in numberless varied ways - ever since.

In yesterday's excerpt from the article "Christ Died to Save God-Haters", Dr. Rosenbladt wrote that faith "...rests upon the validity of the divine promise of the Gospel."

In the garden, God essentially told Adam and Eve, "If you do this (eat the forbidden fruit), you will die."  They didn't really believe Him, and they ate the fruit.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us, "Because I do this, you will live."  Again, we don't want to believe Him.  Indeed, as children of Adam, fallen and sinful, it is against our nature to believe God.

Instead of humbly affirming the truth of God's word with a simple "Yes, Lord," we fidget and fumble and squirm.  "Yes, Lord, but I'm going to help You out a smidgen.  I'm going to do this little part over here.  My contribution won't detract from Your work...I only aim to help complete it."  We really don't believe Jesus when He says, "It is finished."  We believe it is almost finished.  Dr. Rosenbladt was correct in saying that we want to boast, "I stuck in my thumb and pulled out a plum and what a good boy am I."

God told Adam and Eve the truth in the garden, but they didn't believe Him.  God told us the truth again in Galilee, but we still don't want to believe Him.  God sent Jesus to atone for the great treachery of our unbelieving, sinful, rebellious hearts ("No, Lord, it is not so!"), and to give us living, loving hearts of faith.

Thankfully, the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not true simply because I do or don't believe it.  It is true because God said it.

Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!