Advocate

1 John 1:8 - 2:2

If someone says they don’t have sin, then they’re lying themselves. That’s basically what it says in verse 8. Then there’s a formula: if we confess, then he will forgive us, then cleanse us, because he is faithful and he is just. It goes on to say that if we say we haven’t sinned, then we make God a liar and his word is not in us.

The author also says that he’s writing these things so that we won’t sin, but if we do, know that we have an advocate in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, and not just our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world.

This is all very interesting to me… God calls us to do one thing: confess. If we confess, then He takes action. He will forgive us, then he’ll cleanse us. I want to connect the dots to what we were studying earlier with Adam and Eve. God called out their sin. “Where are you?” “Who gave you this fruit?” “Who told you that you were naked?” God just wants a confession, because God is just. God will even the scales of Justice. But, God is also faithful. He’ll forgive and then he’ll cleanse.

The next part of this passage is cool, too. The author says that he’s writing this so that you won’t sin...but if you do… I had to lol a little here, because we’re going to sin. And when we sin, Jesus Christ is our advocate to God the Father. God is just, and all the bad things we do require justice from God. I think it’s in our nature a little to require justice, too. But we have an advocate in Jesus.

This can start to sound a little weird. So, Jesus is God, and God the Father is God, and Jesus is an advocate to God for our sins. Weird. The trinity makes no sense, and I don’t think it should. I’m starting to read Forgotten God by Francis Chan. It’s about the Holy Spirit being the “forgotten God”. The Trinity blows me away…

Fruit

Gen 3:1-7

Here, the serpent approaches Eve and brings her attention to the tree that’s in the midst of the garden. The serpent asks a question. Did God tell you that you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? Eve responds, that they can eat of trees, but should keep away from the tree in the midst; if they touch it or eat it they would die. The serpent then corrects what they think about God and tell them that they will not die. He tells them that when they eat, their eyes will be opened and God knows this. Eve will be like God and will know good and evil.

So, she sees the fruit is “good for food” and “a delight to the eyes”, so she eats and she shares it with her husband. Their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked. They made clothes to cover themselves.

I have a few questions here. First of all, when did evil enter the Garden, and why did God allow this? The million dollar question I’m sure, but it would make sense if God just didn’t allow evil to enter. Also, why was there a “tree in the midst”, that was “good for food” and “a delight to the eyes” right in front of Adam and Eve? It seems that God set them up for failure. Then again, I’m not God, and I don’t know what the alternative would be. I wonder if these factors were in play because of free will and because God wants his creation to choose him. Adam and Eve had to make a choice. They had to decide to listen to what God tells them, or to not listen. They chose to not listen, and really I don’t blame them. I would have done the same. The fruit was probably magnificently beautiful, at least that’s how I imagine it. I don’t see the apple like a lot of the old paintings show. I think of a fruit that was maybe glowing in brilliant colors. I picture a much different Earth here, and I see an Earth pre-fall as beautiful beyond what I can imagine. I imagine this to be heaven. The fruit was probably impossible to resist.

Genesis is still a hard one for me. As a Christian, I was brought up to understand Genesis as a word for word exact account of actual history. I don’t think I have to look at it that way. I think I can see truths, but word for word actual history? Maybe not. But then again, maybe so. I think there are deeper points than reading Genesis as actual history.