Good Intentions and Guilt

With Jesus there was no separation from God, no sin, and no guilt. 

Adam and Eve—at one point in their lives—were just like that! 
But then enters stage left, guilt on the coattails of sin. 

Together, Adam and Eve sinned and separation from God was the immediate outcome (as sin becomes guilt).  They weren’t separated from God because they made a mistake or because God was a control freak.  Back in that day, nothing was a mistake because everything God provided was perfect…including His command. 

Even God’s command was good and protective. 
Adam and Eve just didn’t believe it enough to obey it.

Adam and Eve’s own will and moral agency failed them in their eagerness to be like God.  It didn’t matter their motivation in seeing “the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” or good intentions, perhaps, of wanting to be like the God who created and loves them. 

They didn’t believe God was fundamentally different from what they could become.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Fast forward to today when people make the mistake of believing good intentions and virtue signaling are enough. The world applauds and feeds the ego of the “good person”.  But God’s got perfect instructions for us in His Word (the Bible). 

Platitudes of “right-thought” abound, but as Martha’s Vineyard’s recent expulsion of 49 of the very people they claim to care about…the old “Not In My Back Yard”…in the end, these platitudes were exposed as fraudulent, a masquerade.  They’re not enough to save to eternity, earning it our way. 

Or like Adam and Eve thinking we can steer our own moral agency—even with good intentions and sincerity—all the while… violating what God says. 

Not one of those popular platitude signs says, “Obey God” or “Seek Jesus” or “We believe the Bible is Truth.”  Those are too risky, invite the FBI to raid your home, and don’t signal cultural virtue to the world’s onlookers and thought-police.

Just like back then, God’s Word is good and protective. 
We just don’t believe it the way we should.