On Sin and Death

It is clear from the Book of Genesis that we were made for com-union with God, with one another, and with the universe.  God breathed His own soul/spirit into man, and made them in His spirit and image so they would "walk with Him in the cool of the evening, in the Garden He had made for them. 

Adam, in his loneliness, experienced his own spirit pushing for com-union with another like himself.  He had all the world had to offer, and yet, he needed soul communion.  And God, in His love, gave him what he craved: a soul-mate, a help-meet (suitable for his nature).

As Adam tended the garden, the animals came to him and he called them by name --that is, he understood their natures and was able to name who/what they were---he was in communion with them.

The destructive force in the universe was determined to disrupt the harmony, the trust, the union between God and man, man and man, and man and the universe: ye shall be as gods, he told them, judging for yourselves good and evil.  So man walked "away" from God rather than 'with" God.  And that break in com-union, that wall in the spiritual world, extended itself to the relationship between man and woman, and between man and the universe, eventually passing on to the next generation even more intensely.

The problem is that we are made for harmony, for union.  Without it, we die.  The spiritual dis-unity/death begins on the inside, but eventually expresses itself in anger and frustration at the other.  As our lack of spiritual connection grows, even the earth experiences our spiritual death and gives nothing back to us.  Those who walk in darkness hardly notice the coming of spring or of dawn; their hearts remain shrouded in anger and selfishness.  They cannot be "born-anew" each day by the gifts of nature because they are blinded by rage. 

In Romans 7, even Paul (in his born-again state) can say, "I do not understand myself at all.  In my mind, I agree with the law of God, but there is something at work in me that is stronger than I am that causes me to do the very thing I have determined not to do.....unhappy man that I am!  Who will redeem me from this body of sin?"

In the next chapter, Paul gives the answer:  "Thanks be to God....for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed [us] from the law of sin and death." That is, the spirit of Jesus living in us is always at work to overcome the divisions that lead to death---division from God, from our brothers, and from the universe.  The spirit of life poured out in us through the gift of God tears down the walls of division that we have built up, the walls that lead us to death by isolation and loneliness, the walls of anger and rage and frustration, the walls of hostility that keep us from seeing God, one another, and the beauty of the world around us. 

The only way we can remove those walls in our spirits is to bring them to the Lord, who has already crucified our nature/flesh and all its passions and in the place of the dead man of sin has brought back from the grave a "new man," alive to God and dead to sin.  And the Spirit of God living in our re-born spirits can finally re-connect us to Himself and to all living things.