• Home
  • About This Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Subscribe
  • Comment Policy

Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series
Home Bible Reflection Kicked out for our own good

Kicked out for our own good

Posted on February 15, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments


Adam and Eve Growing up, when I read in Genesis Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, I always viewed this as a punitive action. I thought that our first parents were being punished for their sin.

This morning, as I read this passage, I noticed that the goal in expelling them from the Garden was to prevent them from eating from the tree of life and living forever.

Then the question came to me, was this punishment or grace? Would you want to live forever in a fallen state? I suppose that age has perhaps given me better perspective on this, but I can say now that I would not.

Imaging living in a perpetual state of knowing what you lost and knowing that it can never be recovered. To live forever with the knowledge of being flawed with no path to recovery would be a living hell. To see the mess that we have made of the world would have to be torture for Adam.

God was gracious to Adam and Eve as He is to us. He gives us a purpose for being here and takes us to be with Himself when our purpose is complete. This is grace from beginning to end. With this attitude, we can say with Paul, “to live is Christ, to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)

Let us live with the goal of fulfilling this purpose.


Filed Under: Bible Reflection Tagged With: Genesis, Life

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

Follow Attempts at Honesty

Honesty in your Inbox

Along the right paths

One of the advantages of reading a different version of the Bible, one that you are not familiar with, is that a different reading can trigger an insight that you never saw before. This happened to me this morning as I read Psalm 23 in the Christian Standard Bible. In that translation the verse 3 […]

Death, life and the love of God

Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Why then do I often act as if I have to earn God’s love?

Grace and Truth

Grace, Truth and Difficult People

We all have had to deal with difficult people at one time or another. In the midst of the difficulty we are called to love the difficult person. We need to interact with that person with both grace and truth. Jesus is our example on how to maintain this balance.

Encourage One Another

Encourage one another?

Sometimes we try to encourage someone and the encouragement we are trying to deliver feels like condemnation or worse to the one we encourage. I can think of three reasons why this may be the case.

Peace sign

Whence the lack of peace?

Peace is the one thing that is lacking in many churches today. Perhaps it is because it is one thing that is lacking in many believers today. Or, perhaps, I am projecting this on others because of a lack of peace in my own life.

Post Series

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series

Categories

Archives

Blogger Grid
Follow me on Blogarama

Copyright © 2022 · Focus Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in