Reality is reliable. We can depend on the reality of his love for us. His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their lives. Whom shall we fear? Of whom shall we be afraid? Will our almighty lover ever let us down? Will he ever disappoint?
To neutralize the the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and repurposed it to offer us a contradiction.
Armageddon is here and now. We are not fighting for something in the hereafter. The battle is now. Now is the time to join Jesus in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the Valley of Tears facing off against Evil toe to toe, cheek to jowl. Christianity is not a sport for spectators. Christians partake in the fray.
Adam and Eve were privileged. They only knew good. They did not know evil. God did not want them to know evil. He made them innocent. The serpent offered to Eve the full spectrum of knowledge - both the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. The serpent sugarcoated the knowledge of evil with the testimony that possessing the full spectrum of knowledge would deify them. Yet, the serpent failed to reveal the cost of acquiring the knowledge of evil. The rest you know.
Why is it more difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24)? The direness of our predicament in the Valley of Tears is one of the two engines of salvation. The other engine is the sweetness of paradise. The sweetness of paradise pulls us to the entrance of paradise. The direness of our predicament in the Valley of Tears pushes us to its exit. However, the serpent cast an illusion that sugarcoats the direness of our predicament in the Valley of Tears (Genesis 3:5). The sugarcoating induced Adam and Eve to run away, like foolish children, from their home with God in paradise and take us with them into the Valley of Tears. The sugarcoating is thicker for the rich man than for the poor man. The thickness of the sugarcoating makes it harder to shatter. The thicker the sugarcoating, the harder the sledgehammer of truth needs to work. A rich man thinks that he can exploit his riches to fend off the crosses that besiege us as we pass through the Valley of Tears (Luke 12:13-21). His riches can hold the crosses at bay. The poor man, not having the cushion of riches between himself and his crosses, is more aware than the rich man of the direness of his predicament. Riches conjure up the dangerous illusion of safety and of independence from God (Luke 12:16-21). Riches give the rich man a false sense of security. A poor man with no resources is much more likely to turn to God than a rich man with resources. God is the resource of the poor man. God is all that the poor man has.
God delivers to us the gift of our creation and the gift of paradise. Both gifts were delivered to Adam and Eve simultaneously. God inserted a delay between the delivery of the gift of creation and the gift of paradise with regard to the children of Adam and Eve. Why?
The sourness of godlessness vaccinates us against the illusion conjured up by the serpent that a life lived as gods in godlessness is better than a life lived with God in paradise. It is harsh but effective medicine. God mitigates its harshness by making our lives in godlessness brief. The brevity of life is proof of a merciful God.
Always look at life from the outside in