The Realm of Death Pt 2

Hiding and Performing

            

Relating through a Filter

  

            The first manifestation of the realm of judgment and death that Adam and Eve had entered was their shame and hiding. As they came under the lie of the Accuser, they not only accused God, they accused themselves and each other. As is always the case, the judgment they made about God entailed a judgment about themselves and everyone else. Hence, as soon as their eyes were “opened,” as soon as they saw the world through their knowledge of good and evil, they judged that their nakedness was not good and that they were guilty before God. The sound of the Lord walking in the “evening breeze” that had been so inviting when they were innocent was now threatening to them (Gen. 3:8). Before each other and before God, they were ashamed. They covered themselves and hid.

           This is the story of each and every one of us living in the flesh. We no longer innocently relate to God, ourselves, and each other directly in love. Instead, we relate through the filter of our sinfully acquired knowledge. In this fallen state, we can no longer be naked, open, and vulnerable before each other and before God. We cannot simply walk with God and enjoy his presence as the most relaxing and refreshing part of our day.

            Instead, we hide to conceal our emptiness and shame. The innocent and utterly free exchange of overflowing love that God desired humans to experience from him and for each other has been transformed into a strategy for protecting ourselves and for getting life by hiding and performing. We now relate to God, ourselves, and others through the evaluating filter of our knowledge of good and evil.

            Nothing in our relationships is direct or innocent; it is all filtered. Which is to say, nothing in our relationships is unconditional. Because we are severed from our source, we do not experience and overflow with the unconditional and unsurpassable worth of God. Instead, the worth we receive, experience, and give is conditioned by our stolen knowledge. We receive and ascribe worth on the condition that our knowledge of good and evil approves of it.