They only broke one rule

Hosea 6:7-11

“But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.  Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood.  As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy.  In the house of Israel, I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.  For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore the fortunes of my people.”

Just one thing, that’s all I’ve ask of you, now look around and see it is all you’re to care for and enjoy, all but that one item, and you are not to touch or take any of it.  That is the covenant relationship God entered into with Adam; the garden was his to enjoy, to live in and to manage, only one tree was off limits, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Now it is not easy for sinful people to grasp a world without sin with peace and perfection, where mankind is in harmony with God and His creation.  That was Adam’s life before he broke that one rule, and sin entered into the world.

The bad news is, sin entered into the world by the breaking of one rule.  I have never heard or even thought about Adam’s act as theft, but isn’t the definition of theft; a person who steals another person's property, and that was what Adam did.  But there is good news found in Romans 5:12-17, it is the big picture of God’s grace and mercy and it’s the story of how in Adam there is death, but in Christ, the God-man brings life to all who will confess sin in their lives and ask Jesus to enter into them, His life for theirs.  

I was 27 years of age, married, a member of a Baptist church, well grounded in the Scriptures to my way of thinking at that time, but had no relationship with the living Christ.  I was a sinful man in my life style, my thought life was about getting my needs met outside of Christ, and I was a mess.  My heart was on evil for it was centered on my wants over all others, and then I ask Jesus to enter into my life after reading Romans 10:9-10 in a hotel room late one night.  That night I became a new creation in Christ, yet the habits in me did not die, they are still alive and each day, and many times each day I war with my flesh about who is first, Jesus Christ or Bob?  Let me give a good report, I’m still a mess, but my hearts desire is for Christ to be my life, and much of the time my actions come into alignment with that desire.

Now back to what God has done for you and me; “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”    (Romans 5:15-17 ESV)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice