The result of Adam’s and Eve’s sin of wanting to be good as God is good was a fundamental change in the whole way
of life of all mankind. At the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, mankind’s lifestyle changed radically from simple faith in what God says, to attempting to obey God’s law.
The whole world, filled with Adam’s and Eve’s descendants, now functions based on this premise: “Is it good or is it bad; is it right or is it wrong?” Our basis of operation as we relate to God is now always, naturally and unconsciously, living by the law—either by, consciously or unconsciously, trying to keep it or rebelliously breaking it. In both instances, the focus is the law—“Have I kept the law or have I broken it?”
So, all mankind, in Adam, moved from a place where trusting in God’s love and care is the FIRST CAUSE and obedience to His will is a NATURALLY, OCCURRING EFFECT, to a place where obedience to God’s law is the cause, and His love and provision is the effect. We have moved from “Because…therefore” to “If…then”; from “Because God loves me, therefore I want to obey Him,” to “If I obey Him then He will love and accept me.” Adam’s decision in the Garden forever confused cause and effect in the minds and the hearts of all mankind. We live today with the tragic effects of that decision on every hand.
As a result, we now are unconsciously completely ADDICTED to climbing the performance ladder, always striving to get more and more “righteous” or compliant to whatever law we have chosen to follow. For Christians, life has been characterized by the song some of us sang in church youth groups as children; “We are climbing Jacob’s ladder, every rung, higher, higher”—to what?
The song doesn’t specifically say, but the implication is that climbing the ladder will bring us what Adam and Eve wanted in the garden after eating of the forbidden fruit—to be “righteous like God.” The Christian life is pictured by believers as progress in experiential righteousness, gained by keeping God’s law ever more perfectly, every rung on the righteousness ladder serving as the platform for the next step upward.
This model tells me that I get more and more holy as I discipline myself to be good. As a result, I am proud of myself if I think I have successfully made progress up the ladder, and I am discouraged and defeated if I see myself as still sinfully stuck at the bottom. I am unconsciously fully addicted to performance; all my thoughts, words and deeds come from this ladder-climbing addiction!
Ladder-climbers come in three different varieties. First, there is the post-modern, theological liberal, who thinks that by himself he is capable of good works by which he can make himself more like God. He has confidence that there is a spark of goodness in man that will allow him to get better and better, i.e., he is convinced he can climb the ladder himself by discovering that “What’s right for me is right.”
Second, there is the theological Arminian, who believes Jesus gave him grace or power to help him climb the ladder by his obedience to God’s Law, therefore making him more righteous like God is righteous. He climbs the ladder with Jesus’ help, though a major portion of the responsibility remains his. Jesus is boosting him up from behind as they climb the ladder of righteousness together.
Finally, there is the Calvinist, who thinks that it is all of grace. He believes he doesn’t do anything at all because he is helpless to climb the ladder himself. Jesus will put him on His back and climb the ladder for him to make him more like God, as he becomes more and more holy.
However, all of these mindsets preserve climbing the ladder—that is, keeping the law of God—as an objective. The only difference among these three positions is, “Who is keeping the law?” Is it I alone, or is it I, with Jesus’ help, or is it Jesus in me? Our eyes are still fixed on the law—is my conduct right or is it wrong, is it good or is it bad?—and the issue is still my performance!
Because of our mind-numbing addiction, no matter our theological bent, we have never thought that there could be any other way to live but by the law, because that way of living has been baked into the fabric of mankind since the fall. It is how we naturally view the world—through the law—as the result of eating, in Adam, from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
I unconsciously like the idea of living by the law, because it GIVES ME SOMETHING TO DO . If somebody tells me that God has instituted a new way to live apart from the law altogether, apart from trying to become more and more obedient, I don’t like that, because subconsciously there is glory for me in being a successful ladder-climber; there is progress for me to achieve in my desire to be good like God. I am helplessly addicted to obedience to the law!
BUT GOD…! He has instituted a brand new, paradigm-shattering way to live that changes everything. However, only God Himself can expose and then overcome our universal addiction. We have exposed our addiction today; next week we will see how God has already overcome it!
