Sewing and Ripping

From a message by a Curious Questioner--
>CQ> Subject: empirical proof

>CQ> The effect of Adam's fall is so deep seated in human nature that our earthly father, Adam, passed on to all his descendents a tendency or bias to sin. - This spiritual or moral handicap is called Original Sin.

Not quite. DEATH is "passed" upon all men, for that all have sinned. You were in Adam when he committed his original sin in the garden. You are not committing that sin now, since you don't have access to that tree. The expression "original sin" is not found in the Bible.

>CQ> I believe Psalm 51:5 speaks to this issue.

Psalm 51 is David's prayer unto the Lord after he went in unto Bathsheba, and was spoken "when Nathan the prophet came unto him." He had conceived a child in adultery with Bathsheba and speaks in this psalm of how he himself was conceived:

"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psm.51:4,5)

There is an unspoken thought there that can be understood when you compare David's prayer with Abraham's request to the Lord as they walked toward Sodom before it's destruction. Abraham did not come right out and ask the Lord to spare Lot's life, but we read later that Lot was spared for Abraham's sake. David's unspoken reasoning is that since he himself was conceived in sin, and the Lord spared his life, that his child conceived by Bathsheba could be spared.

If that were the only issue, then the Lord could well have spared the child, but David had had Bathsheba's rightful husband killed, and he himself had declared that the proper recompense was to restore fourfold for what was taken. And David lost four of his children.

Although the Lord can, and sometimes does, cause a "crop failure" of some of the things we sow, the general rule is that you reap what you sow, and that the harvest is GREATER than the original seed.

There was a CERTAIN supposedly "great" man, who in his old age was in a certain place working with fabric and sewing something together. A visitor recognized who he was and greeted him, but it was as though the man was lost in his work and could not hear. The visitor then asked that "great" man what he was sewing. And not looking up, and with a voice full of bitterness and deep despair, that man said: "I'm not sowing, I'm REAPING!"

The effects of sin are yet with us. In this present life, the Lord can save us from the condemnation of our sins, and give us power to "go, and sin no more:" and we do have a sure hope in Christ; But let no man deceive himself into thinking that he will not continue to reap that which he has sown: until the final harvest in the end.

May the Lord Jesus Christ be more gracious unto us, and precious in our hearts in these last final hours before his glorious return to complete our redemption in power and great glory. Grace, love and tender mercy, encourage your heart for Jesus' sake. Amen. --Richard