If the problem of all humanity is one of seeking to be good independent of God, what is the solution? The solution is to reverse the process of the Fall. The Fall started when Eve and then Adam distrusted God’s goodness and tried to be independent of God. One reason they fell into this trap was that they trusted their senses more than the Word of God. Genesis 3:6 tells us:
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food…
What happened? She discarded her faith in the invisible Word of God and trusted her senses instead. This is when she actually fell—when she saw that the tree was good. Her great mistake was mistrusting the goodness of God, desiring to be independent of God and relying on the senses rather than on the Word of God.
TRUSTING GOD’S GOODNESS
Here is our first step in reversing the effects of the Fall: we must believe and trust in God’s goodness. I am continually amazed at the number of people I encounter who call themselves Christians but do not genuinely trust God. They really do not believe God will do them good. They believe that if they surrender to God, He’s going to ask something awful of them or allow something terrible to happen.
Ruth and I were once ministering deliverance to a young woman in Munich, Germany. She was a trained nurse, but she had serious demonic problems. Although she really wanted peace with God, she did not want to surrender herself completely to the Lord. Every time we identified a demonic entity afflicting her, she made a bolt for the door. Frequently, we had to block the door so she could not get out. At one point in the process of praying for this woman’s release from demonic torment, she suddenly lost the ability to speak. When that happened, I said, “Now listen, there is only one solution. You have got to surrender to the will of God without knowing what His will is. If you surrender, I want you to put your hands up.”
It must have taken half an hour for her to lift her hands up. In her case, I saw vividly what kind of a fight people encounter when they decide to surrender completely to the will of God. She finally surrendered and received her full deliverance. A little later, she got happily married. We did not promise her a happy marriage—but that is one of the provisions God had in store for her. However, she could not receive it until she trusted God to do what was best for her.
I would estimate that at least twenty percent of professing Christians do not really trust God. They are afraid that if they really surrender to God, He will play a trick on them or send them as a missionary to some dark, foreboding place.
Their basic problem is the same as it was with Eve—mistrust of the goodness of God. There is no way to reverse the process of the fall until you are willing to trust God. It is the only real solution. You must be willing to trust God without knowing what He is going to ask of you. This is the first and most important step.
Many people say, “I’ll trust God if He does this or that.” That is not trust. Trust is surrendering when you do not know what He will do. I have trusted God time and time again for more than fifty years. My testimony and encouragement to you is that He will do better for you than you will do for yourself. We should have no reason not to trust the goodness of God. Why? Because God has already demonstrated His love. As Paul says, He gave Christ to die for our sins (see Rom. 5:8). You need no other proof of God’s love than that great act of mercy and love.
DECLARE YOUR DEPENDENCE
The second step for us in reversing the effects of the Fall is this: we must lay down our independence. If we could only see our demand for independence in the light of full truth, it is both ridiculous and terribly sinful to desire to be independent of God. He is the Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, the Lord of millions of angels, the One who controls the stars, the sea, and the seasons. He runs the universe. In contrast, here we are like a little ant somewhere on the floor saying, “I want to be independent.” If we could only see how absolutely absurd it is, we would soon realize how ridiculous our quest for independence is.
When God has finished with His plan for history, there will be nobody left in heaven or earth who is independent of God. Those who hold on to their independence will end up in outer darkness. There will be no room in this created universe for anything or anybody who wants to be independent of God.
There are only two kinds of creatures who have desired to be independent of God. One group would be the portion of angels who followed Satan. The other was the human race. The rest of the universe is happily dependent on God. The stars and the earth do not want to be independent of God. None of the plants and animals wants to be independent of God. It is silly people like you and me who seek independence. The more you meditate on this fact, the more ridiculous it becomes.
It is a wonder God does not simply put His foot on us and stamp us into the ground. Amazingly, however, God has a special love for the descendants of Adam. Just think of it. We have been a source of problems for thousands of years and we have nothing to commend us to Him. We are not that beautiful; we are not that strong; and we are not that intelligent. For the most part, we have been unthankful, unholy, rebellious, and stupid. Yet, God loves us!
The Bible never explains the love of God. You can look for an explanation from the first page to the last, but you will look in vain. The Bible never explains why God loves people. Yet He does. It is the great unexplained mystery of the universe. However, I want to assure you it is true—God loves people like you and me, even when we have made an awful mess of our lives.
BELIEVING THE WORD
The third step in reversing the process of the Fall is: believing the Word of God more than our own senses. We must reverse Eve’s mistake. She looked at the tree and thought, “Well, that looks good. No matter what God’s Word says about it, I’m going to eat of that tree.”
It is important to remember that we are not necessarily called to understand everything in the Bible—but we are called to believe it. We sometimes tend to approach this concept the wrong way around. We say, we will believe a truth when we see it. However, Scripture tells us just the opposite in John 11:40: “Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’” (NIV).
If we fail to believe God’s Word, it follows that we can no longer trust in God’s goodness. Why? Because we will refuse to believe He is telling us the truth. If He is not telling us the truth and does not have our best interests at heart, then we no longer feel able to live in full dependence on Him.
To summarize, here are the three steps which reverse the Fall: First, we must trust God’s goodness. Second, we must lay down our independence. Third, we must believe the Scripture rather than our senses.