Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

The knowledge of good and evil

By Peter Sellick - posted Tuesday, 13 November 2018


The account of the Yahwist is a condemnation of the kind of religion that attempts to identify with God, to be justified before God, or imagine ourselves to be on God's side. This is only surprising because we live in an atmosphere of uncritical acceptance of religion in general. Here we find "one of the great religions of the world" cutting the ground from under religion. The temptation of the serpent is, after all, "to be like God." Is not much religion an attempt to become something more than a death bound creature?

The first couple are expelled into our world, a world of difficulty and hardship and a world that has fallen from the good creation in that not everything in it is good. It is so, not because evil was an ingredient in its creation but because Adam and Eve broke the unspoken covenant with God that He was God and they were His creatures and so tipped the whole of creation into the chaos we observe all around us. In this situation of brokenness, that is our world, we need to discern between good and evil, a task obviously unnecessary when living in the garden.

However this may be, both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament look to the future to a new creation that harks back to the original in which the God will again be intimate with His creature and death will be no more. While the prophetic books of the Hebrew Scriptures look to this in hope, the NT understands this new creation to be brought about by the ministry, death and resurrection of Christ. Christ is the apocalyptic, the displacement of the old creation with the new in which the discernment of good and evil will be unnecessary as it was in the Garden of Eden. The law was temporary. As Paul writes:

Advertisement

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.Gal. 3:23-27.

A church that focuses on morality, a juridical church, misses the point of the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. For we are caught between two worlds, the old world of sin, death and alienation and the new world, even now breaking in amongst us, of grace and completeness. We live our lives with our eyes on our brokenness but with the hope that the universe is being transformed and the "next world" is on the horizon.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

54 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Peter Sellick an Anglican deacon working in Perth with a background in the biological sciences.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Peter Sellick

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Peter Sellick
Article Tools
Comment 54 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy