The word of God that gives us life is eternal life and goodness. Therefore, based on His goodness, God told Adam, the first man, not to eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam not to eat the fruit because God knew that when Adam ate the fruit, he would surely die and be punished in hell forever after death. God requested Adam to put his life first of all.
However, Adam neglected the good word of God and ate the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. As a result of the sin, he was destined to perish and be punished eternally in hell. God was looking for Adam when he was afraid and hid from God. God asked Adam, “Where are you, Adam? Why did you eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil that I told you not to eat?”. God asked him like this to save Adam. It was the voice of love.
But Adam didn’t repent of his sin before God who wanted to save him. He rather made an excuse saying, “The woman you put here with me gave me fruit from the tree and I ate it.” If Adam wanted to live, he had to repent saying, “My Lord, I did wrong. I should die for I ate the fruit that you told me not to eat. Please, have mercy on me and save me so I would not die.”
To live, you should repent by confessing your sins to God. To fulfill the goodness of God on you, you should make your way back to obedience to God from disobedience by saying and repenting of what you did wrong.
The happiest thing in the world is to repent sin and be redeemed. By redemption, you were freed from eternal punishment in hell. How delightful it is! It is for having happiness. Why do you feel burdensome for repentance?
Likewise, on the last day, since people don’t like the goodness of God, they don’t accept when others point out their wrongdoings. They even hate this and refuse to repent. Leaving them to do sin is not good. It is good to make them be freed from the last judgment by repentance even by telling them off.
Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon
Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #768
