Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement. (Hebrews 6:1-2)

When Eve ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she was saying to God, “I don’t trust you.

“I don’t trust that you have my best interests at heart.

“I don’t trust that even though I can’t understand what is going on, you have a good plan and that my good is part of your plan.

“I don’t trust that you love me.”

Adam followed her lead, ate some of the fruit and they took the first step toward looking-out-for-number-one over against trusting-in-the-real-Number-One. In retrospect it was a very stupid thing to do.

I mean, think about it. On what basis did Eve come to the conclusion that God was not trustworthy? He had provided her with a husband, a fantastic piece of real-estate, all the food she could eat, the fruit of all the other trees and co-rule over the earth and its animals. Where was the evidence of something underhand going on?

The serpent provided it. Eve had not seen the Lord’s face as he instructed Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She had not heard the tone of his voice. The serpent took advantage and provided his own interpretation - not of the command, but of the reason behind the command, an interpretation that sounds a lot like Satan’s own belief about God.

“He’s trying to keep you down.”

How often have we put our own interpretations on events? The interpretation we end up with will always depend on what our beliefs are about the people involved. Sometimes those beliefs are justified, sometimes they are not.

In the same way, the Bible provides a true account of his dealings with us, but we can read it and find his actions open to interpretation. So God has shown us what he is like once and for all.  We understand the character of God by looking to the cross of Christ.

It is at the cross that we can see both the anger and the compassion of God toward self-centred, evil people. We can see his uncompromising commitment to what is right and the unfathomable lengths to which he’ll go to make bring those who are all wrong back to him. We can see his love for people who hate him and refuse to trust his direction.

If God will go so far as to send his Son as fully God and fully man to endure abuse and die for our betrayal, what reason have we to believe that he is holding out on us when he offers us such an amazing salvation? Even though we don’t always understand what is going on we can know that God is working everything out for our own good.

Ignore the devil. Have faith in God because he is trustworthy. The cross confirms it.

The essence of sin is replacing God with someone or something else at the centre of our lives. We do that when we don’t trust God. Ask him for greater and greater faith to live trusting him and what he has done for us through Jesus.

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