Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24)
Forgiveness, we saw, operates in the realm of sin, as the remedy. Sin causes at least two consequences - an indebtedness to the one sinned against and a resulting alienation from that person. Hopefully it is already clear that forgiveness has to deal with both the debt and the alienation of sin, or it is not really forgiveness at all. Last time, we looked at the indebtedness aspect, so we'll turn our attention in this post to the alienation/enmity piece.
It's not hard to find places in Scripture where the alienation produced by sin is on display. Our passage above is without doubt the place to start, in every sense. It describes the first sin and its results in horrific detail - results that every one of us still lives with on a daily basis.
Adam and Eve were deceived into believing that God had lied about the death they would experience if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But God never lies, so when they disobeyed God, their spiritual and physical death became certainties. The spiritual dimension of Adam and Eve's death was implemented the same day, when, as enemies of God, they are driven out from His presence in the garden and banished from returning to eat of the tree of life. They would later also die physically.
Everyone entering the world since Adam sinned has been born spiritually dead - separated from God and at enmity with Him due to their identification with Adam in his sin. They are destined to die physically and to face eternal separation from God - the second death.
Beginning with the passage above, the solemn truth resounds throughout the Scriptures: "Sin Separates Man from God". A few examples will suffice.
Although God came to dwell with His people in the tabernacle, He was not accessible to them. The symbol of His presence, the Ark of the Covenant, was placed behind a curtain in the Holy of Holies so that no-one would see it. Even on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest had to burn incense so that as he entered behind the curtain to sprinkle sacrificial blood on the most holy things, the smoke would prevent him from seeing the Ark. Sacrifices were continually made to make the people outwardly clean so that God's anger wouldn't break out against them. They spoke of the indebtedness of the people to God on account of sin, but the fact that they had to be made over and over again showed that they never discharged that debt. So in truth the Ark of the Covenant - the symbol of God's presence with His people - really served to remind them how separated they were from Him on account of sin. And although God was approachable by the High Priest in intercession on behalf of the people, He made it very clear that if they did not keep His requirements, He would not hear their prayers:
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2).
The psalmist and Solomon felt the same thing in terms of his own prayers to God:
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. (Psalm 66:18)
If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. (Proverbs 28:9)
After his adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband killed, David well understood that the close relationship he had enjoyed with God had been badly injured and was in danger of being permanently ended:
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:11-12)
And when the nation of Israel rejected God and defiled His holy place, and His patience was exhausted because they would not respond to His calls through the prophets to return to Him, He sent them out of His presence again - they were carried off into exile (events that are reminiscent of the Garden of Eden scene in the passage with which we opened this study):
Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight. (2 Kings 17:19-20)
For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. (2 Kings 24:20)
And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. (Jeremiah 7:13-15)
So sin (which results in incalculable indebtedness to God) excludes mankind from His presence. Why is this the case - why does God cast those who sin out of His sight? In short, it is because of His spotless holiness, the unspeakable corruption and vileness that is sin, and the infinite magnitude of mankind's offences against Him. Sin is utterly and literally repulsive to God - He cannot be in its presence at all without all His righteous anger and holy wrath being provoked and directed at it in full force. So a sinner has effectively embraced all that stands in opposition to the character and disposition of God. Clearly, such a person cannot come into God's presence while his or her debt to Him is outstanding.
Why, though, are there impacts for human relationships also, and not just for our relationship with God? There are at least two reasons. The first is that our sin makes all of us fundamentally selfish. When someone sins against us, we are quick to take offense, to become resentful and to bear a grudge. We still bear the tarnished image of God, but we have delusional and sin-twisted concepts of our own importance and what others should do for us. Consequently, we push them away from us and regard them as enemies.
The second reason is that Satan is still active to stir up our natural inclination to sin. He is intent on working as much ruination and disharmony in God's kingdom as he can, and we all too easily fall into his traps and start accusing others of not according us the position of importance we think they ought to. Thus, sin makes friends into enemies, tears families apart, drives a wedge between those who have been close in any and all ways. Sin is toxic.
And the concept of separation from sin and from temptations to sin continues for us as believers. We are told, as holy people, to separate ourselves from this world and from those who love sin:
Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, (2 Cor 6:16)
And the church is commanded to expel from her midst those who continue in a life of sin without repentance - since there is no evidence in their lives to sustain their profession of saving faith in Christ:
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matthew 18:17)
God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:13)
(for addition references on alienation from and its opposite - peace and reconciliation - see Titus 3:3, Eph 2:14-16, Col 1:19-21 and Rom 5:1+11)
So after laying this foundation, how does this play into the subject of forgiveness?
It seems that it is the obligation or indebtedness brought about by sin that gives rise to the alienation/enmity between the sinner and the one offended. That being the case, if the debt is discharged, there is no longer a basis for the enmity. So once I have blotted out their debt, I cannot continue to be alienated from them as enemies.
Certainly, this is how it happens between God and us. As long as our sins are written in our record of debt to Him, we are necessarily at odds with Him. But once our record of sin is wiped out at the cross, we are made alive, and we are warmly and lovingly welcomed as God's adopted children into His family.
