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Chapter 2—The Sinner’s Need of Christ
Adam and Eve were created with perfect minds and noble pow-
ers. Their thoughts were pure and their aims were holy. But when
they chose to disobey God, their thoughts were changed. Love for
self took the place of love for God. Sin made them so weak that
they could not by themselves resist the power of evil. They were
Satan’s slaves and would have been slaves forever if God had not
given them help.
Satan wanted to spoil the plan God had when He created men
and women. He wanted to fill the world with trouble and death.
Then he would point to all this evil and say that God was to blame
because He had created human beings.
Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they enjoyed talking with
Him. They were happy to be with Him, for “he is the key that opens
all the hidden treasures of ... wisdom and knowledge.”
Colossians
2:3
. But after they sinned, they did not find happiness in being holy,
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and they tried to hide from God.
Sinners today do the same. Because they do not love the things
God loves, they do not enjoy being with Him or talking to Him in
prayer. If God let them enter heaven, they would not be happy there.
They would not enjoy being with God or spending time with the
holy angels.
Unselfish love rules in heaven. Everyone there will love God
because He loves them. But God’s love would find no response
in a sinner’s heart. The sinner’s thoughts and ways would be very
different from those of the sinless people who will live in heaven,
and he would be unhappy. He would want to hide from Jesus, the
light and center of heaven’s joy.
Sinners are not kept out of heaven by a divine order. They are
shut out by their own unfitness to live there. The glory of God would
be to them a burning fire. They would want to die so that they would
not have to see the face of Jesus, who died to save them.
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