This a.m., wondering if an underlying sense of guilt is not the real issue that corrupts our ways, and in our brokenness, even our religion reinforces our guilt?
"Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption!
Isaiah 1:4 NIV
"Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted." Is. 53:4 NKJV
We still today consider him smitten, afflicted by an angry God...He was God!
“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord . “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Isaiah 1:18 NIV
We have forever struggled with guilt, thus the garden story. The beauty of scripture is that it actually captures who we are, good, bad and ugly, while we attempt to capture who God is! God speaks, man writes, and in doing so, too often has transferred that brokenness to God. We then use scripture to reinforce that brokenness through our best attempts at religion.
Fortunately, there is Christ, a contrast between man's image of God and who God truly is! God is love, that simple!
Just being honest with doctrine after 50 years in scripture.