A broken relationship with God

‘There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 16:25

It didn’t take long for the first humans to disobey God. The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve lived in a perfect paradise called the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-9). They were tempted by Satan to break the one and only rule God had given them. The single rule was that they must not eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:16-17).

You might know the story. Adam and Eve were tempted and failed to keep the single rule that God had given them. The failure of Adam and Eve changed the relationship between God and man forever (Genesis 3:6).

As humans we are all tainted by our “sin nature.” This is a problem all of us are born with. We all come into this world with a propensity to rebel against God. It’s true of the best of us, it’s true of the worst of us, and it’s true of everyone in between (Psalm 19:2-3). We all have a sin problem we can’t overcome. This blocks us from having a relationship with God (Romans 3:23). The Bible tells us this is an insurmountable problem non of us can overcome by ourselves (Galatians 3:22).

People who are living their lives outside of a relationship with God often have a sense that something very important is missing in their lives. This makes them feel unsettled, insecure, and even hopeless. Some have described this as a feeling like they have a hole in their heart. This broken relationship with God is marked by feelings that include a great fear of death, a sense that life is meaningless, feeling unlovable, unforgivable etc. Many of the most serious problems people deal with in their lives are the result of their attempts to escape from these depressing feelings. Drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, and overeating offer momentary relief to this suffering, but in the end they only make things worse.

The Bible tells us we all find ourselves on a path headed for destruction (Proverbs 16:25). It tells us the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). The idea here is one of spiritual death, an eternal separation from God. Hell is a Biblical reality. Jesus spoke of it frequently during His ministry. It is a fearsome place of punishment and torment and a place of great regret. This may seem harsh and politically incorrect, but this is very clearly what Jesus taught (Mark 9:43).

Sadly, this is where the search for God ends for some people. they reject the idea that all of us have an unresolved sin problem. They don’t feel like sinners themselves and in fact consider themselves to be “good.”