An important part of what makes us human is that we, through our first parents, Adam and Eve, were endowed with the capacity of volition. This means we possess the power to make choices, to exercise our will, to do a thing or not do a thing. This freedom of choice is a necessary component of our humanness. But, with the capacity to choose, there are equally necessary consequences resulting from those choices. Actions are always attended by results, good or bad. We live in a cause and effect world. It works that way universally. There are no effects without a preceding cause. Combine this volition, this power to make choices, with the reality of our innately deposited intuition, and what do you get? You get a being that has the power to make choices coupled with the intuitive knowledge of right and wrong. Part of our humanity, and a major way we differ from animals, is that we have, by intuition, a sense of morality animals do not have. We have an innate sense of right and wrong.
Human intuition is not dependent upon education or experience. Intuition, the sense of right and wrong, dwells within the human spirit along with numerous other non-physical components that contributes to our humanness. God placed them there in our first parents, and, apparently, provided the ability for them to be transferred from one generation to the next, much as he has done with the physical. But, how He has done that, we have no idea. We conclude it is so based upon logic and inference, particularly from Romans, chapter 1. We would be the first to admit we may simply have this all wrong, but, in attempting to put what we do know into the mix and extrapolate from there, this, at least for the present, seems to be the most likely scenario. Thus, when our parents, Adam and Eve, parents of all humanity, chose or exercised their volition to disobey the Creator, they knew they were doing wrong. And, as actions have consequences, their first was guilt. Guilt is emotional pain caused by the violation of a known standard.
They also experienced fear, which was the reason they hid from God rather than face Him. Guilt produced by moral wrongdoing seeks to avoid negative consequences of punishment, so hiding was a predictable course of action. When one considers the amazing impact their sin had upon all subsequent generations, how it resulted in the degradation and death of every person in every generation since, we get some appreciation of how utterly ugly sin really is. And, if there is anything modern man has little sense of, it is this: human sin and the chaos and corruption it brings upon all of humanity. Whatever could be done to remedy this? We shall see, and we are eager to share it with you. God, in His grace, has provided the only remedy.
CC-09-06
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