The Absolute Value

As humans, we place value on various things. And in doing so, we take after our Creator God who places various levels of value on the things which He has created. And God, who is love, has placed great value upon humanity, whom He created in His own image. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, showed the high value He places on us when He bled and died for us on the cross.

The difference between God and us is that He is the infinite Creator of everything that exists. He is the Maker and Owner of the universe. And so only He has the authority to determine the absolute value of anything. In fact, apart from God, nothing has any real value. He Himself is the Absolute Value, from which all real value is derived. And here, I am using the term "Absolute Value" in a slightly different way than it is used in algebra. I mean that the Creator is the Fountain from which all real value springs. He is the One who is infinitely valuable above all things. If it were not for God, nothing would exist. And without Him, there can be no real value in anything.

"Know that the Lord, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture."

(Psalm 100:3; emphasis added).

But because of our fallen, sinful nature, we humans often place false value on things, or we value things more than they should be valued. And it is a great sin to value anything more than God Himself, the Absolute Value from which all true value is derived. "Idolatry" is what we call the sin of valuing anything over, or in place of, the one true and living God. And the object of such false value is called an "idol".

Writing to the church at Philippi, the apostle Paul describe how he used to value his accomplishments and his position as a Pharisee. He followed all the dos and don'ts of the religious law; but he didn't know that true righteousness comes from being reconciled with God by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. The whole reason that we, as human beings, even have such concepts as those of right and wrong, and love and goodness, is that we are created by, and in the image of our holy God who is love. If we are not at peace with our Creator, everything else is meaningless.

But when Paul was confronted by the Person of Jesus, he became reconciled to God through Christ, and learned to honestly say "Yes, everything else is worthless when compared to the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the Law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith." (Philippians 3:8-9).

What is it that we value? Fun times? Euphoria? Sweet music? Power? Prestige? Those things may not be bad, in and of themselves. But when we place a higher value on them than on being in harmony with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, we are sinning. In fact, having a relationship with Christ in this fallen, sinful world may cost us the comforts, and pleasures of this world. 

In fact Christ calls His followers to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him (Luke 9:23). And it is by God's grace, through Jesus Christ, that we are able to do that; turning away from our fallen, sinful nature in order to live in harmony with the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). And like the apostles and many other followers of Christ, we learn to value our Creator and Savior above everything else; even our mortal lives in this world.

Garden Paths

The Beautiful Garden Path to Destruction

I'm a little puzzled because I could almost swear that in my first reading of the Old Testament Prophets, in 1999, I read a verse in which God described His wayward people as following "beautiful garden paths to destruction". Those precise words are etched in my memory. In  2005, I even wrote a song lyric based on those words.

The Song of the Serpent imagines the devil saying "And I disguise the road to Hell with pretty pink roses and daffodils". But presently when I search the online Bible, even using the translation that I was using at that time, I can not find any verse in the O.T. Prophets or any other part of the Bible that uses the exact words "beautiful garden paths to destruction".

But there are a few verses that, when put together, match the idea. 

"You will be ashamed of your idol worship in groves of oaks. You will blush because you worshiped in gardens dedicated to idols" (Isaiah 1:29; New Living Translation).

"For the leaders of the people have misled them. They have led them down the path of destruction" (Isaiah 9:16).

"All day long I open my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes. All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens. They burn incense on pagan alters. At night they go out among the graves, worshiping the dead" (Isaiah 65:2-4; NLT).

"Those who 'consecrate' and 'purify' themselves in a sacred garden with its idol in the center - feasting on pork and rats and other detestable meats - will come to a terrible end" (Isaiah 66:17; NLT).

So I guess the words that I remember are actually a paraphrase of my own, made by combining various verses when I was reading the book of Isaiah for the first time. Nevertheless, I vividly remember the exact words "beautiful garden paths to destruction". 

And sin is like that, you know. It's like a beautiful garden path to destruction. Lust, greed, godlessness, idolatry, wickedness of every kind can look very attractive. But these things lead to the destruction of the soul.

It's a path that began in the Garden of Eden, where humanity fell into sin. And death came by sin. From that day, history has been a litany of human beings setting up Sin as an idol in their hearts. The idolatrous gardens that Isaiah railed against, though literal, can represent human sin in general. 

Nevertheless God has been working all along to reconcile sinners to Himself.

The Garden Path to Redemption

In the Garden Eden, humanity fell into sin. But the Son of God took a garden path of His own. Though He had no sin of His own He bore our sin upon Himself. He could do this because while He is the sinless Son of God, He also became the Son of Man when He was incarnated and born as the human son of the virgin Mary (John 1:1-14). 

Far down the line from Eden, Jesus came to another garden. Just outside Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, was the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus was greatly troubled because of what lay in store. Death was coming for Him. He prayed to the Father that if possible, the "cup of sorrow" would pass Him by. But He ended His prayer by saying "nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done". And in His distress He began to sweat blood (Matthew 26:36-39; Luke 22:44). The full weight of all human sin was upon Him. 

The next day, Jesus was crucified. Then He was taken down from the cross, and placed in a garden tomb (John 19:41). Jesus remained in the garden tomb that Friday night, through Saturday and into the "wee early hours" of Sunday morning. Then, angels came from the Father into the garden and rolled the stone away from the tomb. And the Son of God rose up to life. 

He conquered death. And because He conquered death, whoever trusts in Him, "though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25; King James Version).

Conclusion

In the Garden of Eden the first man sinned, leading to death (Romans 5:12). In The Garden of Gethsemane, the Son of God and Man took our sin upon Himself and trembled at the approach of death. And out from the garden tomb, He step forth victorious over death, having paid the price for sins not His own (Romans 6:23; Isaiah 53).