The following is an abbreviated summary of a post at Transformed Theology on the subject of Total Separation which can be read in its entirety BY CLICKING HERE.
When Adam sinned his sin was not imputed to mankind. Mankind did not die in Adam’s sin. Adam was banned from the Garden of Eden, which represented God’s perpetual presence. As a result, every person who has been born of Adam was born outside of Eden and outside God’s perpetual presence. God created Adam and placed him in the garden where He could meet every single need that Adam had. Because Adam was in God’s presence, every provision that God had was available to Adam. When he sinned, God put Adam out of the garden and away from His perpetual presence. Because God is the source of life, being banned from God’s presence and withdrawn from God’s provisions was in effect death for Adam. This state of separation from God’s perpetual presence is the root cause of sin in mankind because God’s purpose for creating man was to be the source of life for him. In fact, God’s desire to bless man may well be the key to understanding what it is that brings glory to God. God is glorified when He is able to do in us and with us all that He has planned to do, which will make our lives their absolute fullest. As long as man is separated from God’s presence, nothing he does will bring honor and glory to God because God is not present and His provisions for man are limited. Anything that falls short of God’s glory is defined as sin.
In the Old Testament, God seeks to solve the separation problem by calling a nation of people unto Himself and seeking to be their God and wanting them to be His people. God protects Israel and provides for them and gives them His commandments and promises to bless them if they will just honor Him and keep His commandments. Israel does not keep God’s commandments. So God tells Moses to make a tabernacle and the tabernacle itself becomes a symbol of God’s presence with His people. His shekinah glory is connected to the tabernacle and various aspects of the tabernacle itself prove to the people that God’s presence is with them. Israel still is disobedient and rebellious. God being with His people was not enough.
So God sends His Son in the form of human flesh as the Word became flesh and in Jesus God cures man’s separation problem. Jesus endured temptation and fulfilled the Law and became the sinless sacrifice for the sins of the world. He was crucified on the cross and buried in a borrowed tomb and 3 days later was bodily resurrected and then later bodily ascended into heaven. God made Jesus both Lord and Savior and He is preparing a place called heaven for all who make Jesus the same in their hearts and in their lives. God has made a way for all to come to Him by believing in Jesus and in doing so, by coming to God in repentance and faith, believing that God is everything that His Word reveals about Him and that He will do everything he says in His Word He will do, the Bible promises that God will hear his prayer and will forgive his sin. When an individual places his faith and trust in Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in his heart and God’s perpetual presence is forever joined with the individual. This presence solves man’s separation problem with God’s perpetual presence and sets the stage for the death of the old man and the sin nature and the new birth of the new man who has a new heart and is set to begin the transformation of having the mind of Christ.
There is one other aspect of this new man and new found solution to the separation problem and that is seen in the practice of prayer. Prayer allows us to come into God’s special presence. Prayer allows us to be as close to God as we can possibly be at any given moment in our lives. As we come into His presence, we are most likely to experience His power and His provisions and God is once again allowed to do for us what only He can do. He is glorified as we allow Him to be God once again in our lives. Very quickly, why does being a Christian not free us completely from sin in our lives?
It does not do so because we do not do as Paul said, and “pray without ceasing.” Even as a Christian and even with the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, we still have this old nature that seeks to be in control of our lives and wants to do what seems right in our own eyes. God’s plan all along was simply to be obedient to His Word no matter what because that is what brings His life into our lives and that makes our lives the absolute best that we can be. The separation problem is the root problem of all sin. While correcting the separation problem does not guarantee the absence of sin; the separation problem does guarantee the presence of sin.
A person who is once born dies twice. A person who is twice born only dies once. The person who is once born never corrects the separation problem that Christ came to correct. The person who is twice born has been born again and the separation problem is corrected in his heart and will be ultimately glorified and that glorified state will result in a state of eternal bliss that will be characterized once again by God’s perpetual presence in heaven.
SBC and Calvinism 