[color=000000]While reading from Chambers this,
"God did not create Adam holy, He created him innocent, without self-consciousness (as we understand the word) before God; the one thing Adam was conscious of was God and only of himself in relation to the Being Whose commands he was to fulfil; the main trend of his spirit was towards God."
the BELOW thoughts occurred to me:
Is innocence, as in lack of self-conscientiousness; viewed as holiness by God? Can the Holiness of God to be explained as being absolute “selflessness” that absolutely forbids on pain of death, “selfishness” as in self-conscientiousness, to stand in His presence? If this is a true view of things then our battle that we overcome, takes on a far greater dimension when saying we must die to self.
Jesus said: “Suffer the little [innocent] children to come unto me for such is the Kingdom of God.” And “It would be better that a millstone be hung around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him who harms one these [innocent] little ones”. To violate innocence is to violate holiness? Is that what Adam did that made us all unholy before the Lord and removed us from His presence?
We know that sin cannot stand in the presence of God who is Holy. Can sanctification, by the Blood of the Lamb, be viewed as the gift of that which restores innocence to the justified thus making them holy unto the Lord? Can being made innocent by the Blood of the Lamb alone, secure my presence in God. In all of the above I am seeing innocence as having a greater weight than what we have supposed, in what it stands for, what was lost when Adam transgressed and most importantly what is restored to us by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.[/color]
Chambers, O. (1996, c1943). Bringing sons into glory : Studies in the life of our Lord. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott.