The gist of the story is this:

Adam was created and placed in the Garden of Eden to watch over it. God told Adam he must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then God created a companion for him out of one of his ribs. His new companion, Eve, listened to a deceitful and crafty creature, a serpent, who told her to go ahead and eat the fruit from that tree that God told her not to eat from. He said God was only kidding with that “death” comment. The snake then laughed, “Ssss, Ssss, Sssss” and said, “Can't you tell when God is joking?”

Eve bought this snake's story (without really checking his sources) and tried some of the fruit. She liked it so much, she thought her husband, Adam, ought to try some. After they introduced themselves to this new taste sensation, they both suddenly looked down and discovered they were naked! Where were their clothes? Where were their closets? When God, who was taking His afternoon walk through the Garden, found that they had, indeed, eaten of the forbidden fruit, He said, “That's it! No more soup for you! Everybody out of the pool! It hurts you more than it hurts Me that I have to do this!” or something to that effect.

God's punishment for this infraction of the rules was that He had them and all their ancestors, evicted. From then on, they each had their crosses to bear. When Eve had children, it was very easy to forget her Lamaze training as she cried out in pain and Adam had to leave his cush position as manager of Eden and go out and get a job tilling the land and hoping for rain for his crops. “Life is a bummer, and then you die,” he was heard to mutter.

I hope you'll excuse the levity. It is one of those things where if you don't laugh, you'll surely cry. And, in truth, the decision Adam and Eve made those many years ago has caused innumerable tears and heartbreak but, one of the reasons we can laugh now is because Jesus Christ has come!

The decision they made to go ahead and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which was the first big sin, has been covered by the blood of Jesus on the cross. Isn't that wonderful? So, combining Jesus' teaching that we should not judge along with the grace of His blood which He shed on the cross for everyone's sins, we can know with certainty the following truth: If we see people in sin (by judging them), we can stop our sin of judging them by looking to the cross and knowing that through Jesus Christ their sins are forgiven. Because if at any time they receive Him as their Savior, either now or in the future, grace prevails. Consequently, our obsession with correcting, or finding faults (judging others) is forgiven as well. This is the way Jesus' salvation works. It cannot work any other way because we are disobeying one of Christ's commands (to not judge) otherwise.

It is a simple fact which I reiterate: We must stop munching out on the fruit of judgment now and look to what Jesus did on the cross instead. Jesus saves US and by our relinquishment of judgment, the eyes of those whom we have judged will be liberated to focus on the cross. There, their judgments, too, are given up as they become covered in the blood, achieving at last, victory in Jesus. Will we see the results of our relinquishment of judgment? Maybe, maybe not. Our desire to “be God,” in any case, must be halted.

As we focus on Him, and the blood He shed on the cross for us, we are inevitably compassionate and loving to those in the world who have not understood that our sins are forgiven through Jesus. And, through us (because we have accepted Him into our hearts), Jesus continues to forgive sins by helping us overlook them in others by extending unconditional love. That means we no longer focus on other people's splinters in their eyes but instead request of Jesus the removal of our planks of judgment from our eyes (which He commanded that we do).

Once our judgment is gone and we no longer are tempted by Satan to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we become the bearers of Christ's light. We join with Christ in His proclamation that He did not come to condemn the world but to save it. So we, no longer condemning the world and those in it, become a servant of His as He saves the world. We can't help Him if we are continually judging His children, now can we?

When His problem children taste the rotten fruit of judgment and condemnation, coming from our hearts and minds and spilling out from our tongues, is it any wonder that they run away, screaming into the night? Then we, filled with anger, shout curses to them as they run, “happy” at last to have put them in their place. In our vain imaginations, we think we are shaking the dust from our feet—glad to be done with one who refused to hear our good news. But wait. Why, then, are OUR hearts so labored and our countenance so distraught as we kick the sinners out of town? Shouldn't we be joyful? We won, didn't we? Oh, what a pitiful, pitiful extension we offer the world of the work our Lord did upon the cross for all of us. Let's repent from this approach.

What an exciting time this is, now, as we each take up our individual crosses, never forgetting the cross Jesus bore for us, and follow Jesus into heaven. What a happy world this can turn out to be as we Christians take God's Word seriously and forgive others as He forgave us from the cross. Jesus' Golden Rule applies here as well. If we want to be forgiven then we must forgive others.

Yes, it is true. We are spit on and cursed and made to feel like dirt, but because Jesus forgave us from the cross, we must remember to forgive those who treat us this way. Again, there is really no other way around God's plan of salvation. Christ's blood is the key! And as circumstances cause our blood to figuratively or literally flow, we understand that our blood is mixed with the sacred blood Jesus shed on the cross. We, then, joyously find that His resurrection becomes our resurrection as well. And Jesus and His Bride rise up in glory to live forever with the Father in the Kingdom of heaven. Praise God for this!