Separation part 1
I really don't like this idea that we seem to have that sin separates us from God. And you all know that my definition of sin is "unbelief." So I guess in THAT sense sin, or unbelief, is the only thing that COULD separate you (IN YOUR OWN MIND) from God. Colossians 1:21 says it like this, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." Right there is the problem, and the solution. WE were God's enemies IN OUR MINDS. He was never our enemy. He never has, and never will, separate from us. In fact, Jesus promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us. So. We need to go all the way back to the garden of Eden to see what would really happen. Adam and Eve disobeyed God--even though I think God was really giving them a warning more than He was giving them a command--and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Then this happened: "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, becuase I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?" (Genesis 3:8-11). Even though Adam and Eve ate from the tree of death... God continued to treat them as He always had. BUT THEY HID FROM GOD! Nothing had changed on God's end but everything had changed on man's end. Because man's natural eyes had been opened and his spiritual eyes had been closed. Man was hiding and scared because all of a sudden he knew he was naked, and he was ashamed. But God didn't care about man's nakedness. Man was naked the day before and God didn't care. It wasn't until MAN started to care about things that God never cared about that we really started to get ourselves into trouble--and NOT into trouble with GOD, into trouble with our own selves! Nakedness wasn't a problem for God until it was a problem for man. And then, if we continued the story in Genesis, we would see that God didn't punish our nakedness. He gave us skins of an animal (a Lamb, perhaps?) in order to cover our nakedness. Again: Not because HE had a problem, but because WE had a problem. We were alienated and enemies in our minds... and He reconciled us to Himself. WE put separation (or the false idea of separation) in between us and God... and He came and got rid of it. He rolled away the stone, and nailed the Law to the cross because it was contrary to us and against us. He did everything that was necessary in order for us to understand that there IS no separation. He's not mad at us, and He's not keeping us at arm's length. He's mad ABOUT us, and His arms are open wide (as they were on the cross) in an eternal, everlasting, embrace of abundant, Resurrection Life!