Why are things the way they are today? Why do we see so much madness around us? Why do we see man intent on hurting and killing? What happened to God's good creation? We happened. Mankind fell. We sinned before a holy God and we are reaping the consequences.
Genesis 3:1-24 tells us just what happened in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were created good. They did not have a sin nature as we do today. They lived in a perfect environment. There was only one prohibition given to them. They were not to eat from one particular tree in the middle of the garden.
Enter the snake. Moses describes him as the most crafty from among the creatures which God had created. This creature began to talk with Eve. From the context we know that Adam was there with her. But, for some reason, the snake speaks to Eve and tempts her. He asks her what God really had commanded. Amazingly, Eve gets it wrong. She adds to God's command and changes the time frame for the punishment. The snake pounces on this and tells her that death is not something she needs to worry about and that God is holding out on her. He convinces her to eat. She thinks she is doing something good. Adam ate with her.
At this point, they both knew good and evil, but in a way God never wanted them to. They knew evil because they had done evil. There were consequences for their actions. They were forced out of the garden. Their relationship was broken. They would both have pain and toil. Yet there was hope. God provided clothing for them and a promise of the eventual defeat of the snake, Satan.
As a result of Adam's sin, we all now have a sin nature. We all are guilty because of Adam's sin. We sin because we are sinners and have been since birth. The only solution to all of this is through Jesus Christ. He came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died in the sinner's place upon the cross to pay for sin. Through faith in him, God will forgive sin and give the believer Christ's righteousness. Even before Adam sinned, God had planned to overturn sin.
If you want to see the sermon, it is here.
No comments:
Post a Comment