THE CROSS IN THE GARDEN ~ Lent 1#
Why do all our highest ideals inevitably disappoint us? It happened to God first.
Genesis 3 vividly describes the ‘fall of humanity’. The cunning serpent exposes and manipulates Adam and Eve’s lazy desire to disobey.
Their sinful rebellion is met with God’s swift judgement. Adam and Eve are evicted from the garden. The gate to The Tree of Life is shut and their destiny is death, not life. Most dreadful of all, they are separated from God. Paradise lost.
In chapter 3, God declares a significant division. He decrees there will be tension between men and women, and a rupture in humanity’s relationship, now with a hostile world and a 'hidden' God.
Dark and tragic as Genesis 3 is, death and judgement is not the last word. God’s first word of judgement is a curse upon the snake and the announcement that there will be hostility between two offspring: those whose father is the serpent, and the faithful children of Adam and Eve.
God is announcing a division that will reverberate throughout history. There are two groups of people: the righteous and the wicked. There will be a remnant, the faithful seed of Adam who trusts and obey the Lord. But, they will live alongside the seed of the serpent, who are wicked and persecute the righteous.
One day, the perfectly righteous son of Adam, the 2nd Adam will arrive. He will come to make right all that was ruined by the sin of the first Adam. AND so in v15 the Bible announces satan's loss, the Gospel begins.
... he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:15b)
Now, the way is open to eternal life in the presence of our God. Soon He will return us to an even more wonderful paradise: a new heaven and a new earth, the two becoming one.
How the gracious God accomplishes this saving work is the remainder of the Bible story.
#Today's SoulSnack of Lenten Devotions was originally published by Youthworks Media and written by Rev Mike Raiter of The Centre for Biblical Preaching.
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