Genesis 3
Peace be with you, listening
friends. We greet you in the name of God, the Lord of peace, who wants everyone
to understand and submit to the way of righteousness that He has established,
and have true peace with Him forever. We are happy to be able to return today
to present your program The Way of Righteousness.
In our last program, we saw how Adam and Eve strayed
from the way of God by eating fruit from the tree that God had forbidden. Thus,
man, whom God created in His own image, chose to follow Satan, the enemy of
God. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they rejoiced whenever God came to the garden
to talk with them, but now, when they heard the voice of God, they were afraid
and ashamed and tried to hide from God among the trees of the garden! However,
God pursued Adam and Eve, spoke with them, and declared to them what their sin would bring into the
world: trouble and suffering, thorns and thistles, sickness and death.
Consequently, from that day until today, the shadow of
death hangs over Adam's descendants. All of Adam's children are conceived in
sin and born with an evil nature. Whether we like it or not, we
all share the character of our forefather, Adam. "A rat only
begets that which digs." It is because of Adam's sin that we are all born
sinners. Truly, "an epidemic is not confined to the one from whom it
originates!" {Wolof proverbs} And just as Adam's
sin separated
him from God, so has our sinseparated us from God.
That is what the Scriptures say,
"Sin entered the
world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all
men, because all sinned. (Rom. 5:12) "All have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23) "Your
iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face
from you." (Isa.
59:2)
This message is not pleasant to hear, but that is the
way it is. "Truth is a hot pepper." {Wolof proverb}
Thus, we see how Adam's one sin
separated the whole human race from God. On the day that Adam disobeyed God, Adam
(and the whole human race yet to be born) left the kingdom of light and entered
the kingdom of darkness. They no longer had any share in the Kingdom of God.
Because of their sin, their portion was with Satan, who had taken them as
his captives and slaves. Now, they couldn't hope for anything in this life,
except slavery to sin and fear of death-and in the hereafter, endless
punishment in the eternal fire!
If the Scriptures ended here, we could only close the
book and weep bitterly like someone lost at sea, with no hope of rescue. If God
had not opened a way of salvation to save the children of Adam, we would be
doomed forever! But blessed be the Lord our God, the Scriptures of the Prophets
do not end with the story of Adam's sin. God, who is
great in mercy, has opened for the children of Adam a door of salvation! Thus, the Word of God
says,
"Where sin increased,
[God's] grace increased all the more." (Rom. 5:20) "Do
not be afraid, because I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all
the people!" (Luke 2:10) "For the
grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men!" (Tit. 2:11)
As we have already learned, God is holy and, therefore
must judge sinners. God is righteous and cannot merely "forget" sin.
He must punish every sin. The penalty for sin is death and eternal separation
from God. God never changes and the penalty of sin never changes. However,
today, we will begin to read in the Scriptures how God, the Holy One, designed
{Lit. wove} a plan to
deliver sinners from
the penalty of sin. Thus, we will learn that God is not only the Holy One, but
He is also the Merciful One! God, our Judge, wants to become our
Savior!
Today we will see how, on the day that Adam and Eve
sinned, God began to make known His wonderful plan to save sinners. Let us
continue now in the Torah, in the book of Genesis, so that we might learn about
this Good News. We are reading in chapter 3, verse 15: God said to Satan who
was in the serpent, "I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush
your head, and you will strike his heel."
This difficult verse contains many profound and
important truths which God's prophets would later explain in detail. The
contents of this verse, can be summarized like this: God
was beginning to make known His plan to bring into the world a Savior {or Deliverer} who would redeem the
children of Adam from the dominion of Satan. This is the
first verse that mentions the coming of the holy Redeemer {or Mediator}. In this verse, let us
consider four truths concerning the Redeemer whom God promised to send.
1.) The first truth is this: God was announcing how
this Redeemer would be born of a woman only, that is, a virgin. All
of us have a male and a female parent. However, the Redeemer who was to come,
would be born only of a woman, by the power of God. He would not have an
earthly father. The Savior of the world could not come from Adam, because all
of Adam's descendants are stained by sin. The Savior of sinners had to be
without sin. He had to come forth from God, from heaven. Thus, the first thing
we may learn from this verse is this: God promised a holy Redeemer who would be
the offspring of a woman, but not the offspring of a man.
2.) There is something else that God announced on the
day that Adam and Eve sinned. Concerning the promised Redeemer, God said to
Satan: "You will strike his heel." Thus, God began to announce how Satan
would torment the Savior that God would send from heaven. In coming
lessons, we will see that the prophets foretold how Satan would incite men to
persecute, torture and kill the Redeemer. A stricken Redeemer would be part of
God's plan. In order to bring us back to God, the Savior of the world would
have to die as a sacrifice for sin; the Righteous One dying for us, the
unrighteous. He would willingly lay down His life to pay sin's penalty: death.
3.) The third truth concerning the Redeemer was that
God told Satan, who was in the serpent, that "he (the Redeemer) would
crush his (Satan's) head." That was bad news for Satan, but good news for
whoever wants to be delivered from the power of Satan, sin and hell! Thus, God
began to announce that the Redeemer would, in the end,
defeat the devil and set free the children of Adam who had become
slaves of sin.
4.) Finally, God began to announce that there would be two
lines (groups) of people in the world: The people of Satan and the
people of God. The people of Satan are those who refuse to believe the Word of
God. The people of God are those who believe God's Word and put their trust in
the promised Redeemer. (John 1:9-13)
Thus, on the day that
Adam and Eve sinned, God began to announce His wondrous plan to redeem sinners. In coming programs,
little by little, we will see how all of God's prophets announced the coming of
a holy Savior who would free sinners from the hand of the devil. If what we
have just taught is not yet clear in your mind, do not worry, because as we
progress in our chronological study, things will become clearer. Remember the
(Wolof) proverb which says: "A water pail will find the person who waits
diligently at the well." Are you waiting at the "well" of the
Word of God? Good! God says: "If you look for [the truth]
as for silver, and search for it as for hidden treasure…then you will…find the
knowledge of God!" (Prov. 2:4,5)
Now then, let us finish reading the third chapter of
the first book of the Torah. The Scriptures say:
"The Lord God made
garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said,
'The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be
allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and
live forever.' So the Lord God banished [Adam] from the Garden of Eden to work
the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed
on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing
back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." (Gen. 3:21-24)
That is where the third chapter ends. Before we
conclude today, let us consider some important truths contained in these
verses.
The Scriptures say: "The Lord
God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." Do you remember what
Adam and Eve did after they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? They
wove together fig leaves and wrapped them around their waists in an
attempt to hide their shame before God. Did God accept the clothes they had
made for themselves, the clothes they made with leaves? No, He did not! Why did
God not accept the clothes they made for themselves? Because God wanted to
teach Adam and Eve that He is perfect and cannot accept the imperfect works of man. Concerning
this, the Scriptures say: "All of us have become like
one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." (Isa. 64:6) There is
nothing man can do to cover his sins before God.
However, God did something for man. God
killed some animals,
skinned them, and made clothes of skin for Adam and Eve. Yes, God
made the first animal sacrifice. What a shocking sight for Adam and Eve
as they watched the blood flow out of the animals that God had killed! Through
the shed blood of animals, God wanted to teach Adam and Eve that "the
wages of sin is death," (Rom. 6:23) and that "without the
shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of
sin." (Heb.
9:22) We cannot explain this in detail today, except to say that God's basic
law of forgiveness states: "Without the shedding of
blood there is no forgiveness of sin." The penalty of sin must
be paid. The penalty of sin is death. God can only forgive sins that have been
paid for. A pure and innocent victim must die in the place of the guilty
sinner. This is the only way that God can forgive people of their sins without
compromising His righteousness {Lit. in Wolof: and
still dwell in His righteousness}.
Thus God established animal sacrifices to remind
sinners that the penalty of sin is death. The animal sacrifice symbolized the
holy Redeemer who would come into the world to shed His blood as a payment for
sin. We will learn more about this later. Today, however, let us remember that
God shed the blood of animals to cover the shame of Adam and Eve.
After this, God expelled
Adam and Eve from
the Garden of Paradise in Eden. He placed an angel holding a flaming, flashing
sword to guard the way to the tree of life. Adam and Eve had chosen the way of
death when they ate the fruit that God had forbidden. Consequently, they could
no longer enjoy the blessings of the wonderful Garden of Paradise. We have
already seen how God expelled Lucifer, that is, Satan, from His presence
because of his sin. And now we see that God expelled Adam and Eve because of
their sin. God is the Holy One, and He must punish
all that is unholy.
And so dear friends, let us keep two thoughts in mind: First, God
is the Righteous One.
God cannot tolerate sin. That is why He judged Adam and Eve and expelled them
from the garden Second, God
is the Merciful One.
Adam and Eve did not deserve God's mercy. They only deserved God's judgment.
However, God does not want people to perish. That is why He promised a Savior
who could save sinners from the darkness of the kingdom of Satan, and transfer
them into the light and glory of the Kingdom of God.
Do not be deceived: God's mercy can
never contradict God's righteousness. These two characteristics of God must
operate together. In future lessons, we will see more clearly how God can show
mercy to sinners, without contradicting His righteousness.
Listening friends, this has been your program The
Way of Righteousness.
We have been talking with you about the wonderful promise God made on the day
that Adam and Eve strayed from God's way. We hope that you will keep listening to
these programs until you have come to understand fully God's wonderful promise
about the Redeemer He has sent to save you
from your sins.
Thank you for listening. We invite you to join us for
the next program to learn some important lessons from Adam and Eve's first two
sons: Cain and Abel....
God bless you as you carefully consider what the
Scripture declares, saying:
"Where sin
increased, [God's] grace increased all the more." (Rom. 5:20)
No comments:
Post a Comment