IT STARTED IN A GARDEN
The
Plan of Salvation
In our opening chapter, we
looked at the creation of man and how he was made in the image and according to
the likeness of God.
Then God said, "Let Us make
man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let
them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the
cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth."
And God created man in His own
image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(Genesis 1:26-27).
Man is not the first to have
been created. By the time that we read
of his creation, some time has passed.
He is created into a world in which exist all manner of animals and fish
and birds. He isn’t the first in the
order of creation. Indeed, he is the
last. But he is not the last in
importance. Instead, his creation is
described in a way that indicates that he stands at the pinnacle of creation.
In what way was man created
in the image and likeness of God? There
are many that we could imagine, but the context suggests only one way - the
area of rulership. This is seen in verse
28.
And God blessed them; and God
said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and RULE
over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28).
There is a sense in which man
stands with God over all of the rest of creation. He is to the rest of creation what God is to
man. He has authority over creation. He has been given the right of
rulership. We could diagram it like
this.
|
God Man_____ Land Animals Fish Birds Earth |
God____ Man Land Animals Fish Birds Earth |
As God was sovereign over all
that He had created, so now man has been placed into a position of relative
sovereignty over all that is upon the earth.
Man is a wondrous
creature. He was created to be lord over
the earth. That is the good news. The bad news is that he gave up his sovereignty. This action began with a warning. You are probably familiar with the
story. God created the first man and put
him into a luscious garden with plenty of food and water and a companion fitted
for him. There was only one condition.
And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, “from any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the
day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17).
This condition gave man the
freedom to choose for God or against God.
He could obey and live or he could disobey and die. Genesis 3 tells the story of what man did
with that freedom.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any east of the field which the Lord God
had made. And he said to the woman,
“Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
And the woman said to the serpent,
“From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from
the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You
shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’”
And the serpent said to the woman,
“You surely shall not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will
be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was
desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also
to her husband with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves loin coverings. (Genesis 3:1-7).
There are several things
which we ought to note from this passage.
First of all, notice that the temptation came from an outside
source. There was nothing within them to
tempt themselves. Allow me to let you in
on a secret. I don’t need an outside
source to tempt me to sin. And neither
do you. I have something within me that
like sin - that finds sin fun. It isn’t
that the “devil made me do it.” It is that
I WANTED to do it. We call this a sin
nature. It is an orientation to
sin. But Adam and Eve were not created
in this way. They had no orientation to
sin. They had the ability to choose not
to sin. And so, their choice to sin was
all the more despicable.
Secondly, we should see that
a surface reading of the passage seems to indicate that the Serpent told the
truth. Their eyes WERE opened. They DID come to and experiential understanding
of good and evil. And most importantly,
they didn’t die! Or did they?
If we may read between the
lines, then let me suggest that a death DID take place on that day. It was a spiritual death. Their ability to freely communicate with God
was disrupted. This is seen in their
reaction to the presence of God.
And they heard the sound of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
(Genesis 3:8).
There was something within
them that made them want to hide. Have
you ever walked into a room and turned on the lights and seen a big
cockroach? What does it do? It scurries out of the light. It hates the light. It tries to hide from the light. Adam and Eve tried to do the same thing.
And this is judgment, that the
light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light,
for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates
the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
(John 3:19-20).
It’s easy to be dirty in the
dark. It doesn’t show. But put a bright light on dirt and everyone
can see it. So it is with sin. Sin doesn’t look so bad when you get away
from the presence of the Lord. But when
HE comes, sin looks awful. That is why
pagans don’t like to be around Christians.
It makes them feel strangely uncomfortable.
In the midst of their
discomfort and in the midst of their trying to hide from the Almighty, the Lord
calls out to Adam and Eve. That is a
good description of who God is. He is
the God who calls.
Then the Lord God called to the
man; and said to him, “Where are you?”
And he said, “I heard the sound of
Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
And He said, “Who told you that you
were naked? Have you eaten from the tree
of which I commanded you not to eat?
And He said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I
ate.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman,
“What is this you have done?” And the
woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:8-13).
There is something winsome
about the picture that we see here of God calling for man as he hides in the
garden. It isn’t merely a game of
spiritual hide & seek. It isn’t thank God didn’t know where Adam and
Eve were hiding. God’s questions are
designed to force Adam to come to terms with his sin.
Having confronted the guilty
parties concerning their sin, the Lord pronounces a series of judgments. These judgments are harsh because sin is
harsh and it does harsh things. Yet
there is a glimmer of hope in the midst of these judgments, for they also
contain the promise of future life.
And the Lord said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than
every beast of the field; on your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat
all the days of your life;
"And I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise
you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel." (Genesis 3:14-15).
The Lord begins be speaking
to the serpent. But it seems evident
that there comes a time when He is not just talking about snakes, but is
addressing the real power behind the serpent - the Devil.
|
“I Will Put Enmity...” |
||
|
The Serpent |
Between |
The Woman |
|
His Seed |
|
Her Seed |
|
Shall be bruised on the
head |
|
Shall be bruised on the
heel. |
This is the beginning of a
spiritual war. The initial antagonists
of this war are a serpent versus a woman.
The war extends to their progeny.
And their progeny includes everyone that exists.
This is the story of the
entire human race. All people are in
either one of two groups. They are
following one of two seeds. The seed of the
serpent is Satan. He is the way of
rebellion against God. He is the voice
of independence. The seed of the woman
is Jesus. He is the One whose “heel” was
crushed by Satan.
But He was pierced through for
our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our
well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone
astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the
iniquity of us all to fall on Him. (Isaiah 53:5-6).
When Jesus died upon the
cross, it was no mere human death that He died.
His death was special. It was
special because it also involved a spiritual death. He was judged by God as if He were a guilty
sinner. Our sins were laid upon Him.
He made Him who knew no sin to be
sin on our behalf, that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21).
This is what the cross was
all about. It was not just the nails and
the wood and the taunts and the crown of thorns. Those were all terrible, but they were merely
the outward trappings of the real spiritual reality when the One who was
without sin was identified with our sins in such a way that His death was in
penalty for our sins. And by the same
token, when we come to faith in Him, the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ
is credited to us. God looks at us as
being in Christ and we are judged as though we were completely righteous.
Jesus is the One whose coming
crushed the head of Satan. Through His
death, the work of Satan in plunging the human race into sin was
overturned. Through His death, He
brought life to all who trust in Him.
Through His ensuing resurrection, He won the victory over death and the
grave. And that is not all. His victory can be your victory.
And the God of peace will soon
crush Satan under your feet. (Romans 16:20a).
This brings us to a
question. To what seed to you
belong? On which side are you in this
galactic battle? There are no
fence-sitters. If you have never chosen
to belong to Jesus Christ, then you are by default a part of the seed of the
Serpent. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that you can change
sides. You can repent and turn to the
Lord. You can trust in Him as your Lord
and Savior. And the result will be salvation.
For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believe in Him should not perish,
but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).