November 17, 2024
Last week we looked at God’s creative work in forming Adam and breathing the breath of life (God’s own Spirit) into him. It is this Spirit that makes mankind “in God’s image.” When God finished His creative work, we discovered that everything was very good. There was nothing in God’s creation that was bad. We also learned that God allowed Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of any tree in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. With the name of that tree, the word evil appears for the first time in the bible. We ended last week with a question. We asked why God would create a tree that could allow evil into the world. That is a good question that deserves an honest answer. The short answer is, God created man with a free will, and He wanted Adam and Eve to make the conscious choice to love Him and to have a relationship with Him. Mankind is the only earthly being created with this choice. God wants a relationship with humans, but He doesn’t want robots. He wants man to choose to have a relationship with Him. In Genesis chapter three, Satan tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and she made the conscious choice to reject God and to replace Him with herself on the throne of her life. Adam made the same choice, and mankind has never been the same since. Before we are too hard on our first parents, nearly every human who has ever lived, ourselves included, has made the same choice. Good or evil? God’s way or my way? Every time we sin, we make a conscious choice to rebel against God. The problem is as sinners, we can’t be in a relationship with God because to put it in the words of an old country preacher, “Where sin is…God ain’t!” But wait! There is hope. A few sentences back, I said NEARLY every human who ever lived made the choice to sin. Because of man’s inborn desire to sin, if God wanted a relationship with man, God would have to step in, and step in He did. God, in His foreknowledge knew the choices Adam and Eve (and every other human) would make and God reveals in His word, the bible what God did to redeem His creation. Beginning in Genesis 3:15 on through the book of Revelation, God unveils Hid plan for mankind’s redemption. Although Jesus is foretold in the Old Testament, it is in the gospel of John (and the rest of the New Testament) that we discover God sent Himself, Jesus Christ, as a human who would live a perfectly sinless life and would become the forever Passover Lamb. This Passover Lamb was crucified and buried. Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead, signifying the fact God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. While the introduction of evil into the world was and is bad news because that evil has resulted in a broken, fallen, sin-sick world, the good news is, the story doesn’t end there. God has made a way to fix the brokenness, and that way is Jesus Christ. Sin is strong, but the blood of Jesus is stronger. Trust your soul to the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and once you’ve done that, rest in the fact that what Jesus did on the cross is enough to save your soul. That’s good news, in fact as the singing group, Mercy Me reminds us, It’s the best news ever!
Be blessed and go be a blessing . . . Bro. Andy
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