Genesis 3:1-15 - Original Sin and God's Salvation Plan through Christ
So far, we have been reminded that Christ already
existed with God the Father in heaven as the Word (as well as the Wisdom)
before the Creation of the universe. Therefore, God the Father has sent Christ,
His only begotten Son, to us as His gift of love. Yes, He loves us so much –
even though we have sinned against Him. His
love for us never changes.
Yes, Christ is sent by God the Father to us, because
He loves us more than we can think and imagine. Even though our sins upset God
the Father and He hid His face from us (i.e. Isaiah 64:4), it does not mean
that God stopped loving us.
To understand God’s unchanging love for us, though
He may hide His face from us when we upset Him by sinning against Him, we need
to go back to the sin of Adam and Eve, known as Original Sin in Genesis 3. And,
in this chapter, we can also find out when God probably came up with His plan
to send Christ to us.
*****
When God created and blessed us, the humans,
starting with Adam and Eve, and placed us in the beautiful place, called Eden,
everything was good (Genesis 2:4-25). We had a great time with God in Eden.
However, Satan in the snake, very clever in lying and deceiving, came to Eve
and called her attention to the fruit that God had told her and her husband,
Adam, not to eat (Genesis 2:17), thinking that she was probably curious about
the fruit that God had told not to eat. So, Satan was telling Eve, like, “Hey,
Eve, aren’t these fruits of the trees in this garden so nice? Don’t you want to
eat any of these?”(i.e. Genesis 3:1). To this, Eve reminded Satan that God told
her and her husband to eat any fruits but one from the tree in the middle of
the garden, the tree of knowledge, because eating that forbidden fruit would
result in death (i.e. Genesis 3:2-3; 2:17). Then, Satan lied to Eve, telling,
“Oh, c’mon, Eve, don’t worry! You’re not gonna die just because you eat that
fruit. You know what? Eating that fruit
will make you feel good because it will make you feel like being God! So, you
know !” (i.e. Genesis 3:4-5). And guess what? Eve took a bite on that fruit,
forbidden by God and felt so good because she felt as if she had gotten smart,
and she shared the forbidden fruit with her husband, Adam, because it was so
good. And he also ate it (Genesis 3:6).
At that moment, everything began to change. It was
an end of “good old time” between God and us, the human, in the garden of Eden.
It did not take time for God to find this out. God
found out that Adam and Eve disobeyed Him as they did not follow His
instruction not to eat the fruit of the tree in the middle, the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. God knew that Adam and Eve disobeyed Him because Satan in
snake fooled and tempted them to eat the forbidden fruit.
Adam and Eve did what God told them not to do. They
did what they were not permitted to do.
God was not happy about what Adam and Eve did. In fact,
God was very upset about them.
It is like your parents telling you not to drive a
car because you are too young to even have a driver’s license. But, you are
curious about what it is like to drive a car. And you think driving a car will
make you feel so good. And, a friend of yours told you that it is not a big
deal to drive a car even you are not allowed to drive. So, this friend tempted
you to drive your parents’ car and you had an accident.
Imagine, if you had done such a thing, wouldn’t your
parents get upset? By eating the fruit
that God had told Adam and Eve not to eat, they did something like driving your
parents’ car without their permission and driver’s license (and crushing it).
Getting upset by Adam and Eve not following His
instruction, God kicked them out of the garden of Eden. It was like God
telling, “I don’t want to see your faces, as you broke my trust in you. I
thought you would obey my instruction and be good to me”.
Yes, God was like an upset parent. But, it does not
mean that God stopped loving us, just as your parents never stop loving you.
Remember the story of the father of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-24)?
Actually, even when God the Father was so upset, He
still loved us, offspring of them, and was thinking to do something for us out
of His unchanging love for us.
So, even though God had to punish Adam and Eve, God
made a plan to save the descendants (offspring – future children) of them
through the Son born of Mary!
This is what is meant by what is written in Genesis
3:15:
I
will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel.
What we need to learn today is that God’s love for
us does not change even we have made God upset by our sins against God. It is
because God is so kind and merciful (i.e. Psalm 34:6;103:8;145:8). It is
because God is love (1 John 4:8, 16).
So, even He was upset with Adam and Eve for not
following His instruction and angry at Satan for fooling them, God still loved
them. So, God was already thinking to send His only begotten Son, who was with
Him as the Word, to us.
So, now we know that Christ is coming to us to
defeat our enemy, Satan. And, we also know that God’s plan to send His Son,
Christ, was already made when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden of
Eden. And, it was because God’s love for us never changes. Because of God’s
love for us, God is kind and merciful – even we have sinned against Him, as
Adam and Eve did to Him.
Probably, what is written in Genesis 3:15 is the
earliest prophecy – indication of God’s plan to send His only begotten Son,
Christ, to us for our salvation and defeat of Satan, the ultimate enemy of God
and us.
So, now you can remember that God the Father started planning to send Christ to us way back when Adam and Eve made Him upset with Original Sin, as you look forward to the coming of Christ toward Christmas.
Do you see a connection between Original Sin (Genesis 3) and Christmas (Luke 2) and Defeat of Satan (Revelation 20)?
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