Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Genesis 3:8-11
I have been a born again Christian for slightly over 20 years. It was at the end of an Alpha Course that I got saved. A very wise man of God was drawing me a picture to explain how sin entered the world and Jesus came to heal this sin. It was when he drew a cross across the chasm between us and God that made me intellectually understood about the fall, it was that Jesus came to redeem us that hit me like a ton of bricks and filled my head with the truth about Jesus, hence the title of this blog “Thoughts of a Redeemed Man”. That is until I saw this little video a few days ago:
Thanks to: sharethese.org
Music and narration: Kezia Tomsett
This is a marvellous telling of why God allows suffering as well as the Easter story, God’s rescue plan. But in this blog I will be focusing on what caused sin to entered this world and why God allowed it.
What caused sin to enter the world.
In Genesis 3 (versus 1 and 4) Satan lies to Eve. But that was not what caused creation to fall. The cause of the fall of man was a simple decision, that we knew better than God and we did not need him, thus turning our backs on Him. A decision to live without Him. To live without the creator of all things who holds everything together. God did not choose to be rejected. God’s plan, as it still is, is to live with his people for all eternity. For us to be seated with Jesus at His right hand. His plan is to love us and be in an Agape relationship with us. The Crafty Serpent
Though Satan did not cause Man to sin, he did tell the lies and pushed Man down the road to disobedience. It was actually man that choose to turn his back on God. This was Satan’s aim/desire. God knew this and we see in Genesis 3:14&15 God, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, (Exodus 34:6) royally cursed Satan and warned him that his reign would end with Jesus on the cross. The Woman
She was the first to choose to turn her back on God, she saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. One can only surmise on her motives, but if we look at motives from today, perhaps she felt resentful of all the authority over her and maybe she felt second class? We can only speculate as to her reasons, never a good thing to do. But it was an act of rebellion which said “I know better than you God, I don’t need you I am powerful and can stand on my own two feet” The Man
The man was the second one to turn his back on God, but his failings were twofold. Firstly he joined the woman in her disobedience and ate of the fruit. Secondly, he compounded his disobedience by failing in his responsibility for the woman. God created man and knew they were capable of ruling over the whole of creation (Genesis 1:27 & 28) But Adam turned his back on this saying that he would rather please Eve than please God. The man failed in his God given responsibilities. God
God then gave man what he had asked for, a life without him. But even so you can see the love God had for man. He didn’t send them out into the wilderness naked, he made them clothes to protect them. He left them clues as to his rescue plan (hope). At their request He was not there to provide food, they had to labour to grow there own, at their request He was not there to sustain them and death entered the world, at their request … So to sum up because the choices man made suffering entered the world, this was not God’s choice but man’s choice.
The Rescue Plan
God is perfect, so we can conclude that God’s plan was perfect, formulated knowing man would choose to live without Him. So God did not wipe man out and start again, His choice was to continue to love us (Agape) His choice was to rescue us from our bad choices, to eventually be with us for all eternity. God’s promise was that the Woman’s son (Jesus) would crush the serpents head with His heel, which was fulfilled on the Cross. There had to be payment for sin, and Jesus (as God) on the cross was payment in full for all sin for all time. Jesus’ resurrection was assurance that we too would be resurrected to sit with Him at the right-hand of God for all eternity. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away“.(Revelation 21:4) Our choice has been forgiven and wiped away as far as east is from west, death is beaten and Satan defeated. Thanks to our perfect, loving, trustworthy and faithful God, suffering will end.
