Rob's Thoughts

I have been publishing blogs explaining the main point of Genesis 1-3.  If you’ve been with me up to this point you have read blogs on creation (it’s cause, goal, and objects) and Sin. (the first human act and it’s consequences).  We ended yesterday on a negative note.  Sin’s consequences are grave.  Today we turn to the solution of sin in the world.  Below we read about the power of God’s word to recreate that which has been spoiled by sin.  This is the final blog on this series in Genesis 1-3.

Re-creation

Protoevangelon. We find the answer to these questions hidden in plain sight:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall crush your head, and you shall bruise his heel[1].”  Understanding the enigmatic way that God presents this promise is important, as its details are unfolded throughout the rest of scripture.  However, we must also understand what is clear.  And what is clear is that the Lord is saying He will provide a solution.  He will bring a conqueror who will undo what Satan has devised.  There are two important facts to pick up here.  First, God is the provider.  Man at this point is helpless to do anything about what has happened.  As much as Adam and the woman may have wished they had not eaten the fruit, the fact remains that they did eat it.  Such is the nature of sin.  It is utterly permanent.  No amount of wishing or working could undo what had happened.  Only the creative power of the Word could overcome what had been done in order to bring about a new creation.  This was the first half of the promise: God would provide.  Secondly, God’s provision will come as a conqueror.  God explained what He would provide one who would conquer Satan.  He didn’t simply tell them that He would restore what was lost in some undefined sort of way.  No, on the contrary He told them that He was going to bring one who would crush Satan and the wickedness that came by Satan’s deception.  Here God was already working out a new creation.  He was recreating once again, by the power of His word.  His word was going out, and in power He was making a promise, and this word would powerfully transform Adam into the first of His new creation.    

Regeneration of Adam. The first word that God gave to Adam, “you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” Adam abandons.  He traded it for the word of Satan – but not so the second word.  Adam hears God curse the serpent/Satan, and he hears God tell the woman that she is going to have offspring that will eventually rise up to conquer Satan.  Instead of disbelieving, he trusts.   John Owen comments in what Adam trusts in:

“As sin entered the world through a woman, so it was through a woman that God’s promised remedy over sin was to come.  But further it was also revealed that in order to become this complete Savior, the promised one must both suffer from and overcome the serpent.  Yes, the biting of His heel by the serpent would indeed be a fatal wound. But it would be one in which the seed of the woman would taste of death on behalf of sinners[2].”

Adam, while not understanding completely, still understood the heart of the promise. Hoping in it, he turns to the woman and in a marvelous statement of his faith in the word of God he name’s her Eve “because she was the mother of all living[3].”  Where Adam was expecting and deserving death he heard and received life, and this time he believed God.

Atonement for sin. How does God respond to Adam’s faith?  He atones for their sin.  “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them[4].”  God slaughters an animal, (maybe two), and covers the shame of Adam and Eve with the skins from whatever animal He killed to get the skins.  The animals were substitutes for what should have happened to Adam and Eve: salvation came through judgment.  Whereas Adam took two fig leaves and inadequately covered he and Eve’s shame, God does an adequate job covering their shame vicariously, through spilling the blood of the animal.  God tells the Israelites later that “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life[5].”  He does this for Adam and Eve because of the faith that they now possess.

Conclusion

God’s word is mighty.  God speaks and the cosmos is brought into existence.  He conquers toho and boho by the might of his word.  He creates paradise, harmony, and dwelling by the might of His word.  Rest is brought because He speaks.  His word upholds all things, so when His word is abandoned the consequences are grave, destruction and tumult reign.  Indeed all creation is under a severe curse because God’s word was abandoned.  But while all is cursed, not all is lost.  For God made a promise, and while Adam didn’t see the promise of God come to full fruition, he did believe in the promise of God and found mercy through atonement.  On the other side of the cross the promise in Genesis 3:15 isn’t nearly as enigmatic as it was to them.  Yet, we find atonement the same way: faith.  Our atonement doesn’t come through the blood of an animal like it did for Adam.  That atonement for us comes through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.   So we arrive back at where we began.  God created the world by the power of his word.  Sin was rebellion against that word and resulted in de-creation.  But God recreates by the power of his word.  We know that Word is Jesus Christ.  Who’s word are you putting your faith in?

[2] John Owen Biblical Theology: The History of Theology from Adam to Christ, trans. by Stephen P. Westcott (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2002), 172.

[3] Genesis 3:20

[4] Genesis 3:21

[5] Leviticus 17:11