The Story: God created mankind in His image and allowed them to be at the head of His creation. God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed, he also gave them the responsibility to guide and take care of His creation. In addition to God meeting all of Adam and Eve’s needs, he gave them a commandment. God was serious about his commandment, because it was not just a suggestion to them, but rather a command, because he wanted them to prosper: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17 God knew that sin would drive man out of His presence, God is holy and just and hates sin, but he loved Adam and Eve, so He commanded them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Satan wanted to distance man from God, so he rose up and convinced Adam and Eve that they could become like God, he persuaded them to eat from the tree against God’s command. Adam and Eve disobeyed God's commandment, and thus sin entered the world, the relationship between God and man has been broken by this disobedience. After they sinned, Adam and Eve tried to conceal their problem by hiding from God and also by covering their nakedness with tree leaves. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” (Genesis 3:6-7) “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:8-10) Thus, because of sin’s curse, death, suffering and separation from God entered the world. Human acts of atonement for sins are not sufficient to obtain forgiveness, Adam and Eve tried to conceal their sin to avoid judgment. God in this case did not thank Adam and Eve for what they did to cover their disobedience after they ate from the tree. We often try hard with our good works to gain forgiveness for our sins, and we try to please God with our dead works. There are also people who try to deny God and hide from the fact that He exists, however, He is real, He is Just and He hates sin. But God’s Word teaches us that “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20). As with our father Adam and mother Eve, our own sin also condemns us. How do we escape from God's wrath? God brought us hope! He began to reveal a wondrous plan for the salvation of all mankind, a plan to defeat the enemy of man and God, and to bring us to live with God forever and without anything separating us from His love and His presence, as happened with Adam and Eve. God made a wondrous promise to man, the promise that someone would come to save mankind from their sin. When God was talking to Adam and Eve, He said to the serpent that seduced them: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) Here God revealed to us a person whom he called “the seed of the woman”. This offspring, who is one person, will crush the head of Satan forever, that is, He will destroy him completely and conquer him. This promise was fulfilled when Christ died on the cross, when He bore all the sins of the world on His shoulder, and rose from the dead victorious over the thorn of the devil, to announce freedom and salvation for all humankind, for everyone who believes in Him and His atoning work. It was God who planned all this from the beginning. The cross (the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ) was God's plan to redeem mankind from sin and bring us back to His presence. God said that this person would have come from the seed of the woman, He did not say from the seed of the man, nor from the seed of the man and the woman. We know that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, and thus He was the only person in all of history that we can call "the seed of the woman." And God worked this miracle so that Christ could be the only One who represents the complete presence and work of God in the midst of man. Sin brings curse and death, so how can we be freed from the curse and return to the loving presence of God? Is it through good works of religion, like Adam and Eve tried to do? Works that God previously rejected? Or through putting our trust and faith in God’s plan and work to save me through Jesus Christ? God tells us in his Word, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12), God wants to be your personal God and father, do you accept his invitation?
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