Lately, I find myself going back to Genesis 3 every now and again during my devotional time. It is a well-known passage by many of us. It is sobering. Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and humanity is deeply changed by their actions. Sin enters the world along with death and grief and distance from the Lord. It isn't a pretty scene... yet it is.
Let me explain.
In Genesis 3, Satan tempts Eve and Adam and is successful in prompting them to choose sin over trust and fear in the Lord. Consequences come when God approaches the couple, asking where they are and why they are hiding (Gen. 3:8-11). They begin blameshifting and stuttering about. They are embarrassed and shameful... and more than anything... guilty. They know they have messed up. They sense their nakedness before Him (Gen. 3:11).
They deserve death. They deserve to be utterly punished right then and there. But that is not what the Lord gives them.
Instead, He first addresses the serpent, cursing him and declaring his ultimate death by the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:14-15). Seed of the woman... wait a moment that can only come about if Eve is alive and not dead... her punishment isn't death for her sin? The Lord is going to allow her and Adam to continue living and multiplying despite their disobedience? Yes. Yes, He will because in this chapter of Scripture, we see sin and judgment, but we also see the first "installment" so to speak of another thing– grace.
God doesn't annihilate Adam and Eve. He does give consequences. The sin is judged and punished. But there is another theme here of God's mercy and grace in that they still live and God pronounces ultimate judgment on the serpent and his ultimate death, declaring his imminent defeat that will come through Eve.
Sin has entered the picture. It will now be present in the whole story of Scripture. But God's grace will also be present and even more so.
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:20-21
God's grace is always deeper and greater than our sin. It is just a matter of whether or not we receive and stand in that grace through faith in Jesus or we reject it and suffer the consequences of eternity separated from God.
So here is my main point and the reason I often come back to this passage and maybe even surprisingly find deep comfort in a passage that many typically find sobering and depressing...
We live in a world that rests upon God's grace.
We live in the midst of an unfolding of salvation that literally stands upon God's graciousness.
We live in a sinful world. We battle sin in ourselves. We mess up. We don't trust the Lord as we should. We become conflicted about decisions and choices and wonder how to best please the Lord. We get caught in our heads thinking we must perform perfectly for the Lord or else our lives will be destroyed.
We often don't understand grace. Or rest in it.
Yet for my heart specifically, those are the moments that God nudges me to flip back to Genesis 3 and I find comfort there instead of only sorrow over the reality of Adam and Eve's disobedience. Instead, He reminds me of the context I am living in– a world marked by sinful natures and the fall and conflicting desires and pressures– yet reminds me that it is His grace that still upholds all things as it did there in the garden that day when He didn't grant Adam and Eve what they deserved.
And I am reminded His grace really does uphold the world, not my perfection.
This by no measure means I feel the freedom to or want to walk in disobedience to the Lord. Far be it from me, Lord (Rom. 6:1-2)!
But rather, on the days when I get overwhelmed and am so fearful of messing up and displeasing my Lord (and further am actually acting out of pride in thinking I can be perfect apart from Jesus and His grace), I am reminded to simply come rest at His feet and be in awe of the grace that He has already extended to me and that He has given me to stand in all of my days here on a sin-wrecked earth in a sin-wrecked body (Rom. 5:1-2).
He will continue to pour out His grace when I misunderstand or disobey.
Because He has been doing it from the beginning.
And one day the ultimate realization of Satan's head crushing will be realized (Gen. 3:15).
Praise the Lord His grace abounds... as it has from the beginning of time.
No comments:
Post a Comment