Jesus In All Of GenesisSample

What’s Happening?

What is sin? Well, we get our first glimpse of it here in Genesis 3.

Adam and Eve have been made in God’s image, given the garden to enjoy, and are simply to tend it, have children, and cover the earth with God’s image and presence. That’s all the knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil, they needed to thrive.

In fact, they are only given one negative command, only one, “thou shalt not” if you will. They are not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why?

THE FIRST SIN

Well, the tree offers a knowledge not provided by God. To stay away from it would be to say, “God is enough. He has provided everything I need.” To eat from it, on the other hand, would be to say, “God is not enough. I need to provide something better for myself.”

Satan, a spiritual being who looks like a snake in this story, tempts Eve to take the second option. He tells her that if she eats from this tree, she will know everything God knows. In fact, she will be like God.

This should have been a pointless temptation. After all, Eve was already made in God’s image and had been told everything she needed to know from God himself.

But she wanted more. She wanted to provide for herself. That’s what sin is - trying to get the good apart from God.

Eve’s sin was not eating a piece of fruit. Her sin was trying to provide for herself and set her own rules. Her sin was trying to be God.

THE CURSE

Ironically, as soon as both Eve and Adam ate this fruit, they did gain a new bit of knowledge. But it was only the knowledge that they were sinners. They felt ashamed, naked, and afraid of God. The only knowledge they got was the knowledge of death.

So they have a conversation with God after trying to hide from him. There is blame shifting and the making of excuses, but ultimately man and woman must bear their guilt. They receive a curse from God. They will be kicked out of the garden and will die.

But along with the curse, also comes a promise. God promises that Eve will have a child that will crush the head of the snake, breaking the curse of death and separation.

Where is Jesus?

It is truly amazing that only three chapters into the Bible, we already have an explicit promise of God’s plan to save the world through what we now know as the Gospel.

THE CURSE REVERSED

That is because the promised child of Eve is none other than Jesus. He is the one who crushed Satan’s head by taking the curse of sin off of us and onto himself. In proper Genesis fashion, Jesus did this, not by taking something off a tree like Adam and Eve, but by putting his own life on one to the point of death. Further, Jesus overcame death by rising from the grave.

THE FIRST SIN OVERCOME

Jesus not only reversed the curse earned by sin, but he also gives us a way to conquer sin in our lives. Eve’s sin was trusting in her own provision over God’s. But through Jesus, we have been given a provision so grand that it changes our hearts to actually trust God as our only provider. That provision is the saving blood of Jesus, promised at the start of the Bible.

We fight sin by trusting that Jesus is enough. He has done enough, provided enough, and will always be enough. You can stop trying to earn it. Satan’s head is already crushed.

See For Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would show you the God who provides so richly for us that he doesn’t want us even going near the destructive lies of self-salvation and sin. And I pray that you would see Jesus as the promised one who has crushed the head of the snake, defeating death and the curse.