New Morning Mercies #331

Can you tell the story of redemption in one sentence? Sin has driven us out of the garden, but grace drives us right into the Father’s arms.

It is the most amazing turnaround in human history. It is the unexpected plot twist. You wouldn’t have predicted it. The announcement foretells everything else that is going to happen in this story of stories. What am I talking about? God’s announcement of how he would deal with the outrageous sin of Adam and Eve, and the evil that had flooded into the world as a result.

Adam and Eve had it all: they were perfect people living in a perfect world and enjoying a perfect relationship with God. There was no tension between them and no separation between them and God. There was no pollution or disease, no injustice or corruption, and no hatred or violence. They lived in a world that was in a constant state of “shalom.” Shalom means more than “peace.” It refers to things being in the state that God intended them to be in; in other words, shalom is the way things were meant to be. It was the world as we have never experienced it—untainted and unharmed. Life for Adam and Eve was complete in every way.

But it wasn’t enough for them. They wanted more. So they stepped over the one boundary God set for them. They ate the fruit that God had forbidden. It was an in-your-face act of self-centered rebellion. It was a quest for autonomy, revealing a desire for self-rule. It was evil and ugly. God had every right to judge them, and he did, but shockingly, that judgment would not be the end of the story. If the story of Adam and Eve were a movie, we would expect God’s judgment, their removal from the garden, and then fade to black, but the God writing the script is a God of glorious grace.

Grace leads the biblical story in a very different direction than we would anticipate. God announced immediately after the rebellion of Adam and Eve that he was not only going to judge sin, he was going to defeat it forever. He said to the Serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Who is the offspring that God was talking about? It is the son of Mary, the son of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. Where did this bruising take place? It took place on that hill called Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem. On the cross, Jesus was bruised, but the enemy was defeated forever. Yes, Jesus died, but the grave could not hold him, and with resurrection power he now reigns until the final enemy is under his feet. It is a story of astounding mercy granted to rebels, of amazing grace bestowed upon fools. It is a radical, unexpected story of hope and help for every sinner. It is the story that gets me up in the morning, and I hope it does the same for you.

For further study and encouragement: Acts 2:22–41