The man.
The woman.
The tree.
The fruit.
The serpent.
The
temptation.
Her first
bite.
His first
bite.
The
transgression. Disobedience.
And then…
They know.
They know they disobeyed.
They know they are guilty.
They know they are guilty.
They know shame.
They know what God said.
They know they will die.
They know they have earned the separation from God who does
not die.
They know
there is no going back.
No
do-overs.
No undo.
They know
they have broken their bond with Him
and they
know this is what they earned
for their disobedience.
They are
naked in their shame.
Vulnerable.
Dead.
The man
passed the blame to her.
She passed
the blame to the serpent.
The serpent
smiled.
(that’s not what it says, but don’t you think he did)
God told
the man what the consequence would be.
God is true to His word.
But first, the curse.
God cursed the serpent.
He would
crawl on the ground on his belly and eat dust all the rest of his days.
He and the
woman would hate each other and the woman’s offspring would hate the serpent’s
offspring.
Her offspring will wound his head and he will wound her
offspring’s heel.
God spoke to the woman.
Having
offspring will cause her pain.
She would also desire her husband even as he had charge over her.
God spoke to the man.
Since he
ate from the tree that he was told not to eat from, the ground was cursed.
He would
toil and sweat to grow the plants he eats.
The ground
will grow thorny plants with the crops.
He will return to the dust he was made from. In short,
he will die.
he will die.
Neither man nor woman was cursed.
The serpent and the ground he crawls on were cursed.
Death was
not a curse, it was a result.
What the
man earned.
His wage for disobeying God.
Neither of
them died right away, but they did eventually die.
Just as God told them they would.
And God made a
sacrifice.
God drew
first blood.
first blood.
He gave
the man and the woman the skin of an animal
that He
killed
to cover
their
nakedness.
Their shame.
Their shame.
The blood
of the sacrificed animal did not forgive the transgression; it only sustained
them until they eventually died.
Returned to dust.
We all die, not because Adam sinned, but because we now know
good
and
evil.
good
and
evil.
We can
choose between good or bad.
Right or
wrong.
Nice or
naughty.
Love or
hate.
Create or
destroy.
Save a life or take it.
No one
always chooses the right thing.
It comes
with knowing the difference,
then choosing to do the wrong thing.
We all die.
Because of this one man’s transgression,
we all die.
we all die.
Because of one man’s death,
we all live.
we all live.
Jesus
knows good and evil. He lived His life without a single transgression.
He’s the only one that has.
Unlike the
first sacrifice, Jesus’ blood was sufficient to remove the punishment for all transgressions for all time,
past,
present and future,
including Adam’s.
The
original transgression:
Paid for.
Paid for.
All past
transgressions:
Paid for.
Paid for.
Your transgressions:
Paid for.
Paid for.
All future transgressions:
Paid for.
Paid for.
Oh, and one more thing.
Through
Jesus,
God also
reconciled the World to Himself.
That means: Everything Is Redeemed.
The
serpent has nothing left to reign over.
Everything has been taken from him and reconciled back to God.
Everything.
Including you.
is ancient
history.