This is the first of a series I’m going to write entitled from Adam to The Lamb, where I look throughout the bible and prominent figures of the bible and at their failings and redemption. I am currently reading a book called “God’s Famous People” by Peter Lewis of Cornerstone Evangelical Church in Nottingham (England) and I promise I will only take inspiration and not content from the book!
I’ve been thinking about many people in the bible and what made them worth being in the bible in the first place and what messages they have for our future and us today. There are hundreds of different people actually mentioned in the bible, but I’m going to look at those figures who are described in some detail, and hopefully by the time we get to the end of this, we’ll have a better knowledge that Christians Fail and it is only by God’s grace and mercy and more importantly, his forgiveness that we can have any chance on those final of days.
As you may well have guessed so far, the first person I’m going to look at is Adam. The first Man, the man perfectly formed and crafted by God’s hand and one that had potential to live with God in paradise and in perfect union with God. Lets take this verse to start with;
Genesis 2 v 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
I don’t know if you are like me in anyway but if someone tells you not to do something, you start looking for the reason why and when I was younger; I just did it to see if anything bad would actually happen. Adam shared with God a relationship on earth that we will never have until the day of redemption, he could talk to God like he was just sitting next to him and he could feel God’s perfect radiance and peace as Adam had not sinned… yet.
We know from the benefit of seeing the whole bible in it entirety and looking at the way in which the plan works to God’s benefit and unto God’s perfect justice that we cannot approach the throne of God as we are in sin. It’s only through Jesus’ sacrifice and through his love that we can be free, but imagine a time when this didn’t matter. God was there with man.
Adam (in conjunction with his wife, Eve) then decided that they could obtain something better than this. That they could ascribe better knowledge and have the ultimate in Godliness right there in the garden, with God watching on! The serpent spun his web of temptation and Adam and Eve took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and realized one or two things, which changed everything forever.
Ok you’re not stupid, you know the story, that isn’t my point today, and my point is this. God didn’t give up on us because of our sin and our lust for knowledge beyond God. God sent his son into the world; he took on human form, his own creation to walk among us again and to ultimately take upon himself the Sin, which our ancestors, Adam and Eve had created. Imagine that. God, this ultimate being and this perfect person, cared so much for his creation that he took upon HIMSELF the pain, torment and death that we deserved.
If there’s nothing worth thanking him for today, then this is surely what we should be praising God for now.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, [a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
This verse has somewhat become washed and eroded in Christian’s lives, we should hold onto and really realise what this verse is all about.
In Christ.
