God has a plan and purpose for our lives. Yet, when we look at the world in which we live, and the seeming randomness, mess and suffering of life, we wonder how this can be. The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 tells us why this is so. It tells us what happened on the way to the fulfillment of God's plan and purpose. We, humans, when given the freedom to choose to fulfill the purpose of our creation, decided to go another way. We rebelled against God's plan for our lives, and sought to follow another path. We still do. All of us have gone our own way. The human predicament is that there are consequences for our actions. What are those consequences?

First, Adam and Eve hide from God. They, who formerly walked with God as a friend and companion, are now afraid of him. They feel themselves naked, ashamed. There is a consciousness of guilt for falling short of the glory God had intended for them, and going against his will. Here is the birth of self-consciousness. We, humans, can reflect upon ourselves. We can ponder events in our hearts. We have consciences that accuse us. We put a distance between ourselves and God. We are alienated from the author of our existence. We become lost.

Second, God interrogates the couple. He does not abandon them to their own shame but seeks them out. "Where are you?" is the question we all must hear. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. You can't hide from God. He diagnoses their condition: "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" Have you gone against my express command? The ongoing work of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin.

Third, Adam blames God for giving him the woman, and the woman blames the serpent for deceiving her. Our immediate response to guilt is self-justification. It is not our fault. God made me this way. God put me in these circumstances. I am not to blame. I am the victim here. Why do I have to take responsibility? The world is full of such complaints. Who is to blame for our problems: Wall Street? The government? Washington? Greed? China? The Middle East? The list goes on. There is plenty of blame to go around. But unless we acknowledge that we are all sinners, and are all responsible in some measure for the human predicament, we will never be saved.

Fourth, God declares that there will be conflict between good and evil. "I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Men and woman will have to choose which side they are on. There are those who will reject the Lord and oppose his kingdom (cf. "You are of your father the devil." John 8:44) The seed of the serpent can be found in anyone who chooses evil. But if we choose to follow the Lord, "the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." (Romans 16:20)

Fifth, God foretells that life will be full of pain and hardship for men and women. Relationships and work will be hard not easy. Although we were destined to be made "a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned with glory and honor," (Psalm 8:5) we are condemned to physical deterioration, "for dust you are and to dust you will return." Job cries out in his pain, "Does not man have hard service on earth?" (7:1) "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure." (14:1) Human experience is full of pain. "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time....we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." (Romans 8:22,23) The truth of this description is evident to us. We all have family members who are experiencing a lot of pain: pain in their marriages, pain with their kids, pain in their health, pain in their work. They are having a hard time of it making a living; and a hard time of it coping with disorders that afflict them. We have loved ones who are suffering from addictions, suffering from employment problems, sufferings from reversals in their finances, suffering from children and grandchildren who are sick, rebellious, defiant, hurt, lonely and lost, who hate themselves, who are angry and depressed because they are full of pain. They need a Savior, a Rescuer, a Deliverer, a Healer.

Sixth, Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden, lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever. "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) Consciousness of death brings fear of death. The death caused by sin is to be cut off from God, which is symbolized by expulsion from the garden and the tree of life. Death is something more than the cessation of biological existence. "Death is the expression for the state of deepest spiritual wretchedness." (Soren Kierkegaard, Sickness Unto Death, 6)

"Spiritual wretchedness is the state of indifference toward God or of imagining oneself independent of God, of not needing God, of being defiant in face of God's forgiveness. It is to be unaware that one's highest perfection as a human being is to need God. Why is this called 'death'? It is because without spirit we are mere matter, bunches of cells, walking around without meaning or purpose. As Shakespeare's Macbeth puts it, 'Life is but a poor tale, told by an idiot, signifying nothing'. (Murray Rae, Kierkegaard and Theology, 94)

It will take a second Adam to bring us the gift of eternal life, the gift of the new birth of the Spirit, the gift of the tree of life for the healing of the nations. Then, "no longer will there be any curse." (Revelation 22:3)

Seventh, the Cherubim (supernatural creatures referred to over 90 times in the OT, who usually function as guardians of God's presence, cf. Ezek1:10) and a flaming sword, guard the way to the tree of life. Humanity experiences loss of access to the presence of God. Sin defiles God's presence and prevents us from access to him. Sin dishonors God, and therefore comes between us and the Holy One. We cannot desecrate the dwelling place of God with our presence. In order for the plan and purpose of God to be fulfilled we need cleansing and reconciliation through a sacrificial offering of the second Adam.

"Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life. One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right." (Romans 5:18,19; The Message)

"O loving wisdom of our God. When all was sin and shame, a second Adam to the fight and to the rescue came.

O wisest love. that flesh and blood which did in Adam fail, should strive afresh against the foe, should strive and should prevail." (John Henry Newman)

God provides clothing for Adam and Eve from the sacrifice of an animal. We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. God provides for us. Grace covers the sinners' shame. The only way out of the human predicament is through Christ dying for us on the Cross, and rising to a new life of grace.

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