返回总目录
The Wonderful Promise
[Lesson 8: What Adam's Sin Produced]
[Table of Contents]
[Lesson 10: Cain & Abel: the Way of Sacrifice]
Lesson 9
The Wonderful Promise
Genesis 3
Peace be with you, listening friends. We greet you in the name of God, the Lord of peace, who
wants everyone to understand and submit to the way of righteousness that He has established, and
have true peace with Him forever. We are happy to be able to return today to present your program
The Way of Righteousness.
In our last program, we saw how Adam and Eve strayed from the way of God by eating fruit from
the tree that God had forbidden. Thus, man, whom God created in His own image, chose to follow
Satan, the enemy of God. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they rejoiced whenever God came to the
garden to talk with them, but now, when they heard the voice of God, they were afraid and
ashamed and tried to hide from God among the trees of the garden! However, God pursued
Adam and Eve, spoke with them, and declared to them what their sin would bring into the world:
trouble and suffering, thorns and thistles, sickness and death.
Consequently, from that day until today, the shadow of death hangs over Adam's descendants. All
of Adam's children are conceived in sin and born with an evil nature. Whether we like it or not, we
all share the character of our forefather, Adam. "A rat only begets that which digs." It is because
of Adam's sin that we are all born sinners. Truly, "an epidemic is not confined to the one from whom
it originates!" {Wolof proverbs} And just as Adam's sin separated him from God, so has our sin
separated us from God. That is what the Scriptures say,
"Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came
to all men, because all sinned. (Rom. 5:12) "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
(Rom. 3:23) "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face
from you." (Isa. 59:2)
This message is not pleasant to hear, but that is the way it is. "Truth is a hot pepper." {Wolof
proverb}
Thus, we see how Adam's one sin separated the whole human race from God. On the day that
Adam disobeyed God, Adam (and the whole human race yet to be born) left the kingdom of light and
entered the kingdom of darkness. They no longer had any share in the Kingdom of God. Because
of their sin, their portion was with Satan, who had taken them as his captives and slaves. Now, they
couldn't hope for anything in this life, except slavery to sin and fear of death-and in the hereafter,
endless punishment in the eternal fire!
If the Scriptures ended here, we could only close the book and weep bitterly like someone lost at
sea, with no hope of rescue. If God had not opened a way of salvation to save the children of Adam,
we would be doomed forever! But blessed be the Lord our God, the Scriptures of the Prophets do
not end with the story of Adam's sin. God, who is great in mercy, has opened for the children
of Adam a door of salvation! Thus, the Word of God says,
"Where sin increased, [God's] grace increased all the more." (Rom. 5:20) "Do not be afraid,
because I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people!" (Luke 2:10) "For the
grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men!" (Tit. 2:11)
As we have already learned, God is holy and, therefore must judge sinners. God is righteous and
cannot merely "forget" sin. He must punish every sin. The penalty for sin is death and eternal
separation from God. God never changes and the penalty of sin never changes. However, today,
we will begin to read in the Scriptures how God, the Holy One, designed {Lit. wove} a plan to
deliver sinners from the penalty of sin. Thus, we will learn that God is not only the Holy One, but
He is also the Merciful One! God, our Judge, wants to become our Savior!
Today we will see how, on the day that Adam and Eve sinned, God began to make known His
wonderful plan to save sinners. Let us continue now in the Torah, in the book of Genesis, so that we
might learn about this Good News. We are reading in chapter 3, verse 15: God said to Satan who
was in the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
This difficult verse contains many profound and important truths which God's prophets would later
explain in detail. The contents of this verse, can be summarized like this: God was beginning to
make known His plan to bring into the world a Savior {or Deliverer} who would redeem the
children of Adam from the dominion of Satan. This is the first verse that mentions the coming
of the holy Redeemer {or Mediator}. In this verse, let us consider four truths concerning the
Redeemer whom God promised to send.
1.) The first truth is this: God was announcing how this Redeemer would be born of a woman
only, that is, a virgin. All of us have a male and a female parent. However, the Redeemer who was
to come, would be born only of a woman, by the power of God. He would not have an earthly father.
The Savior of the world could not come from Adam, because all of Adam's descendants are stained
by sin. The Savior of sinners had to be without sin. He had to come forth from God, from heaven.
Thus, the first thing we may learn from this verse is this: God promised a holy Redeemer who would
be the offspring of a woman, but not the offspring of a man.
2.) There is something else that God announced on the day that Adam and Eve sinned. Concerning
the promised Redeemer, God said to Satan: "You will strike his heel." Thus, God began to announce
how Satan would torment the Savior that God would send from heaven. In coming lessons, we
will see that the prophets foretold how Satan would incite men to persecute, torture and kill the
Redeemer. A stricken Redeemer would be part of God's plan. In order to bring us back to God, the
Savior of the world would have to die as a sacrifice for sin; the Righteous One dying for us, the
unrighteous. He would willingly lay down His life to pay sin's penalty: death.
3.) The third truth concerning the Redeemer was that God told Satan, who was in the serpent, that
"he (the Redeemer) would crush his (Satan's) head." That was bad news for Satan, but good news
for whoever wants to be delivered from the power of Satan, sin and hell! Thus, God began to
announce that the Redeemer would, in the end, defeat the devil and set free the children of
Adam who had become slaves of sin.
4.) Finally, God began to announce that there would be two lines (groups) of people in the world:
The people of Satan and the people of God. The people of Satan are those who refuse to believe
the Word of God. The people of God are those who believe God's Word and put their trust in the
promised Redeemer. (John 1:9-13)
Thus, on the day that Adam and Eve sinned, God began to announce His wondrous plan
to redeem sinners. In coming programs, little by little, we will see how all of God's prophets
announced the coming of a holy Savior who would free sinners from the hand of the devil. If what
we have just taught is not yet clear in your mind, do not worry, because as we progress in our
chronological study, things will become clearer. Remember the (Wolof) proverb which says: "A water
pail will find the person who waits diligently at the well." Are you waiting at the "well" of the Word of
God? Good! God says: "If you look for [the truth] as for silver, and search for it as for hidden
treasure…then you will…find the knowledge of God!" (Prov. 2:4,5)
Now then, let us finish reading the third chapter of the first book of the Torah. The Scriptures say:
"The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord
God said, 'The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be
allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.' So
the Lord God banished [Adam] from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he
had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden
cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." (Gen.
3:21-24)
That is where the third chapter ends. Before we conclude today, let us consider some important
truths contained in these verses.
The Scriptures say: "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed
them." Do you remember what Adam and Eve did after they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil? They wove together fig leaves and wrapped them around their waists in an attempt to
hide their shame before God. Did God accept the clothes they had made for themselves, the clothes
they made with leaves? No, He did not! Why did God not accept the clothes they made for
themselves? Because God wanted to teach Adam and Eve that He is perfect and cannot accept the
imperfect works of man. Concerning this, the Scriptures say: "All of us have become like one who
is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." (Isa. 64:6) There is nothing man can
do to cover his sins before God.
However, God did something for man. God killed some animals, skinned them, and made
clothes of skin for Adam and Eve. Yes, God made the first animal sacrifice. What a shocking
sight for Adam and Eve as they watched the blood flow out of the animals that God had killed!
Through the shed blood of animals, God wanted to teach Adam and Eve that "the wages of sin is
death