If you want to understand grace, start in the beginning.
Genesis 1:27-3:22 (ESV)
1:27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
1:31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Canons of Dordt
Point 1 - God's Unconditional Grace
Article 1 - God's right to condemn all people
Since all people have sinned in Adam
and have come under the sentence of
the curse
and eternal death,
God would have done no one an injustice if it had been his will
to leave the entire human race in sin and under the curse,
and to condemn them on account of their sin.
As the apostle says:
“The whole world is liable to the condemnation of God” (Rom. 3:19),
“All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and
“The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).
Summary
Certainly we do not understand the Bible to tell us that man evolved from a lower life form into the thinking, rational creatures we know ourselves to be today. Quite the opposite, in fact. We read that God created man - both men and women - in His own image. But at the same time, we read of a definite process by which man's relationship with God evolved - or better yet, de-volved.
God's final act on day six of creation was to add His own signature, so to speak, by creating man, and having finished creation, God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Very good, but not yet finished. God's relationship with His image bearer was far different than it was with any other aspect of creation: God entered into a covenantal relationship with Adam.
The first thing God did with Adam was explain the parameters of this relationship. God's expected Adam to work the garden and keep it holy. This holiness would be signified by obedience to a simple command to not eat from a specific tree. The reward for this obedience is inferred: access to the other tree God mentioned, the tree of life, whose fruit would have given man eternal life.
Of course, you already know how things ended up working out, which triggered the second clause in God's covenantal parameter. So on the very day they ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve faced death. God's placed His most powerful angel with a flaming sword that turned every way to guard [keep] the way to the tree of life.
Dig Deeper
One of the most fundamental aspects of God's character is His immutability - He does not ever change. This ought to be of great comfort to you, knowing that He will keep every promise He's made in His Word. But God's propensity to keep His Word isn't always good news. It also means He must uphold His threat to Adam: man shall surely die.
Obviously Adam and Eve did not physically drop dead the very day that they ate the forbidden fruit. But since they did not fulfill their covenantal obligation to obey, they immediately lost their covenantal right to eternal life, and in that way death was immediate since they no longer had access to the tree of life.
But all of this bad news sets the stage for the Good News! This is what makes Jesus Christ so significant. He's not just the Son of God - which certainly is significant in and of itself - but He's also fully man. And since He's the only man not infected with Adam's sin, He was eligible to represent man and fulfill our covenantal obligations with our Father!
Because He did, the Bible ends with man having access to that which he forfeited in the beginning: the ever producing tree of life that we read about last week. We'll spend the rest of this year unpacking how God made this possible for you as we read the Bible together each day.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, in whose image we are created;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will do what it is you were created to do: to work and keep your life holy;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Mark 1
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