16 The story of reality – part 3, Redemption

An old proverb says, “Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever”. The Bible is factual, it is God’s truth, and it is presented as a grand story. My last two articles presented the beginning of that story. Part 1 showed God’s beautiful creation of this world and its inhabitants and part 2 described the fall of humanity, the true account of Adam and Eve turning their backs on God, and of its consequences.

The Bible continues this story. It describes God’s plan to redeem (ie to buy back something that was originally yours) fallen humanity in the most amazing way. It is a story of God’s continuing love but our continuing rebellion.

Part 3 shows God choosing one man, sinful but trusting God, and gradually growing a great nation from his descendants. God chose Abraham and promised that the whole world would be blessed through one of his descendants.

As God began to form the nation of Israel, he gave them laws. The famous Ten Commandments are God’s laws in summary form. These laws, which form the basis of our legal code, were actually given to show God’s people that they couldn’t ever fully keep them. They needed to depend on God, in the manner that Adam and Eve rejected.

To teach them the seriousness of law breaking, God gave them other laws regarding animal sacrifices, indicating that blood must be shed to receive God’s forgiveness. But even animal sacrifices didn’t do that job, because they had to be repeated over and over again.

So because of his great love, God provided the only sacrifice that was good enough; his own perfect Son. Jesus came to earth as a baby, grew and became a man, yet without once ever sinning. In God’s perfect plan, Jesus was arrested, falsely convicted in a sham trial and executed on a Roman cross, the cruellest form of punishment imaginable.

Why? Because that was the only way God’s justice could be met and God could keep his promise to redeem us. Probably the most quoted verse in the Bible states it well:

John 3:16  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Notice this verse has a condition. God’s offer of redemption is ONLY available to those who believe in Jesus. To believe in Jesus involves admitting my own sinfulness, trusting Jesus to forgive me and make me right with God. Then, I must allow God to direct my life, and when I fail, as I doubtless will, again come to him for forgiveness. In short, to live in the manner God originally intended for Adam and Eve.

The story doesn’t end there. After three days, God raised Jesus from the dead, and after a few weeks, God took Jesus back to Heaven. And God promised that all who follow Jesus will join Jesus in a new Heaven and a new earth. This ultimate redemption is explained in the next article. 

15 The story of reality – part 2, the Fall

God created a very good world, but it is not so good now. It is a mixture of good and evil, so what went wrong? The answer is in part 2 of the story of reality. It is all in the first chapters of the Bible.

God makes a beautiful garden for Adam and Eve, where everything is provided and where they can enjoy God’s company. There is one condition, God wants them to trust his moral judgement, so he says don’t eat fruit from one particular tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

But God has an enemy, who enters the garden in the guise of a serpent. He says “you can’t trust God, eat this fruit and you will be like God, you will be able to know between good and evil yourselves. Make your own rules, be independent of God”.

Adam and Eve waver, then they eat the forbidden fruit. They disobey God. This may seem a small thing, but it is a test of trust, and of loyalty. This one decision, this single act of disobedience, changes everything.

They have turned their backs on God, and they quickly discover the consequences.

When God queries them, the blame game starts. Adam blames Eve, she blames the serpent. Their perfect harmony with each other and with God is shattered.

They are now dead to the friendship they once had with God. Their lives are full of suffering and they eventually die.

Because of their rebellion, God throws them out of the garden, and they begin a life where things go wrong. Food production becomes a constant struggle. Work becomes toil as the earth fights back with briars and thorns and natural disasters. Woman struggles to bear children in labour and pain, and clashes with the man who now rules her.

One of their sons kills his brother in cold blood. The disease of sin spreads to the whole community, men boast of their ability to plunder and kill others.

With each generation, human rebellion becomes more dramatic. The darkness spreads. One thoughtless act of sin and self-will has changed the world forever.

You may think eating the forbidden fruit is a myth. I don’t, but even if it is, the reality behind it is by far the best explanation of how a good world got corrupted, how humans are both good and bad, how we need someone to give us hope, someone to rescue us from ourselves. 

To be continued....