https://esv.literalword.com/?q=genesis+3
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Saturday, 2 November 2024:
Genesis 3:15 — I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Genesis 3 explains what happened, how mankind and creation became corrupted after God had made everything perfectly good as the product of His love. The whole of the Bible tells “God’s Big Story” of His grand plan which includes four major plot movements — Creation, the Fall, Redemption, and Restoration (when Christ returns to restore all things, described in the last two chapters of the Bible). Genesis 3 describes the Fall, but it also begins the story of God’s plan for redemption, which climaxes with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Many don’t realize that the Gospel is first proclaimed in Genesis 3, and the rest of the Old Testament (and New Testament) points to Jesus Christ.
Genesis 3 lays out the pattern of temptation and sin which destroys, kills, and ruins fellowship with God and with others:
1) God’s word is questioned. (Genesis 3:1)
2) God’s word is distorted by people adding or taking away from His word, which causes people to doubt the authenticity of God’s actual word. (Genesis 3:2-3 – Compare with what God actually said in Genesis 2:17)
3) God’s very character is questioned. (Genesis 3:4, 5)
4) Pridefulness takes over, and people seek to essentially be their own god, to serve self, to decide what is right and wrong or good and bad for themselves (in a self-centered way), and to justify their behavior. (Genesis 3:5)
5) Desires for instant gratification and passions overcome loving obedience. (Genesis 3:6)
6) Sinners influence others to sin. (Genesis 3:6)
7) Sin exposes selfishness and weakness, creating a sense of vulnerability, fear, and doubt which causes division between God and others. People avoid God and put up barriers between each other. (Genesis 3:7-8)
8) People make excuses for their sin, blaming others for their sin, even blaming God. (Genesis 3:11-13)
9) Sin ruins relationships and turns work into painful toil as people seek to build for themselves a ‘kingdom’ or life based on their own ambitions rather than on God’s will for His glory. (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:17-19)
We will see this pattern of sin repeated throughout the Bible, but you see it every day in the lives of others but also in your own behavior – “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:4-27)
While our focus on Genesis 3 might be what Adam and Eve did and how we can relate with them, what we really should notice is God’s mercy and grace through it all. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the garden, He could have destroyed them right on the spot, but instead, He went to them (in the same way God sent His Son to the world when the world had rejected Him), and He continued to care for them, covering over their nakedness. (Genesis 3:21; see Galatians 3:27) However, the greatest verse in Genesis 3 is the 15th verse – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is a prophecy of Jesus (the seed of Adam and Eve) who will come to earth, be crucified for our sins (bruised heel), resurrected for our justification, bruising (or crushing in some versions) the head of Satan. Listen as the late Dr. R.C. Sproul comments on this key Bible verse — https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/ultimately-with-rc-sproul/the-serpent-crushing-savior
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can rejoice that you have been saved by grace through faith in Him, despite your flaws, and your eternal life is secure in Him and His righteousness which He has credited to you. You can also live a new life through Him, continually growing in righteousness until He returns. Through Christ, we have been freed from the penalty of sin; we are being saved from the power of sin in our lives; and we will one day be freed from the presence of sin when He returns.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 2 November 2024: Today, rejoice in God’s grace through Christ, which has been revealed to you throughout the entire Bible; walk in God’s grace, exuding confidence, love, joy, peace, gratitude, and contentment, and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 