Adam and Eve’s Redemption
Our society in many ways is at war with failure. Failure is so painful and devastating to us mentally and emotionally that we often either try to re define our failure as success or g6o to great lengths to hide it altogether. What if this were not possible? What if you made a mistake so big that it could not be re-defined and would impact every future generation on earth. Well this is the exact circumstance that Adam and Eve find themselves in after the Fall. Because of their failure all future generations have sin as their inheritance leading to their death. Can we learn from them? In fact we can, while our sins may not be as famous as theirs the impact is all the same. And while our sins may not be known by most people it is known by the most important, God himself.
Gods response to their failure (and ours) is to give hope!
Immediately after Adam and Eve’s disobedience God begins to pronounce his judgment in a particular order first to the Serpent who as the deceiver, then to Eve who was deceived and then to Adam who the Bible makes clear was ultimately responsible. (Genesis 3:1-19). His judgment comes with a promise and provides to us a glimpse into the Gospel that would only be fully revealed in Christ. “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.” God will put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. And He (the seed of the woman) will bruise you on the head and you (the serpent) will bruise his heel. Gods response to their failure (and ours) is to give hope!
God’s promise has more power than our failure. Our sins and their impact can feel big and overwhelm us but they are no match for the power of God working through his word.
They immediately respond to God. The Woman is no longer nameless because Adam names her Eve which means “life-giver” (Genesis 3:20). This is bold move by Adam, the Woman that allowed death to enter the world can be called life giver because of the promise of God that he has given. We also see a different Eve in Chapter 4 compared to Chapter 3. In Chapter 3 Eve is not exactly sure of what Gods word is (Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3:3) but now she not only knows the promise of God but she is rejoicing in it during times of suffering. Her eldest son Cain kills her son young Abel which is an indirect result of her failure and now God has given her another offspring. She names him Seth which means “Gods appointed” showing that she is no longer being deceived but putting her hope in Gods promise to provide a seed that would crush the head of serpent (Genesis 4:25).
Adam and Eve are not often looked to as an example to follow but we can learn from them. We learn from them the tragic consequences of our disobedience but also that we do not have to be defined by your biggest failure (or success) no matter how infamous. Instead we can be defined by what God says we are according to his word. This is salt and light in a society that tends to respond to Man’s failure with cancel culture or Man’s success with worship. This should encourage us when we fail and humble us when we succeed. We can also see that God’s promise has more power than our failure. Our sins and their impact can feel big and overwhelm us but they are no match for the power of God working through his word. God has fulfilled his promise to Adam and Eve and to us. Jesus Christ, God’s son born of a woman has crushed the serpents head and through his death and resurrection we all have a living hope in our time of failure.