“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 3:15).
EVEN BEFORE SIN BROKE THE PERFECTION OF GOD’S CREATION, GOD HAD FORMULATED A RESCUE PLAN. A descendant of Adam and Eve would crush Satan, the one who had lied to them, enticing them to sin: “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” As it turned out, this One would live a perfect life and then die a sacrificial death. Not deserving death, He would die anyway, “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14,15).
To hear that God has provided a way for us to be rescued is “good news” indeed. The New Testament uses the word “gospel” (“glad tidings”) to refer to this plan. But it will not seem like particularly good news until we have understood the seriousness of the problem it proposes to solve. Unless we see what it means to have rebelled against God, to be separated from Him, and to be under the penalty of death both now and forever, we will not be receptive to the message of salvation. The terribleness of the problem is what makes the solution so amazing. We must hear the fearful news of our doom before we can rejoice at the good news of our deliverance.
But once we face the eternal tragedy — and utter agony — of being lost, the fatherly love that moved God to provide for our deliverance will bring us tears of joy. He could have abandoned us to the consequences of our choice, but He was not willing to do so. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We can’t fathom the kind of love that would prompt such a sacrifice — we can only respond to it thankfully.
But let us be clear: it is from sin that God proposes to save us. Sin is the root from which all the lesser problems in the world grow, and sin is what the gospel is about. In the gospel, salvation is not about the amelioration of social ills or earthly maladies. It’s about the forgiveness of our sins, and after that, learning to live again in reverence and gratitude toward the Creator who loves us.
“Salvation is bringing back to normal the Creator-creature relation” (A. W. Tozer).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
