Our Hope
Our Creator
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light…Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (Genesis 1:1-3, 26 ESV). Two questions are answered in these verses: “Where do we come from?” and “Why are we here?”. These two questions have been at the forefront of humanity’s mind for centuries. Despite the many attempts to answer these questions, one thing is for sure: of all the options out there (evolution, the Big Bang Theory, etc.), the Biblical account of creation stands among them all as the most logical option. The world and humanity present too much evidence that God created it to consider otherwise. For instance, the Earth is tilted at almost 23.5 degrees, spins at 1,037 mph, and takes 365 days to complete its orbit around the sun. These three stats affect the Earth’s seasons, time, temperature, weather, etc. Could chaos lead to this result? In other words, could matter floating around and bumping into each other eventually lead to an explosion that resulted in this much order? Logically thinking, it is impossible.
Evidence in the World
Genesis chapters 1-2 give the creation account of the world. The first verse of chapter one reads, “In the beginning, God…”. This reveals that before anything else was, God was. During this time of God’s being, the earth did not exist; as a matter of fact, nothing outside of God existed. God has always been, and it was not until God created the heavens and the earth that anything else was formed. This means that out of nothing, God created, revealing that he is eternal and all-powerful. He is eternally self-sufficient, and at the sound of his voice, he can bend the nature of nothing and create something out of it. Inevitably, the quality of creation will always match the quality of its creator. Therefore, as God began to speak and create, as he evaluated his creation, He declared that it was good, just as He is good (1:3, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). This is why Paul wrote in Romans 8:2, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Rm. 8:2, ESV). Therefore, all the world, land, animals, galaxies, stars, sun, etc., are evidence of the reality that God himself crafted all we know and see.
Evidence in Humanity
Another piece of evidence is found in the crown jewel of God’s creation: humanity. When God created man and woman, He had a specific purpose for them. Unlike the rest of creation, which only reflected God’s power and deity, humanity would be created in the image of God. Everything God had created up to that point was physical. What separates humanity from the rest of creation is that man is both physical and spiritual. This was so humanity could be equipped for communion with God. Humanity was created as a holy and innocent creation that resembles God’s holiness, so after creating man, creation was deemed “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Being made in the image of God meant that humanity was also fit for having dominion over God’s creation (Gen. 1:28-30), because God created man to be rational, moral, and relational. This means that although man depended upon God’s breath for life and image for communion, God created man so that man could act independently from God. This is why when God placed Adam and Eve into the garden, He gave them the command, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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” (Genesis 2:16-18). Having communion (relationship) with God, dominion over the Earth, and living in God’s image and likeness was God’s intended purpose for humanity.
Our World
The Temptation
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1). Humanity would now be faced with a decision: would they use their dominion and liberty to walk by faith or by sight? Genesis 3 answers the questions for us, “What has happened in the world?” or “Why is there evil in the world?”. Long story short, Eve is tempted by Satan to truly observe the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, and she realizes just how beautiful it is; after all, God created it. Satan even appealed to her rational, moral, and relational mind when he said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened (rational), and you will be like God (relational), knowing good and evil (moral)” (Genesis 3:4-5). Satan’s scheme was to convince Eve that she lacked in something she already had by convincing her that creation could give her more than the Creator already gave her.
The Fall
Sadly, this was enough to fall into Satan’s trap, but what is worse is where we find Adam when all of this is taking place. “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” (Genesis 3:6). Adam already set his wife up for failure when he added to the word of God by telling her that He said, “neither should you touch it”, but had Adam been tending and keeping the garden as he should have, then Satan would not have won the day. Instead, he took the fruit from his wife, broke the command of God, and sealed the deathly fate of humanity.
The Consequences
“…therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove 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” (Genesis 3:23-24). The ultimate consequence of sin is that humanity is separated from God. No longer is man’s image that of which God made him, but the image is distorted in that man now has a sinful nature. This is a corrupt nature, one that makes humanity unfit to have communion with a holy God. The consequence of sin, just as God warned Adam, was death (Gen. 2:18). God is the source of life, and to choose anything other than God was to separate oneself from life and choose death (Romans 6:23).
This sinful nature was not limited to Adam, but as Paul wrote, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12). This sinful nature was passed down to the rest of humanity, which is why when Adam and Eve had Seth, their third son, it is recorded, “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” (Gen. 5:3). Humanity is still created “in God’s image”, but the sinful nature of Adam has been passed down to all of humanity. This is why Paul would go on to write, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This leads to the reality that all of humanity is guilty of being “…filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32).
Humanity is not affected by sin alone. The world also suffers from sin. Paul wrote, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it…” (Romans 8:20). Although it is often thought that things like chronic disease, natural disasters, and mental illness are part of this natural world, it must be understood that this is part of living in a futile world that is dealing with the consequences of sin. This does not mean that in every case someone gets cancer because they committed a specific sin, but that all of humanity deals with different types of pain because the world is corrupted by sin. Yet, humanity still tries to find satisfaction and fulfillment in this world and becomes upset and blames God when pain is all this futile world has to offer. The truth is that man used his dominion to leave room for Satan to exercise temptation in this world. Therefore, one must not be surprised when “the prince of the power of the air”, Satan (Ephesians 2:2), uses the dominion humanity handed over to him to leverage this futile world in his favor by turning people away from God.
Our Hope
The Sacrifice is Provided
What must we do if everyone is corrupt and subjected to a futile world that cannot offer them anything to restore their communion with God? The answer is this: WE can do nothing. If reconciliation with God depends upon humanity to do enough good things, then we are hopeless because man can never do enough good to outweigh their sin (James 2:10). This is where Christianity differs from all other major world religions. Every other religion has a “sacred text” that is only a moral guidebook that will show them many “good things” they can try to do to reach a state of liberation. The only true hope humanity has is that God is willing to provide the means necessary to be freed from the burden of sin, and that is precisely what the Bible reveals about God. God did not tell Adam and Eve to balance out their sin by doing something good; instead, “… the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). Death was still the penalty for their sin, but instead of God taking the lives of Adam and Eve, He took an animal and sacrificed it in their place to cover their nakedness, a symbol of their new sinful nature that bore shame, fear, and guilt.
Provision in the Old Testament
To miss this point is to miss the purpose of the Bible. The Bible is more than a moral guidebook. It is the record of God’s faithfulness to fulfill his promises and provide the sacrifice necessary to redeem His people and bring them into a relationship with Himself. Even the Old Testament, which many people mistake as a list of rules and records, is written in the context of God’s faithfulness to provide the sacrifice. When Israel is released from Egypt, God gave them favor with the Egyptians to have the animals provided for them in the wilderness to make sacrifices for atonement (Exodus 13:37-38). Before Israel went into the Promised Land, God made a covenant with them that if they would keep his commands and devote themselves to Him, he would bless and multiply their livestock, which would provide the means of sacrifice for atonement (Deuteronomy 7:13). After seventy years of captivity, God used King Darius to release the Israelites back to Jerusalem and provide for them riches to rebuild the temple and the livestock needed to make atoning sacrifices (Ezra 6:8-10).
Provision in the New Testament
All of the Old Testament points to the climax of God’s redemptive story. Hebrews 10:1 reads, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hb. 10:1 ESV). The law given to Israel only amplified the reality that humanity depends on God to provide the means of reconciliation. Jesus, being God in the flesh (John 1:1-14), is the means of reconciliation. Unlike the priest of the Old Testament, who had to bring animals for sacrifice repeatedly, Jesus “entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection is the gospel. The Gospel is the story of how God is faithful to provide the necessary sacrifice so that sinners can have their sins forgiven and be reconciled with God because we cannot provide that sacrifice on our own.
The Sacrifice is Sufficient
If the creation that God deemed “very good” was not enough to satisfy the soul of humanity but only led to death, how much less could a world described as “futile” be satisfactory? This is why God is the only one who can provide a sacrifice sufficient to bring humanity back into communion with Himself, restoring the image that they were created in. When Jesus, being God in the flesh, said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father” (John 10:17-18 ESV); what He was proclaiming was that his willingness and power to lay down his own life and take it up again would be the sufficient sacrifice needed so that his sheep “…may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). John affirms this statement as a witness when he wrote, “He himself (Jesus) is the sacrifice that atones for our sins— and not only our sins but the sins of all the world” (1 John 2:2 NLT). To atone for sins means that the debt of sin is paid (Romans 6:23, Colossians 2:14) and separated from humanity (Psalm 103:12). Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection is the accomplishment of the gospel, and it is the only power that can save all who believe in it (Romans 1:16).
The Sacrifice is Available
The Gospel is the good news of how God has provided the sufficient sacrifice through the Son of God, but it is more than that. The Gospel shows humanity the extent of his love. John wrote, “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). Paul wrote, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God’s love is so great for us that even when we altogether abandon him, the sacrifice is still made available to us. He has made that love known through his patience, mercy, and grace, and he extends the offer of his love through the nail-pierced hands, broken body, and spilled blood of Jesus. Jesus willingly bore the curse of sin and death, and defeated them both through his resurrection, so that we could say, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).
The Gospel is only good news, though for those who pursue it by faith. The Jews were condemned because instead of pursuing the law by faith, they thought their works were their righteousness (Rom. 9:32). Just as the Israelites were supposed to pursue God by faith, we are to pursue God by faith. If you have made it this far into the article, you have heard the gospel, and faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17). Now you must respond. How should you respond? Paul wrote, “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). You must die to yourself and sin, and make Jesus the Lord of your life by believing in his death, burial, and resurrection. There is no alternative way, because humanity’s only hope is that God was willing to provide the sacrifice so that we could be reconciled to him. Therefore, you must repent from your sins, believe in the gospel, and call on the name of the Lord.
If you have any questions, or wish to respond to this article, please do not hesitate to reach out and contact us here at East DeSoto Baptist Church.
