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Genesis 3:20-24 – New Beginnings – Part 2
Read Part 1 of 'New Beginnings'.
We began last week with a statement and a question: We saw that Adam and Eve “sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings,” and that was their attempt to solve the immediate consequences of their sin. How much do we attempt to solve the immediate consequences of our own sins? How do we try to justify them? Maybe we allow ourselves to feel shame and become depressed because we feel we are not good enough and will never be accepted by God? There are all times we feel naked before God and use various ways to cover our consequences.
Do we, at times, or maybe even now, feel like Adam and Eve, not just attempting to cover our shame, but feeling exiled from Eden, feeling as if God might have given us the boot? The world was made to be our home, Eden, a place of Shalom (Peace) and fulfillment. But because of our sin we are all in exile. The world we live in no longer satisfies. Who can bring us home, bring us peace and fulfillment?
Only Jesus Christ, who was exiled for us, sent to earth from heaven, sent outside the gate, abandoned by everyone, to die on the cross. Yet because He did all that, the world will become our home again, the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. The presence of God and worship!
How can sinners cut off from God stand in His life-giving presence once again and experience joy? We are designed for fellowship with Him, to live in His presence - yes He is HOLY! How can flawed sinners like us come near God?
The flaming sword guarding the way to the presence of God CAME DOWN ON JESUS, and now the way is open!!!! Heb. 10:19-22 - “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
Righteousness and nakedness. Once we had nothing to hide from God’s sight or anyone else. When we lost our original righteousness, we had to cover ourselves and hide from the eyes of others. Now our shame and guilt need to be covered with God’s grace. Because Jesus was stripped naked on the cross, we can be clothed in that robe of righteousness!! Isa. 61:10 - “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
What a stark picture that is, that the very robe Jesus wore, which was spat upon for us, torn for us, bloodied for us, full of dirt and grime, but because of that, when we are covered in that robe in which he took the punishment and penalty for us with, that God the Father sees nothing but the pure white righteousness of Jesus Christ!!!! Praise God!! Ah, to know with confidence that we will once again have glorified sinless bodies once again! To know that God will rule the earth through Christ once again, as He ruled in the Garden of Eden and walked and talked with them in perfect happiness and righteousness!!
When Satan is bound and put in the bottomless pit and God will make a new heaven and a new earth and plant the Garden of Eden again upon this earth!! Oh, that happy day when the desert shall blossom as the rose! That day when “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sign with joy! In that happy day sorrow and sighing shall flee away!” Isa. 35:5-6, 10.
Then, beyond the millennial age, better yet - when the new Heaven and the new earth are made perfect, when the Tabernacle of God is WITH men, when the river of life shall flow from underneath the Throne of the Lord Jesus, and when the trees of life will bloom and bear fruit each month on each side of the river of life!!!!! Oh man, then we will have Paradise restored, and so will ALL of us who put our trust in our Lord Jesus Christ!!
Praise God, He has a way of restoring Paradise and Eden for all those who come under the Blood!! The blessed seed of the woman is the way of present salvation and future blessedness for all who trust in Him!! Come then, o poor sinner, to the Throne of Mercy!! Oh shamed sinner, conscious of your guilt and nakedness before God, don’t run away!!
Don’t depend on the fig-leaf garments of our own attempts at righteousness! But come for mercy, confessing our sins and trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ!!
Through this first Adam came death upon the whole human race. But through Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, we are all offered salvation and eternal life and eternal happiness in the Paradise of God!! Each one of us are, by nature, poor, wicked sinners Rom. 3:10-18) and each of us needs mercy and forgiveness. God loves sinners and has provided a way to salvation and making things right in His eyes again!
He gave His only begotten Son to die and suffer the torments of the cross and the shame of a criminal’s death in order that you and I might enjoy the blessings of sonship with God the Father! There is Salvation for you but it’s up to you to take hold of it!
Are you tired of sin? Do you honestly, in your heart believe in Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished for you? Do you desire the love, grace, forgiveness and mercy He offers you? Then trust Him now! Take Him into your heart and believe on Him today and take the salvation He offers so freely!
When you can honestly say yes to Christ and depend upon Him for forgiveness and salvation, and make him not just “Savior,” but also “Lord,” then you have been forgiven and washed whiter than snow. Then you will be with Him for all eternity. Make that decision today!
https://youtu.be/c1ewBAiYh8Q (404)
Last Update: Mar 18, 2019 8:18 am CDT
