In the beginning God created. He spoke into existence everything that is so that all of creation was an expression of Himself. But His last act of creation was different. While all else was the expression of God, this final creation was God. Not in the literal sense, for God cannot re-create Himself nor can He be created, but this final creation, the human creature, was formed by the "hands" of God into the image of God and filled with the very breath of God. This is as close as one could get to being God, and not only in essence, because then God assigned to him the responsibilities of a god, giving him authority over the earth. But Man was not autonomous; he functioned as God’s agent.
And then the unthinkable happened. Through deception Man and Woman were led to believe, by a lesser created being, that rather than living as authoritative beings under the authority of God, they could assume autonomy from God, becoming His equal. The act of rebellion incurred the curse of death from God for Man, Woman, the earth, and the deceptive serpent. But this curse came with a promise, that the offspring of Woman would crush the serpent’s head despite the serpent bruising His heel.
As the story progresses we see the fruit of the curse. Man realized how non-autonomous he had always been; without the divine blessing the earth no longer responded to humans in the same way. Apart from God their authority needed to be exercised through sweat, pain, and violence. Man and woman had two sons: Cain and Abel. Both of them made sacrifices to God, but only Abel’s sacrifice was accepted because he came to God in faith and lived well (Heb. 11, Gen. 4:7). Bound by sin and its curse, and therefore having no other means to relieve his jealousy, Cain violently murdered Abel. The first man to crush the head of sin through faith in God was bruised by death through the sin of another. The descendants of Man and Woman were born bound by sin, but where sin abounds grace abounds much more. So Man had another son in his own likeness, in his own image; he named him Seth, and the image of God in mankind continued. As the fifth from Adam through Cain, Lamech, furthered the curse of sin through violence, the seventh son of Adam through Seth, also named Lamech, was a man of faith who lived 777 years.
But even the men of faith were not free from sin, so that the condition of humanity continued to worsen until God looked down and “saw that the earth was corrupt and full of violence” (Gen. 6:11). There was only one man, Noah, seeking God, and God had no choice but to totally destroy all things. Yet He gave Noah instructions that saved him, his family, and many animals. Humanity, still bound by sin, quickly returned to their old ways, inviting further wrath from God in the form of divisive languages. And this pattern continues: God acts, working through faithful persons or bringing wrath on the disobedient, and for a time things get better, but inevitably the curse of sin continues to hold all humanity in its grasp, even those who turn to God in faith.
Next God called Abr(ah)am, promising him dominion of a land and that God would bless all nations through his descendants. It is interesting that Jesus interprets this promise spiritually, calling all people of faith Abraham’s children while telling his physical descendents that if they were his children they would do the things he did (John 8). God used Abraham’s family to reveal Himself in specific and known ways and to fulfill the promise of crushing the head of the serpent, but faith in God was never exclusive to Abraham and his descendants. (Melchizedek, Balaam, Rahab, Ruth, Nebuchadnezzar, and the Magi were all non-Israelites who served and worshipped the One True God.)
In Abraham’s family we find that even in these special agents of God the bondage of sin is very powerful. Through Jacob, the grandson who will carry the blessing from God, Abraham has 12 great-grandsons. Joseph, the second youngest, seems to be the most righteous of his brothers, crushing the head of sin, but through the sin of his brothers he is bruised and sold into slavery. He is thought to be dead by his father only to be later brought back to life, and through his new life his family is saved from famine. First seen in Cain and Abel, the nature of sin, its curse and its cure, continues to be developed in Joseph and his brothers.
Abraham’s descendants become enslaved by the Egyptians. In response to their cries of faith God raises up Moses to lead the people by speaking to and for them. In fact, echoing the themes of the creation of humanity, God makes Moses as god to Pharaoh with Aaron as his prophet (Exodus 7:1). Not only does Moses have power over Pharaoh and Israel, but Creation itself responds to his voice. God continues with His plan of ruling through humans. But, even though Moses was a man of faith who followed God, he still sinned (disregarding God’s authority and violently striking Creation instead of speaking to it) so he was unable to enter the Promised Land. Another righteous hero of the faith bruised by the curse of sin. And it is obvious that, while God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness, a further remedy for sin is necessary.
Through Moses we find God revealing Himself more specifically. He gives The Law and a form of worship, but it is important to realize that these did not originate with Moses.
The purpose of the tabernacle was to preserve the worship of God until the times would have reached their fulfillment and the promised remedy for sin would come through the line of Abraham. The tabernacle was not an end but a means; while the nations around Israel were fulfilling their need to be ruled by creating images of false gods, God called Israel to construct an image of the real heavens (Heb. 8-9). And so, temple worship is a constant call and reminder to the people of Israel to put their faith in God, to love God.
The purpose of the Mosaic Law was to help the people of Israel to understand how to interact with each other. While the nations around Israel had arbitrary codes of ethics based upon sin and unnecessary violence, God gives Israel a code of ethics which understands the needs of the oppressed and estranged. And so, the Mosaic Law was a constant call and reminder to the people of Israel to care for Creation and to love their neighbors.
There was also a point where the law and tabernacle worship converged, the sacrificial system. The Law and tabernacle worship pointed to the complete inadequacy of humanity in their bondage to sin. Despite the work of the most righteous followers of God, the people continued to turn from him, which required death. So God gave the Israelites an illustration of how sin would be atoned for in the sacrifice of innocent animals. The animal sacrifices did not accomplish atonement in and of themselves, rather they highlighted the curse of sin, the blessing of faith, and the need for a remedy that only God Himself could provide.
Once Moses and his successor died, the people continually fell into idolatry and followed their own ways until the aroused wrath of God resulted in captivity and oppression, at which point God stepped in over and over by raising up leaders who would follow Him. Eventually the people, rather than recognizing God’s hand in their continuing demise and turning to Him in faith, demanded a king to rule over them. This was a further rejection of God’s authority and His chosen method of relating to His people through the spoken word of prophets.
Saul, the first king, very quickly rebels against God’s authority, so God says He will strip the kingdom from Saul and give it to another. David, a man after God’s own heart, was named the next king. He was one of the most faith filled kings and yet he had two named faults; he had blood on his hands from many wars, which disallowed him from building the temple (1 Chronicles 22:8), and he committed adultery and murder to cover it up, which resulted in a curse of sin on David’s family (2 Samuel 12:11-14).
And the story of Israel continues along these lines. Men of faith and men of rebellion, all bound by the curse of sin and creeping further from submission to God and appropriate methods of carrying out their divine callings. As the people strayed further, falling into idolatry and sinful lifestyles, God continued with His original methods, raising up prophets who spoke against injustice, oppression, and false worship, calling people back to faith and righteous living. As should be expected by now, Josiah, the last king of Israel to turn to God in faith (he is said to have turned more fully to God than ANY other king), is killed in battle by the king of Egypt (another bruised heel). His sons turn from bad to worse until the wrath of God is kindled and the nation is carried into captivity.
And God stopped speaking to Israel through prophets.
Every human, even the most faith-filled and faithful, had proven unable to crush the head of the serpent. So God Himself, the Creator of the world, put on human flesh. The Holy Spirit of the Creator entered a virgin's womb and conceived a son, a divine human, the Word of God incarnate. And this man-God walked the earth in complete submission and obedience to His Father. Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, descended from David, Abraham, Noah, and Adam was a man, given the responsibility of exercising dominion over the earth in harmony with his neighbor and in perfect submission to God, just like every other human. But Jesus was not just any human. As Jesus went throughout his life he did not exert his authority through force or coercion: He spoke the truth even when it hurt him and his followers; He loved those who were despised and could do nothing in return; He spoke to God as his Father and friend; He even spoke to Creation and it responded to him.
As Jesus lived this life of loving authority, calling those around him, even religious leaders, to return to God in faith, he aroused the jealousy of those who were not accepted by God, as Abel had aroused the jealousy of Cain. And so this God-man, this perfect being who was free from sin and therefore free from the curse of death, was handed over to the authorities and violently murdered. His heel had been bruised, but death can only result from sin, and since this man-God had never sinned his death took the place of all those who had or would turn from their sin to God. The head of the serpent was crushed, the power of sin broken. And Jesus, God in the flesh, the perfect human, was resurrected. He came back from the grave, with death swallowed up in victory.
Not only that, he then ascended into heaven, where he received authority once and for all from the Father to rule as the perfect human authority. God is once again ruling the earth through Man in complete harmony, proper submission, and perfect unity. Not only this, but Jesus tells his human followers that because he broke the curse of sin he can now send the promised Holy Spirit of God to dwell inside of his followers so that they too might be controlled by the Spirit and walk lives of faith, spreading the blessing of life to others. Until Jesus, faith was diminishing under the curse of sin, but because Jesus broke the curse of sin all people can experience life, peace, and freedom. And we see an explosion of things happening all at once: Jesus’ followers speak and other people receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ followers speak and creation responds, Jesus’ followers speak and the curse begins to be reversed.
But all is not well. While the curse is broken for those who trust in the substitutionary death of Jesus on their behalf and walk in submission to God as Jesus’ followers, there are those still under the curse of sin who have real, God-given authority. Soon we find these people persecuting Jesus’ followers as they persecuted Jesus himself. One by one they are killed and buried.
Before Jesus, when those living in rebellion killed the people of faith, things went from bad to worse, but after Jesus, when his followers are persecuted and killed, the blessing actually increases and flows over. Not only is sin atoned for, but it is now working against itself. And God’s people are left with a final promise: once every language, tribe, and nation has received the authoritative word of God through Jesus’ people, Jesus himself will return and judge everyone, the living and the dead. At that time the people of God will be raised to new life in physical bodies and will reign on a new earth, with Jesus himself as their head, in peace.
Hallelujah! All praise be to God.
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