“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
How often do you read and reflect on Genesis 1–3? It is an amazing narrative of God’s creativity and love. It is a weighty few chapters and always leaves me in awe of God and his goodness.
Those chapters may especially affect me because God used them to begin his pursuit of me and graciously showed me my place within his universe. But I think, for all readers, this story has the power to humble them because of the goodness of God.
We see an amazingly creative God speaking the entire universe into existence (Ps. 33:6). His Word has power, and as he speaks, nothingness obeys and explodes into beautiful creation. He desires relationship with a man, and creates a paradise for him. He gives him a wife and a mandate to propagate flourishing beauty. Amazing—simply amazing! We cannot begin to imagine the goodness of such a God who loves his creation so much, he places his image-bearer, man, as its overseer.
But every time I read Genesis 3, I am more and more affected and sickened by our rebellion. I am shocked by the lack of belief in God’s goodness. He gave Adam and Eve no reason to mistrust him, but they didn’t believe in the goodness of their Creator and instead, believed the lie of Satan: that God was holding something back from them.
This is heartbreaking. Take some time to truly reflect on the betrayal our first parents committed. Peer into the evil of this rebellion, let yourself be disgusted by their actions, feel the repugnant nature of their mutiny in your stomach. Now put yourself in their place.
You are Eve. You are Adam. Their sin is your sin and you have rebelled against God (Rom 5:12, 14). You may not have murdered or raped, but the intentions of your heart are evil because you have inherited the fallen nature of Adam. You believed God is not good and he is holding something back from you. You have eaten the fruit of betrayal.
But (and what a glorious “but” this is!) God’s love would not be quenched by our rebellion—his love would not be stopped. God covered Adam and Eve in their sin by crafting coverings from the skin of an animal. He shed blood to make a way for Adam and Eve, and he shed the blood of Jesus on the cross, to make a way for you. He covered you in your sin with Jesus. “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief,” says Isaiah, so that many will, “be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:10–11).
Jesus bore your sin on the cross, and you have been accounted righteous. Because of him, you are covered and get to fully experience the goodness of God.
Ryan Williams is the lead pastor of the Everett church.
