Deception & Redemption

Denying the Creator
Have you ever been deceived? Has somebody you really trusted lied to you and stole what you valued without you knowing it. It has happened to me, and I believe almost everyone I know. You feel violated, and it hurts you to your core, knowing that you have been taken advantage of when you least expected it. In some cases, our losses will never be made up. Everything was perfect in Adam and Eve’s world as noted in the first two chapters in Genesis. They had each other and a wonderful garden to live in with no pain or suffering. There was a harmonious relationship between these two human beings. They were soul mates embracing extreme joy and happiness that was designed to last forever. It was a love story come true, and when Adam realized that he was complete he said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,” Genesis 2:23. In the same verse, Adam identifies his wife as a “woman,” because she came from Adam. It is interesting to note that the name “Adam” is the Hebrew word for man. They were meant for each other, because our benevolent Creator miraculously ordained this union. The perfect union between man and women is sanctified by the Creator.

This couple had no guilt or bad tapes or fear-based lies in their head, because there was no sin in the world. They were in an ideal setting to be managers and partakers in the role of stewards, but not as owners, because God owns everything. It could easily be seen that this union, the first male and female created in God’s own image were far more capable than any other creature to be in this position to rule over and have dominion.

Adam and Eve were undoubtedly gifted with intelligence, language, creativity, moral conscience, and a deep emotional depth crowned by their Creator with glory and honor. After all, that is all included in what it means to be created in His image. Why wouldn’t they be given that privileged position?

The Great Deception

We know the story of their failure. It happens to all of us, because we live in our earthly bodies. Even as a believer, we are instructed, “Put to death therefore, what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry,” Colossians 3:5.

This wonderful couple had everything. They were greatly blessed by God, they were living in a perfect environment. They might have been totally happy forever, but they blew it. Adam failed to follow God’s instructions as the masterful liar entered the picture, thereby deceiving Eve and that led to Adam’s disobedience. The world of harmony between God’s creatures disappeared, the beautiful relation they had with each other, and their offspring would be gone forever. They now had to deal with guilt, shame, and pain in both the physical and spiritual realms; most of all, the intimate relationship they had with their Creator was lost. Adam and Eve would be forced from their Edenic paradise to face death and chaos that now would be part of their world.

This dysfunctional way of living would be passed down to their descendants, until the prophecies foretelling their humanity’s redemption would be fulfilled in all their exquisite detail.
It marked a point in time in human history, where Christ, the son of God, would come to earth as the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, John 1:29, 36.

Eve was taken advantage of by the world’s most masterful deceiver and liar.

The fallen angel, Satan, who was so powerful that he took the form of a “serpent” as it states in Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” He challenged Eve by twisting the meaning of God’s Word. Today we see the origins of man, all life, including the Cosmos, as stated in Genesis, continually being attacked by the proponents of long-age evolution.

Deception is taking the truth, mixing it up with something untrue to accomplish an advantage. In this case, Satan did this for evil purposes. The great deceiver mixed God’s Word up and turned it around. He turned the positive commandment of freedom to eat of every tree in the garden except one into “Did not God say you should not eat,” Gen. 3:1.

 

The fatal fruit was attractive and desirable not just for eating, as the Genesis account describes, it also would offer power to be like God. For one to even think they could be like God would be the ultimate offense. To assume such a ridiculous position would at the same time take away God’s promise of the hope of eternal life. It would be similar to the fatal fruit of evolution where the Creator is rejected and never mentioned at all. His name is absent and substituted with another god, the god of nature. We also have been deceived by what we see, particularly when it was attractive and pleasing to the eye. Eve was attracted to the fatal fruit, because it was desirable and pleasant as it states, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband who was with her, and he ate,” Genesis 3:6.

Eve convinced herself to believe the greatest lie that would have horrific consequences for the world.

She believed it would make her as wise as her Creator. It was so appealing to her flesh that she committed the ultimate act of defiance against the One who created her. We too have not only witnessed this, but we all have partaken in this tragic lie. Everyone has tasted failure in what happened to Adam and Eve. Adam would follow as they both fell for this sham that would not only change their world by subjecting it to death and disease, but the earth would be subject to God’s wrath as well. It would be subject to its own destructive forces like exploding volcanoes, typhoons, hurricanes, tsunamis, flooding, and so much more. The earth and the whole Cosmos would be subject to God’s judgment as Paul reminds us, “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now,” Romans 8:22. The Judgement of God would be seen everywhere from the tiniest molecule to the most spectacular cosmic event, because science observes the second natural law known as entropy. We all see it, because we see the highest order decrease to chaos. Another way of explaining it is that everything is running down, cars rust, machines stop working, cells die, and so do we.

We know that their guilt and shame was deeply felt by both Adam and Eve. They deliberately sinned against their Creator, who made them in His image. Satan unleashed evil onto this earth so cunningly and deceptively that our first parents fell for it. We are also apt to succumb to our own carnal fleshy ways. Paul reminds us that the mind set on earthly things will never please God, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” Romans 8:8. Satan spoke the truth when it came to opening their eyes to evil.

At that moment, their mind and hearts lost their pure innocence and they became aware of thoughts of guilt that tore them internally as corruption entered their minds. For the first time, they expressed their self-awareness of their nakedness accompanied by ensuing fear, guilt and shame. Adam and Eve would attempt to cover themselves up with crudely “sewed fig leaves together making themselves aprons.” Genesis 3:7. We are later told in Genesis 3:21 that God replaced their coverings with animals’ skins. They witnessed the process of God covering their guilt and shame by sacrificing the innocent blood of an animal like a sheep, as it is written,

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life,” Leviticus 17:11.

Jesus Christ would bring this holy sacrifice to its full completion. He would come to this earth with a primary goal to fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies that He would die for our sins, Isaiah 53:3-6. He became our covering, thereby giving us hope, and by His blood, He defeated death through His resurrection. We are also told that Christ would have to come and shed His blood for mankind as it is written in Hebrews 9:14, “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

For those that believe in Him, it is finished, because he gave us back our right to eternal happiness. We are not in bondage to sin and guilt anymore, and only by His amazing grace, we can now live our lives more abundantly, John 10:10. The celebration of the birth of Christ is a time of great joy and happiness, because our Creator came to be our Savior. That is why we celebrate that Christ, our true King lives. The plan of redemption was revealed in Genesis 3:15, as stated, “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.”

It is the first mention of the plan of salvation in which the offspring or the seed of a woman, Jesus Christ, would fatally bruise the head of the serpent. In contrast, the serpent would bruise his heel as our Savior would be sacrificed for us to have forgiveness and eternal fellowship with Him.

Satan is called father as Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies,” John 8:44.

Those that manifest the character of evil are the offspring of Satan. He has been cast down here to earth where he has been defeated by Christ. In the gospel, we become more than conquerors.
In His plan, our Creator and Savior humbled himself to come down to earth in the most unique way as the seed of God sanctified in the womb of a Jewish virgin, Isaiah 7:14.

He would be born as a helpless infant, Isaiah 9:6. He would become one of us as God walked this earth. John 1:14 says, “the word became flesh.” The Genesis account gives the reason why Christ came to earth. It is here, where we witnessed His everlasting grace, mercy and love on Calvary. We need to meditate on His amazing grace, while we are celebrating this holiday season. Please do not get discouraged but reflect on the hope that brings us real joy, Christ in us, the hope of glory. God Bless You!