MINING THE RICHES
God’s
T H I G H E R
T H I N G S __ 22
he self-giving love of God in the holy Trinity comes to full expression in His glorious creation. All things are made at His speaking, reflecting His perfect order and holiness. As the crowning jewel of creation, man and woman are given life through God’s breath. As those uniquely created in His image, they are to steward the Lord’s creation. “Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28 ESV). “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” (Genesis 2:1 ESV). God’s self-expression was complete. He and His creation could now live in perfected bliss for time and eternity.
Then, the deceiver spoke. His mouth was filled with half-truths meant to delude and destroy. “Did God really say?” was his litany of lies. All that was good was now subjected to frustration. Cursed is the ground. Work is filled with painful toil. Pains increased in childbirth. For the deceiver, it meant crawling for transport and dust for sustenance. Even worse, enmity was created between the deceiver and the truth. The promise of victory and restoration was that the deceiver’s head would be crushed by Eve’s greatest offspring. Today, as the Church lives in the great end times, we balance precariously between two worlds. In one, we see the harsh realities of sin, death, and the power of the devil. In the other, we hear the Word made flesh speaking words of eternal life. The tension between what we see and what we hear lies at the heart of the Christian life. In Christ, the Lamb who was slain, all is complete. Sin is forgiven, death swallowed up, the deceiver’s
