Did you know that Advent begins in Genesis 3? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1 reminds us that God saw all that He created and said, "It is good". The creation included humans - Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." We bear the imago dei - the image of God...and God said, "it was very good".
Everything was good until the third chapter. We meet God's enemy, Satan in the guise of a serpent. His approach hasn't changed much since then: "Did God really say?" - plant some doubts, why would anyone really believe God's word is truth? "You won't die, but instead you'll be just like God" - why submit to God's word when you can be your own boss, make your own decisions, and be free! The freedom Satan offered turned to bondage - as Luther wrote - On the Bondage of Sin. Obedience gave way to rebellion; openness gave way to shame, and responsibility with freedom gives way to guilt. Instead of freedom promised they were enslaved to Sin. They hid from God.
Sin...we don't talk about it much anymore. Can you remember a conversation you've had in the last few weeks, months, years, about Sin? Pastors sometimes speak on it, but then again, the subject of Sin - or should I say the Theology of Sin has largely disappeared from our Pulpits also.
King David knew of Sin. His affair with Bathsheba was a picture of Sin at work within. Like Adam and Eve in the garden, David also sought to "hide" from God. It didn't work out well. David writes - "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin...my sin is ever before me". Dr. Sproul was known to ask the non-believer, "What do you do with guilt?" Hiding, put it out of your mind, comparing yourself to others, and excusing it doesn't get rid of guilt. Martin Luther writing on David's words in Psalm 51, writes: in this Psalm, we have it clearly expressed, that sin is a great and innate evil, and an awful deprivation and corruption of nature, in all the powers both of soul and body.
So, here is God in the garden...the deed has been done, and all is ruined - temporarily. God did not abandon Adam and Eve, and therefore Us. Instead He speaks clearly to everyone present, including Satan of what will one day take place:
Genesis 3:15
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.”
Her offspring shall fatally bruise your head, even as you shall bruise his heel. Here is the first Advent promise. It is in these words that we read of the one-day "Incarnation of Christ" and his suffering for Us. Yes, his heel would be bruised...but he shall bruise (crush) Satan's head.
The man and the woman may not have understood it, but to us this is first light!
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