Day: September 5, 2021

God also assigned a certain amount of suffering to the woman and the man (vv. 16-19). The suffering assigned to the woman was in the childbearing and delivery of a child. The delivery of a child is a great suffering assigned by God to fallen sinners. In Genesis 3 God assigned man to toil with sweat (vv. 17, 19). As fallen sinners, we all need God’s assignment of suffering. The human life today after man’s fall is a life of suffering. The less suffering a person has, the deeper he can become involved with sin. Those who are wealthy and self-indulgent are more involved with sin. People who are poor and who have to toil all the time to eat have no time to think about worldly amusement, entertainment, and the pleasures of this life, all of which are mostly involved with sin.

In the beginning of the book of Job, we can see that Job was very rich. All his children were enjoying a rich life until one day a great wind came and destroyed the house where they were eating and drinking wine. The house fell upon them, and they died (1:18-19). If they had been toiling in the field, this might not have happened. We should be warned by this. Job was very rich and comfortable, but God assigned a certain amount of suffering to him. In the midst of our suffering, though, we can enjoy God as our Savior and rest.

This is all a part of the gospel, but we need to see the main item in this gospel. In God’s curse of the serpent, the gospel was announced. This announcement was that the seed of the woman would come to bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). To bruise the head of the serpent is to put the serpent to death. The serpent, the tempter, the deceiver of man, was to be put to death by the seed of woman. This was not only the gospel but also a great prophecy that one day the very God would become a human seed. The top gospel is that God became a human seed to destroy Satan, putting him to death.

Satan spoiled man, poisoned man, causing man to become the flesh. But God became a man, became flesh, and died in this flesh to put Satan to death. Hebrews 2:14 says that Christ shared in man’s blood and flesh “that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil.” Genesis 3:15 has been fulfilled in Hebrews 2:14. The incarnated God put on man’s flesh, and in this flesh He died a death that put Satan to death. This is the top gospel.

The death of this human seed, on the one hand, put Satan to death, destroying him, and on the other hand, accomplished redemption for fallen man. God prepared this redemption through the shedding of the blood of Christ (typified by the slain sacrifice—9:22; Matt. 26:28). This was a vast event that God consummated in the universe for the completion of His economy in redeeming His chosen people.

Eventually, through the death of this human seed, God made Christ a covering to cover the naked, shameful, and sinful man so that this human seed could be man’s righteousness before God (1 Cor. 1:30) for God’s justification of man (Rom. 3:22-24). This is typified by God clothing man with the coats of the skin of the slain sacrifice (Gen. 3:21). The incarnated God put on the human flesh to die in order to destroy Satan and to accomplish redemption. Such a death makes Him the very righteousness that the fallen man can wear before God, not only to be redeemed but also to be justified.

All of this is much more than the story of man. It is the story of God, the history of God in saving the fallen man. It is also the contents of the preaching of the gospel. This gospel preaching tells us how God, the Creator of man, became man’s Savior after man’s fall. He became man’s Savior by becoming a seed of humanity, a human seed. The creating God, because of the fall of man, became a human seed to destroy the tempter, to redeem fallen man, and to be made man’s righteousness before God to cover fallen man’s sinfulness and nakedness. This is really a history of God.

At the beginning of God’s gospel, God said, “Adam, where are you?” Now after wearing the human seed as his clothing, Adam could say, “Now, God, I am in this dear One who has become my clothing. Through His death I’m here.” This is the story of God in His acting to rescue man, to become man’s redemption, and to become man’s clothing, man’s covering, man’s righteousness, so that man can be in God to become one with God.

Genesis 3 reveals that after man’s fall, God came to visit sinners. He became a human seed to die so that Satan could be destroyed and the redemption of man could be accomplished. Then He became our righteousness that we could wear to cover us. Eventually, the result is that we fallen sinners who have been redeemed and justified can be in Him to be one with Him. Is this not a top gospel? Such a gospel is the history of God. Our gospel preaching, our gospel conversation with sinners, should be with this high gospel of the history of God.

SAVING MAN FROM HIS FALL

Man became fallen to such a miserable state. Surely such a fallen man could do nothing to help himself out of such a fallen state. Only the wise and almighty God could afford a full and dynamic salvation to the man created by Him and spoiled by His adversary. Furthermore, He, as the unchanging and everlasting God, could not have any change in annulling His eternal economy, which He made in His Divine Trinity in eternity past and for eternity future. He had to rescue the man whom He had created for His unchanging purpose, and He did it.

Furthermore, what God created for His purpose according to His good pleasure was a wonderful, excellent, marvelous, and precious man. In the eyes of God, man in his original created state was most excellent, marvelous, and precious. We may even say that in Genesis 2 man became God’s pleasure. Hence, God loved man (John 3:16). He would save him at any cost, even at the cost of sacrificing His only begotten Son.

This is why even in eternity past Christ as the second of the Divine Trinity was preparing to come into time (Micah 5:2) to die for fallen man according to the divine determination made in the council of the Divine Trinity in eternity past (Acts 2:23 and footnote 1, Recovery Version; 1 Pet. 1:19-20).

Thus, God came in to save man from his fall. Genesis 3 tells us that God came to visit the man whom He had created and who had become fallen and lost. When God came to Adam after his fall, He called to Adam, saying, “Where are you?” (v. 9). It was as if God were saying, “Where are you? You have become lost, so I have come to seek you. You have become fallen, so I have come to rescue you.” That was God’s visitation to Adam. This was the first case of “door-knocking” in the whole universe. God was knocking on Adam’s door to visit Adam. Man had not yet invented physical dwelling places, so there was not a physical door on which God could knock. But God came to knock on the door of Adam’s heart. He came to seek Adam because Adam had become lost.

When God found Adam, He had a kind of gospel conversation, gospel talk, with him. The first gospel talk is recorded in Genesis 3. The first lesson for those who intend to visit people with the gospel is in Genesis 3. We should learn how to talk to a fallen man.

The first thing God uttered was, “Where are you?” Adam responded by saying, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I am naked; so I hid myself” (v. 10). This indicates that when we talk to the sinners whom we visit, we have to spend some time to help them realize where they are. We need wisdom to do this. The way is not to tell them where they are but to let them tell us. God was very clear where Adam was, but God would not say anything. Instead, He asked, “Adam, where are you?” Adam told his story to God. Then God preached the gospel.

The first thing in the preaching of the gospel is to condemn the serpent. The serpent was cursed by God in Genesis 3. God said to the serpent, “You are cursed more than all the cattle / And more than all the animals of the field: / Upon your stomach you will go, / And dust you will eat / All the days of your life” (v. 14). This indicates that formerly Satan, the serpent, was standing and walking. Now he is cursed to go upon his stomach along the earth and cursed to eat the dust. Now he is altogether something belonging to the earth. In God’s condemnation of Satan, He gave Satan a limitation: he cannot move above the earth, and he cannot eat anything except dust.