Sometimes I catch myself flipping through another tragic news story or witnessing an angry interaction in public and thinking, “Is this the way it was all meant to be? Is this what God had in mind when He created us?” Have you ever been there?
In order to answer that question, I find myself going back to the biblical beginnings of Genesis. You don’t have to read far before you notice that when God first created humanity, there was this close connection between us and our Maker. We would walk together side by side, like good friends. We were comfortable and at peace in our own skin. Nothing stood between us and God because we knew we were loved and safe in His presence. This is the way life was.
But then there is this moment in which our idyllic relationship with God and with one another gets severed by distrust. A lie spoken from a crafty, malicious voice whose only desire was to keep us from God, said to us: God is holding out on you. And we believed the lie. We thought God wanted to keep us from what was good, even though God had given us every good thing we need. We thought God didn’t want us to be like Him, even though He made us in His image. Ironically, what happened when we believed the lies and reacted in distrust toward God is that we traded in connection for disconnection, authenticity for hiding, accountability for blame, peace for shame.
Recognizable, isn’t it? It’s the way life is these days. Our stories are simply retellings of this first story. How often are we crippled by the fear that we’ll be found out for who we truly are? How much energy do we spend evading responsibility for our actions? How many of us have walked away from faith because we believed God was not good?
Is this the way life will always be?
Thankfully, no. At least not according to Genesis. Moments after God hears about how humanity rebelled against Him, He promises to do something about it. There’s this curious verse, Genesis 3:15, in which God tells us that evil’s presence in the world will indeed fuel conflict in our lives, but that one day a man will come who will stomp the deathblow to evil’s head, and as he does, evil will dig its venomous fangs into his heel.
Right here on the opening pages of Genesis, God has promised to deal decisively with the Power of Evil through the person of Jesus. On the cross, Jesus dealt the final blow to Evil. But it didn’t come without cost. Evil took his life. However, in the resurrection, Death and Evil were overcome for good. The disobedience of Genesis which made us unlike God is no longer the entire story. For those who believe, the obedience of Jesus on the cross is the power for us to truly be like and enjoy God now and forever.
Joshua Gorenflo and his wife, Kya, are ministers at Kenai Fellowship, Mile 8.5 on the Kenai Spur Highway. Worship is 11 a.m. on Sundays. Streamed live at kenaifellowship.com.
