Genesis 1 teaches that God made us.  We are the product of his fabulously inventive mind, created out of dust to enjoy and honor him.  But Genesis 1 not only speaks to how all things began; it also teaches us something else.  Something very important and very practical…

It also teaches us how God RELATES to us — and indeed to all the things that he has made.  He relates to us BY HIS WORD.  That’s how God related to his creation in Genesis 1 and 2, and even after the fall into sin (in Genesis 3) that’s still how God relates to his creation.  To be sure, our sin has confused and fractured God’s relationship with us in many ways… but nevertheless, this is still how God chooses to relate — by his Word.

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Why did God make some of the things that he made?  Like ticks?  And when he made them, how did he evaluate them?  How should we evaluate them?  And how should that be unpacked and applied in our everyday thinking?

Listen to what Paul said in Romans 1…

“For what can be known about God is plain to [us], because God has shown it to [us].  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

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Ask yourself the following questions.  I dare you.

What words of condolence do you offer the grieving widow at the graveside?  How would you respond to a mandatory military conscription of your son?  Your daughter?  If you’re simply not prepared for parenthood, is it morally acceptable to abort your child?  If there’s a chance that a cure for Parkinson’s Disease might be found by harvesting tissues from a developing human being, do you?

If you’re absolutely positive that this is the man (or woman) for you, is it really necessary to wait for marriage before engaging in physical intimacy?  If your employee has given you 32 years of loyal service to the company, but last Tuesday it became economically advantageous to fire him, do you immediately do so?  Is corporal punishment an acceptable form of discipline in child-rearing, or is it always abusive?  When your marriage gets rough, and you’re sure that both you and your spouse would be happier with other people, is divorce an option?

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Redemption. It’s a difficult word to fully define. The Bible speaks of it in so many different ways: the dead are brought to life… the lost are regained… the ruined are restored… the sick are made well… the broken are repaired… the enslaved are set free… the guilty are completely forgiven… wrong is made right again… evil is finally and utterly conquered… and the deepest yearnings of the human heart (which is made to image God and be in right relationship with God) are at last satisfied by the restoration of goodness and righteousness.

Yet even that doesn’t begin to do the word justice. This is why the Bible is so full of pictures and metaphors that are always pointing us toward the fullness of redemption’s meaning, trying to help us grasp the idea more and more deeply. And it’s a wonderful exercise just to let your imagination run free when reading the Scriptures that paint those pictures and develop those metaphors for us. You’ll find that redemption is indeed the very thing for which the human heart is longing. For humanity was formed by God as a good thing, deformed by sin, and is now in desperate need of being reformed in Christ (that is, “redeemed").

So over and over, throughout the Bible, God promised his people a Redeemer. “‘And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,’ declares the Lord” (Isaiah 59.20). And when Jesus was finally born, the prophet Zechariah sang, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people” (Luke 1.68)!

Redemption (that unspeakably heroic event whereby we are “purchased back” from the bondage to sin by the “payment” of Christ’s death on our behalf) is now open to all! Isn’t this what you’re wanting? In Christ, God has kicked the door off its hinges and is calling and compelling you to come into his house and feast with him! See Luke 14.12-24. It’s a feast of redemption, and you must taste it to see how good it is.

At our evening service last night we returned to Genesis 3...that part of the Bible that is so foundational to our whole understanding of God, humanity, and this world.

In Genesis 1 & 2 everything was created “good.” “Very good.” In fact, at the end of chapter 2 the resulting paradise is described with these words:  “the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” But then something terrible happens in Genesis 3.  Something that we (humanity) did. And now we cannot undo it. And from this terrible thing that we wrought proceeds everything that is corrupt in this world:  sin, devastation, disease, alienation, disaster, ruination, sorrow, death, shame, etc.  Now the man and his wife are naked and ashamed. But you know what happens to their shame?  God covers it up!  After making the first announcement (in 3.15) of the One who would one day appear to redeem them from this huge mess, we read that “God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (3.21).

God himself covered their shame.  He did so through the death of these animals that provided the skins.  The death of another to cover human shame.  Here we have the foundation of the Old Testament sacrificial system… the seed of substitutionary atonement. Ultimately this points to how God would eventually take our shame upon Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.  He Himself would be the Substitute whose death would cover our shame.  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5.21).

Got shame?  If so, then take refuge in Christ.  Because you’ll never be good enough to cover your shame.  You’ll never be successful enough to cover your shame.  You’ll never be disciplined enough to cover your shame.  Or sorry enough or spiritual enough or knowledgeable enough or committed enough.  Only God can cover human shame.  He does so through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.