Costly grace in Genesis

In my last post we saw glimpses of the gospel in the opening verses of Genesis. It gets even clearer in the account of Adam and Eve. We all know the story. The serpent, the tree with its fruit that was pleasing to the eye, a denial of God's warning, and soon a life in paradise is shattered by sin.

Before they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve were "naked, and were not ashamed" (Gen 2:25). But when their eyes were opened to good and evil, suddenly they felt shame. Suddenly they were worried, they felt exposed, they wanted to hide. Bring on the fig leaves!

The story goes on with God searching for them in the garden and Adam and Eve hiding because of their nakedness. Pretty soon Adam's blaming Eve, Eve's blaming the serpent, and God curses all three of them for their sins.

The scene ends with Adam and Eve banished from the garden, expelled from paradise. But before that, in an almost throwaway line, God shows his grace to the miserable couple. After cursing them, God takes animal skins, makes garments out of them, and clothes Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21).

A sacrifice was made. Blood was spilled. Innocent animals gave their lives so that the shame of two sinful people could be covered. Right away we see that sin is costly. It cost Adam and Eve their life of perfection in the garden. Now they were driven out, cursed with pain in the labor of childbearing and pain in the labor of working the ground. And right away we see that grace is costly. Covering the shame of these two cost the life of innocent animals. One day, covering the sin of the world would cost the life of God's innocent Son.

God is a God of love, a God who takes great pleasure in his creation, who declared the people he created to be very good. Indeed, he created humanity in his own image. And God is a God of compassion, having mercy on those in distress. His mercy and compassion are the fruit of his grace--his costly grace.

My sin cost Jesus his life on the cross. My sin. For my sin his blood was spilled and his nakedness exposed. What irony--God covered the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve, but allowed Jesus to be stripped bare and shamed as the life ebbed away from his broken body.

The point here is not to feel more miserable about the cost of our sin. It's not about feeling guilty with our heads hung low, mumbling our regrets. All too often we have those feelings, only to have them fade with the passing of time and in the face of something interesting on TV.

Embracing the costly grace that God has for us isn't about getting over our feelings of guilt. It's not about "moving on."

Our natural approach to dealing with our sin is to sweep it under the rug. If it can't be denied, we rationalize and justify. If we can't explain away our failures, we compare ourselves to those who are obviously worse. But this is all just so much smoke and mirrors. We can hide our faults, explain them away, or point to the other guy, but still our sin remains. And all the time grace, that costly grace, is right before us. It's available. It's free. And only it can effectively deal with our sin and our shame.

Adam and Eve tried hiding. They tried explaining. They shifted the blame. All to no avail. They were found out, just as we are found out. God knows all about our sin. The only ones fooled by tactics of trying to hide, explain, and shift attention elsewhere... are ourselves.

What are we to do? Own up to our sin. Own it. Say, this is mine. I did it. I have broken the commands, I have thought those terrible things, I have wanted what is not good, I have failed to love, I have been completely consumed by my own selfish and sinful desires.

Jesus takes away our sin. But all too often we pretend like there's no sin for him to take. Who me? I didn't do it; that's not mine! You must be thinking of someone else... Own your sin. Don't hide or pretend or shift the blame. And then see how God's costly grace takes it away.

Wow, that is a good deal.

The gospel in Genesis

I've been thinking about the gospel in Genesis; it's all over the place, not just in the Gospels with a capital "G," not just in Romans or Galatians or the rest of the New Testament. Even the first pages of the Bible point to the gospel.

The opening verses describe the world as "formless and empty" and covered in darkness. And the Spirit of God is there, "hovering" over the waters and the darkness. God transforms the chaos into order, into something good.

Throughout the Bible the image of the sea is an image of menace and death. There's a reason that in Revelation 21, where the new heaven and new earth are described, there is no longer any sea--sin, evil, and death have been completely defeated.

Do you see how the Bible opens with a threatening picture? It's all darkness, the menacing deep, and chaos. And God is there. The Spirit of God is moving over the chaotic scene, hovering, brooding. And then: "Let there be light."

And so the gospel begins: our God is a God of transformation. Transforming darkness into light.

Transforming darkness. The gospel isn't for good people; it's for people in darkness. Skipping ahead to Isaiah for a moment: "the people walking in darkness have seen a great light..." The gospel isn't for nice people, refined people, people who have their act together and just need a little spirituality on their resume. It's for people in darkness.

Picture the Spirit of God hovering over the city: over the misdirected lives, the broken lives, the not-at-all-nice lives. Over the rebels, the abusers, the addicted, the cruel. And God says, "Let there be light." How does this light come to the people in darkness? Through God's people. It wasn't for nothing that Jesus said, "You are the light of the world."

I'm praying for light in Helena, praying for God's light to come through our new church. People need the gospel. I invite you to pray with me... and to walk in the light.