· God created the earth and everything in it by His will, by His design and   by His word.

· Creation was the bringing of order to chaos.

· Chapter 1 is a hymn of creation and Chapter 2 gives the specifics of   creation. The pattern for each day is the same and always ends with “it   was good”.

· Humans came at the climax of creation. They were blessed by God, made in His image, designed to have fellowship with Him and given the task to multiply and fill the earth; being stewards of all that God had made. When God completed creation by producing mankind, God pronounced it “very good”. 

· They (man and woman) were placed in a perfect garden with boundaries giving them everything they needed for their life.

· There was no pain, no death; There was work but no toil. The man and woman had a relationship of openness and trust. They had intimate fellowship with God. Here was perfect love, peace and joy and harmony with God, harmony with each other and with the plants and animals.

· From the end of Chapter 2 changes occur. In Chapter 3 we notice these changes: openness, trust, love, harmony and abundant life turn into discord, pain, shame, fear a need to blame, distrust and death.

· Genesis 3:1-6 shows us how sin enters the world; notice the deception disobedience and the important role of choice which the humans had.

· Genesis 3:7-19 reveals that the world is cursed. Note the immediate consequences and the long term consequences. How was Adam’s and Eve’s relationship changed with each other, with God and with the earth?

· They disobeyed because they first questioned God’s trustworthiness.

· Genesis 3:20-24 In spite of the sadness and loss, they are yet several reasons to hope: They can still “multiply and be fruitful; still subdue the earth”, a mandate of creation but now it must be accomplished with toil and pain. Their death is not immediate; it has been delayed for a short time.
· While the seed of the serpent will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, the woman’s seed will crush the serpent’s head. Christ over Satan!

· God shows His compassion by giving them clothing much more durable then those made by Adam and Eve.

Sin:
1. At its core is a disregard for God.
2. It is the result of disobedience.
3. Sin needs to be covered up or disguised,
4. Sin distorts the core of human existence, healthy relationships.
5. Sin is never done in a vacuum; it effects others, is progressive.

Consequences:
1. Spiritually; alienation from God.
2. Relationally; distorted by anxiety, blame, mistrust, loneliness.
3. Physically; pain, toil and death.

· In the beginning, mankind (Adam and Eve) were in perfect harmony with God, creation and each other.

· They had access to all they needed, including eternal life, by virtue to the unlimited access to the first tree; “The Tree of Life” which grew in the Garden of Eden.

· But their sin, distrust of God by yielding to the tempting flattery of the serpent (Satan) and eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree (The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) fractured the world God had created and the harmony it had been planned to have.

· Death came into creation. Not immediately, since the fruit of the forbidden tree was not poisonous (at least, not in the imminent sense of immediate death though it did ‘poison’ man’s relationships and future) but because God banished Adam and Eve from the garden, cutting off access to the tree of life by posting armed guards at the portals. Without its life giving nourishment, man dwindled away.

· Now the second tree; a new “Tree of Life” awaits the righteous. It is planted by God (as was the original one) this time in the eternal city; the New Jerusalem we meet through John’s account in Revelations.

· Thus, the challenge for humanity is to try to discover a way to bridge from the tree of life lost in our past to the tree of life waiting in the future. But how can humanity get from the original tree of life, lost in the garden to the new tree of the new city?

· There is just one way only; by a third tree; the tree (cross) upon which Jesus of Nazareth, the Only sinless Son of the One true God, was placed by the lies and sins of other men.

· This is a somewhat complicated sounding, and sometimes misunderstood, passage of Scripture. Yet its foundations are simple.

· Adam defied God; Sin was released into creation and from that one act of defiance of one man all creation; Mankind, the soil, the animals and birds, the fish and the seas, lakes and streams were corrupted. God’s ideal plan was distorted. But just as one man’s sin corrupted God’s design, so too does one man’s obedience, Jesus Christ, bring about righteousness and restore harmony to all those who will accept God’s gift; redemption.

· Even though man had disobeyed God allowing sin to fracture the harmony of the Garden of Eden and the intimate relationship which God had created between mankind and Himself, God did not abandon those He had created in His own image.

· All throughout Scriptures, we will see the many times when God would rescue His chosen Ones, the righteous believers, from perils and hardship.

· In Exodus 6:6 we find the first reference in Scripture to God’s plan to “redeem” his people.

· What is “Redeemed”? Redeeming means to claim back, often at a price, something that was originally yours and which has left your possession. A modern example; the Pawn Shop. You hand over some precious item you own to a stranger with the promise (covenant) that you can reclaim (redeem) it at some proscribed future time.

· That is the essence of God’s Plan for mankind. In Eden, God trusted man; man distrusted God. So sin abounds. (Was God ignorant of Satan’s treachery or of man’s weakness? I think not. Rather, God was hurt by what took place, but He allowed it to happen because He already had set a “proscribed period of time” during which He would allow Satan to distort man’s life before God would claim back his own possession.) In time, Christ came; Christ Jesus, perfectly and fully human yet sinless perfectly righteous to pay the only price which could cancel the sin-dept of mankind inherits from Adam and Eve and to fulfill the curse placed on Satan to crush his head (vanquish death).

· No other way exists for anyone; man woman, child, to move back into harmony and fellowship with God except by the understanding and acceptance of God’s plan of redemption; Faithful willingness to say: Yes, I know that God see me as a sinner; Yes, Jesus I believe that you came to pay the price of death for my sinfulness; Yes, Jesus, I accept God’s claim upon me and that you are my way, my only way, to return to harmony and peace in my life; All through your blood shed on your tree.

· All through ancient Scripture, God had given his chosen people a means to atone (cover) their sinfulness. Blood sacrifices, especially the once a year Day of Atonement when the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled blood upon the Ark of the Covenant, did not erase mankind’s sin but served only as temporary covering to “Hide the sin of man from God’s sight”. Only Christ’s blood; blood of the pure Lamb of God, could erase sin from our lives once, forever!

· Even Job, years before Jesus was incarnated on earth, recognized God’s plan. Job 19:25 “I know my Redeemer lives”.

· Can you speak these words of Job? You can, but only if you have walked through the blood of Christ on His cross on you journey from the tree of life in the Garden of Eden to the promised tree of life in the heavenly city.