What in the world has gone wrong?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... God looked over all that he had made, and he saw that it was very good' (Genesis 1:1,31).

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A lot has happened since then. Not many of us would look at the world today and say that it was very good.

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We see disasters of all kinds, from violence and corruption to deadly disease on a worldwide scale. We're even destroying the natural environment we depend on.

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So where is God in all this? What's gone wrong?

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PLAN A: PARADISE ON EARTH

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The Bible tells us that God created a perfect world. He made a beautiful garden for the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, to live in and raise a family.

 

This Garden of Eden contained everything they needed to survive and thrive, and in due course they would spread out into the wider environment.

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Adam and Eve were vegetarians. So were all the wild animals! There was no suffering, no death, not even any thorns or brambles.

 

The couple worked in the garden together; they had a great relationship as they lived in perfect harmony, and God himself would come to them every evening.

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It was paradise. And this was how our world was supposed to be. If nothing had gone wrong, that’s what it would be like now – on a global scale.

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FREEDOM TO CHOOSE

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God provided everything Adam and Eve would need to enjoy life and fulfil their potential – including free will. He gave them the ability to make their own decisions.

 

There was only one thing he told them they couldn’t do: to eat from a certain tree in the garden. If they ate its fruit, they would die.

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But in due course Eve began wondering about this forbidden fruit. The Bible tells us the devil tempted her by making her doubt what God had told them and why he said it.

 

Did God really have their best interests at heart, or was he keeping them from enjoying something good?

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In the end she gave in. She tasted the fruit and gave some to Adam, who was with her. They didn’t die – not physically. Not straightaway. But spiritually everything had changed.

 

This wasn’t about eating a piece of fruit; this was about obedience. By defying God they allowed sin into the world, and nothing would be the same again.

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THE SIN PROBLEM

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Adam and Eve had to leave their beautiful paradise. They had violated it and forfeited the right to live there. God would still watch over them, but life would be hard from now on.

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They had opened the door to the enemy by choosing to turn away from God.

 

Now the world was wide open to all the devil’s foul ideas – things like pain, hunger, sickness and death, and a whole range of damaging emotions like anger, jealousy, loneliness and despair.

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Every human since then has struggled with sin. In fact, just one generation later the first murder took place: one of their sons killed the other.

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Human nature is selfish. We want everything our own way. And often we don't care who gets hurt.

 

Even if we try to be patient and kind, sooner or later we lose our temper or make some cutting comment about someone.

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Humankind's spiritual DNA has been corrupted by evil.

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'The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart' (Genesis 6:5-6 NLT).

 

It broke his heart because there was no turning back the clock for Adam and Eve, and all future generations. No pressing 'undo' and going back to the purity and innocence of paradise. 

 

But there was a rescue plan.

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Since nothing takes God by surprise, he had worked out Plan B well in advance. Before he created the world, in fact. And it was unbelievably daring in its scale and significance.

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He provided a scapegoat to take the blame for all the world's sins.

 

Himself.

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PLAN B: A FRESH START

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Sin has consequences, whether we like it or not. The Bible says, 'The wages of sin is death...' (Romans 6:23)

 

A holy God cannot turn a blind eye to wrongdoing. He wasn’t lying when he told Adam and Eve not to eat from that tree or they would die.

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But God still loved the human race he had created from the dust of the earth. So Plan B had to combine the need for holy justice with a way to save us from death.

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Jesus came to do both. He died in our place as a perfect sacrifice so we could live – we only have to believe and accept it.

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That means turning away from the past and choosing God’s way from now. Changing the way we live. When we make that choice, he is ready to forgive everything we’ve done wrong.

 

This is sometimes called being born again, because it’s a brand new start.

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THE GIFT

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The Bible says, ‘The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 6:23).

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It’s a free gift! It costs us nothing, but it cost Jesus everything.

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Of course, like any gift, we don’t have to accept it. We still have freedom to choose. Just be aware that there’s always a penalty to pay for sin – and God isn’t finished with you when you’re dead!

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If you would like to accept your free gift, you could say a prayer something like this:

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Jesus, I’m so sorry for all the things I’ve done wrong. Please forgive me and wash away my sin. I’m turning away from the way I've lived in the past and giving my life over to you from now on.

 

Come into my heart right now and make me new. 

 

Amen.

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