The previous post in this series painted a heartbreaking picture. After God created a beautiful world, He gave Adam and Eve a unique role and purpose in this creation. Unfortunately, they threw it all away. They sinned. They chose to seek personal fulfillment, instead of looking to the One who made them to find real joy in Himself. At this point in the story, things look bad. Thankfully, this is not the end of the story. When everything seemed blackest, God made a promise to bring light and hope into this darkest of situations.

This truth is one that is foundational to the gospel. When we were under God’s wrath, children of darkness, He sought us out in His son. God’s promise in Genesis 3 is radical because He had already established the punishment for sin earlier, death. If this were your first time reading the story, you would most likely believe that punishment is coming and it is going to be devastating. But for some reason, God decided to show grace. He entered the garden and sought Adam and Eve out. He knew what they had done yet he still gathers them and offers an opportunity for repentance. When we are in sin, God provides an avenue for confession and forgiveness. He doesn’t sit back, watch us wallow in the misery of our sinful existence, and then damn us to hell when we die. To be clear, He would be just if He has done so. WE HAVE SINNED. This sin demands punishment. Despite this God, who is rich in mercy, seeks us out in Christ thereby offering his gift of forgiveness and adoption. Our kids are going to come face to face with their depravity at some point.  We as parents need to be teaching them about a God who is just and merciful. When they see their sin for what it is, despicable, we want them to run to the God they know not only can save them and give them peace but also loves them more deeply than they can imagine.

Our kids need to be confronted with the truth that God ABHORS their sins. It isn’t merely an unfortunate inconvenience. He isn’t sitting in heaven shrugging his shoulders in a non-committal fashion. Our sin separates us from him and DEMANDS just punishment. There is grace, and God is loving, but that doesn’t erase the fact that our sin makes us His enemies. This story is mind-blowing because it shows us the depths of God’s righteous wrath and simultaneously places His glorious grace on display. The day is coming when all sins will be tallied and our children will stand before the righteous judge. If we truly desire for them to know God, they must recognize the desperate need they have to be saved from their sins. An emphasize on sin will be in sharp contrast with our culture, which at all times seeks to puff our children up with how important, right, and vital they are. If we are not training our children to view sin from God’s perspective, then they will be indoctrinated by our culture. It isn’t a question of whether our children will think about their sin but HOW they will think about it. Will they shrug it off as “no big deal” or will they come to the realization that they stand condemned before almighty God?

In the midst of a story that, from our perspective, should focus on God’s judgment, God’s grace shines through. Even though Adam and Eve sinned, even though they shifted the blame, even though they did nothing to seek forgiveness, God offered it. As he punishes them, God provides  hope for future and present grace. In the curse of the serpent, it states:

In that prophecy is pictured the coming of Christ. Amidst utter devastation, we see that there is hope. One will come to right our wrongs. He will deal with the devastating effects of sin and break its power. This is a moment we can take to emphasize with our children that God is faithful to do as he says. When their lives get hard, they can trust that God will always keep His promises.

Something that has always intrigued me about the curses in Genesis three is that they have “hidden blessings” in them. Starting with the serpent, we have the promise that One was coming who “would crush the serpent’s head” This is an obvious allusion to Christ who would, by His death on the cross, bring an end to the punishment and power of sin. Moving on to Eve, we see her first punishment was that childbearing would be much more difficult. The blessing is that Adam and Eve knew that God had promised to send one of their offspring to resolve the dilemma their sin had caused. Even though childbirth would be agonizingly painful, it was also a reminder of God’s promise. Every time a child was born before Christ, the question would be, “Is this child the one?” And now we are reminded every time we witness a birth of Jesus Christ who has come and will come again to make all things new.

This story and these gospel truths are ones our kids need. In a culture that is more and more excusing of sin and that calls into question the very existence of objective morality, children need to be grounded in the biblical worldview. They need to understand that God despises any and all sin. They need to grasp that we cannot help ourselves but that God has made a way through His Son. Finally, it is important to instill in our kids the gospel truth that God keeps his promises. He promised a savior and sent His own Son to redeem us.