YEar 2 Day 192

Year 2 Day 192


Pray (ACts)


Read - Genesis 2


Message - Scott Woodburn
As the Lord God completed His work of creation, He rested on the seventh day (v2). This doesn’t mean that God was tired and needed a break, instead we say that God’s creating work ceased and He blessed the seventh day as a day of rest. This would later be republished on tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20v8-11) and to this day Christians spend the Lord’s day putting away trivial issues and attending to the things of God. All of this reminds us that we look forward to an eternal, heavenly rest (Hebrews 4v9).


With creation complete the Lord planted a garden in a place called Eden (v8). It is correct to say that Eden was a region where the garden existed rather than Eden just being a garden. We see this as a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and this source divided into four rivers called the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates (v10-14).


It was in the garden that the first man would find his place of employment, working and keeping that which God had made (v15). Additionally it was in the garden that the Lord entered into a covenant with the first man. It is by way of covenant that the Lord deals with humanity. We are not like the Lord. We are not His equal. We cannot sit around a table with Him and thrash out a deal. Instead the Lord willingly lowers Himself to us and enters into a relationship. He covenants or promises and He is always faithful to what He says.


In Eden we speak of God entering into the “Covenant of Works”. God set the terms and allowed the man to eat from every tree in the garden but not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If the man broke these terms he would surely die (v16-17). In the beginning there was no death in God’s creation but later Paul tells us where death came from. He teaches that sin entered the world through Adam and death entered through sin (Romans 5v12). So as long as Adam obeyed the terms of the Covenant of Works, he and all those after him would enjoy everlasting life.


As we know, the story ends in tragedy. Adam falls into sin, the Covenant of Works is in tatters and humanity is without hope. Thankfully, even in the earliest chapters of the Bible we see Christ. He is the second Adam who perfectly obeys God’s commands. He is the true Adam who in flesh and blood pays the price for sin at Calvary. He is the perfect man who stands again from the grave putting death to death. Just as the first Adam became a bridegroom when God made woman (v22), so the second Adam is our bridegroom who lays down His life for His Bride the church. Adam fell in the garden to sin, Christ fell in Gethsemane and prayed “not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26v39)


Christ succeeded where Adam failed and all who trust in Him will be saved “for as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5v19) 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q74 What is required in the eighth commandment? The eighth commandment requireth the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.
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