God’s plan
God’s plan for humanity is made plain at the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 1 v 27 - 30
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
According to God’s plan for mankind, we are to experience the following;
The biggest of all is the privilege to have fellowship with God. Remember, the Garden of Eden was already planted by God before he made man, this means man was made for a life without struggle. The only work God gave to man was to take care of the already made Garden.
Genesis 2 v 15 - 17
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
As we all know, Adam disobeyed God by listening to his wife who was deceived by Satan in the form of a serpent. This is the very genesis of sorrow (Genesis 3 v 1 – 13), God cursed the serpent, cursed the woman and then cursed the ground for Adam’s sake.
Genesis 3 v 14 - 19
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: CURSED IS THE GROUND FOR THY SAKE; IN SORROW SHALT THOU EAT OF IT ALL THE DAYS OF THY LIFE;
THORNS ALSO AND THISTLES SHALL IT BRING FORTH TO THEE; AND THOU SHALT EAT THE HERB OF THE FIELD;
IN THE SWEAT OF THY FACE SHALT THOU EAT BREAD, TILL THOU RETURN UNTO THE GROUND; FOR OUT OF IT WAST THOU TAKEN: FOR DUST THOU ART, AND UNTO DUST SHALT THOU RETURN.
If you look at our lives today, it is nothing compare with the initial plan God has for mankind. We may seem to be living to our expectations but we are not living to God’s expectation.
Because of these curses, some people have mostly believed that anybody that is poor is poor because of sin and anyone that is rich does not need God or salvation. Well, being rich or being poor is not the criterion to be sin free or curse free, things are going well with you does not mean your ways are right with God and things are not going well with you does not mean you are the worse sinner in the whole world, as for riches they are by “time and chances”, on this note, I say to you salvation is for everybody. Apart from the hardship of life, there is something more important that Adam brought upon mankind, the inevitable aspect of Adam’s sin that is passed to all mankind is called “Spiritual death”. You may be rich and not be suffering according to the curse God laid on the ground for Adam’s sake but how about the “death” God talked about?
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”.
This ‘death’ is the essence of salvation. Either rich or poor, as long as you are a descendant of Adam; death has been passed to you. We will discuss this later.
Reading the whole book of Genesis, we realized that Adam did not die. But according to the Words of God Almighty, Adam and all his descendants died to God the day Adam disobeyed God. The death here means total separation from God.
There are three kinds of death;
The biggest thing sin brought upon mankind is spiritual death which is total separation from God and that is the death God told Adam he would die the day he eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
Let us look into what sin really is.