The Cross in Genesis
Genesis 2:22-25; Genesis 3:1-24
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
If Jesus Christ, in the purposes of God, was given to die before the world was formed, or before man was created; and if man, when he sinned, had no other way of salvation than through the Cross; and if God, in mercy, desired the salvation of the first fallen pair, we certainly would expect to find, in the opening Chapter s of Genesis, definite statements concerning Christ's Calvary work. It will be the purpose of this lesson to seek out, and to present, through the various sub-leaders, six distinctive Scriptural statements found in Genesis 2:1-25 and Genesis 3:1-24, which, unmistakably, anticipate the Cross of Christ.
God was not slow in making known to Adam and to Eve, His purpose and plan of redemption. God loved Adam, even after he had sinned. God knew that the wages of sin was death to the first man as well as to the last man, and God wanted the first man and the last man, and all men lying in between them, to be saved. God's great commission is to every creature. We, to be sure, can do no more than preach the Gospel to our own generation, but we must preach it until the last man has heard it.
In the Garden of Eden, there was, however, no man whom God could appoint as an ambassador to carry the Gospel of redemption to Adam and to Eve. Therefore, the Lord God Himself bore the message. It will be interesting to see how the Father sent forth the story of the Cross before ever Adam had been expelled from the garden.
I. "HE TOOK ONE OF HIS RIBS, AND CLOSED UP THE FLESH INSTEAD, THEREOF" (Genesis 2:21)
In all of the beasts of the field and in all of the fowls of the air, which were brought unto Adam, there was found no helpmeet for Adam. God had pronounced His creation "good," and it was good. However, the creation was made subject to Adam; and, therefore, was not on an equality with Adam. God purposed, therefore, to create an helpmeet for Adam. In order to do this, He caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and, as Adam slept, the Lord God took out one of his ribs. With the rib taken from the man, God made a woman and brought her unto the man. Then it was that Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
In this whole Divine record, God gave a portraiture of Jesus Christ, put to sleep in death upon Calvary's Cross. As God opened Adam's side, we can almost see the sword that was thrust into the side of Christ from whence Blood and water immediately exuded. Man severed the side of the Christ of Calvary, but it was God who made His soul an offering for sin.
God wanted His Son to have an helpmeet, and that helpmeet could only be obtained through Christ's opened side.
The New Testament, in Ephesians, in quoting from Genesis 2:24, says, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." Then the Spirit added these remarkable words, "This is a great mystery: but I speak of Christ and the Church." Let us remember, therefore, that "we are members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones."
II. "IT SHALL BRUISE THY HEAD, AND THOU SHALT BRUISE HIS HEEL" (Genesis 3:15)
The first vision of the Cross was graciously set forth by the Lord before Adam had sinned.
Afterward when Eve had been created, and the serpent tempted the woman, she did eat. Then Adam was tempted by the woman and he did eat. The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
The Lord God came in the cool cf the day, walking in the Garden, and Adam and Eve heard His voice. The result was that the sinning pair quickly hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. God cried out, "Where art thou?" When Adam saw that he could not hide himself, he said, "I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."
How stirring is the sentence that fell from the lips of God, as He addressed the woman. "What is this that thou hast done?" The answer to this question includes the whole entail of sin, as it has been wrought out through the centuries and millenniums of man's history, with its unutterable and unimaginable woe.
As God pronounced the curse, He also pronounced the promise of redemption. Standing there in the Garden of Eden, was the serpent, Satan inhabited. Adam and Eve also stood before God. God first cursed the serpent, and then, He said, "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."
No one can fail to see that in this statement of the bruising of the serpent's head and the bruising of Christ's heel, there "is a plain and positive reference to Christ's Calvary work!
The Holy Spirit, as recorded in Colossians 2:14-15, says, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."
The Lord Jesus Christ met Satan in the wilderness, and demonstrated the fact of His supremacy and Deity. He met him on the cross and vanquished him. By virtue of that Cross, He will soon altogether undo the works of the devil, cast him into the pit of the abyss, and ultimately into the lake of fire. Then will He have redeemed all of His chosen and believing people for ever from Satan and his wiles.
III. "UNTO THE WOMAN HE SAID, I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY THY SORROW" (Genesis 3:16)
The sorrow of the woman anticipates another sorrow. In the garden, as God spoke, and His voice sounded the words applying sorrow unto womanhood and motherhood, there came back down the ages and from the Cross the echo of God's Words. The echo seemed to say, "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." Unto the woman God said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow." Back from the Cross of Christ come the words, "He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." Jesus was the man of sorrows. Every child born to woman in this world is a child of sorrow and of travail. Every Christian, born to God, has been born through the anguish, the sorrow, the travail of Calvary.
IV. "CURSED IS THE GROUND FOR THY SAKE" (Genesis 3:17)
As the Lord God pronounced the curse upon man, He likewise cursed the ground for man's sake. The result was quickly evident, "In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee."
The Holy Spirit bears testimony that "the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now." The Spirit also says, "The creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope." Thus it is that nature, which is under the curse, bearing thorns and thistles, shall ultimately be delivered from its bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Into the Garden of Eden, we step once more. Now, as we hear the voice of God saying, "Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee," we want to listen, and see if we can catch the echo coming back to us from the Cross. Listen to the words, "And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head," "and they smote Him on the head with a reed."
How soul-stirring is this symbolism! The very thorns which God in Eden pronounced as the entail of man's sin, pressed the brow of Christ, the Sin-bearer. The reed, the result of sin's curse on nature, was used to drive the thorns deeper into His blessed brow.
What is the result? Anticipating the Calvary work of Christ, the Prophet said, "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree." Thank God, Calvary is God's full response to Eden's curse!
V. "IN THE SWEAT OF THY FACE SHALT THOU EAT BREAD" (Genesis 3:19)
Once more we see the result of sin. God said, that until man returned unto the ground, out of which he was taken, he should eat in the sweat of his brow. From the day of God's pronouncement, in the Garden of Eden, until this very hour, man energized by Satan, or under the skill of his own genius, has sought to undo this curse.
Early in the Chapter s of Genesis (chap. 4) we read of Jubal who was the father of all such who handle the harp and organ. The very suggestion here is an effort to alleviate the sting of sin. Today, with twentieth century comforts abounding, man has sought to attain ultimate freedom from the curse the sweat of his face. But man's efforts are. unavailing he sweats on.
Let us now, as we hear God's voice saying, "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," listen again for the echo from Gethsemane and from the Cross: We read, "And His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." The sweat of Christ, in Gethsemane, and His visage more marred, than any man, as He died upon the Cross, is the answer to God's curse in Eden concerning the sweat of the brow. No one will dare to deny this. What is the result of this Calvary work? We read in Revelation, "And there shall be no more curse," and "they shall see His face; and His Name shall be in their foreheads." We also read, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."
VI. "UNTO ADAM AND ALSO TO HIS WIFE DID THE LORD GOD MAKE COATS OF SKINS, AND CLOTHED THEM" (Genesis 3:21)
When Adam and Eve discovered that they were naked, they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. This was natural, but altogether unsatisfactory with God. Men are still prone to seek to cover their sin with garments of their own self-righteousness. There was no suggestion of Calvary, or of the Blood in the sewed fig leaves. Neither is there any suggestion of Calvary in much of the religion of today.
When God went out and slew the beasts, and took their coats of skin, to clothe Adam and Eve, He seemed to be anticipating that we are to be clothed in robes made white in the Blood of the Lamb.
How striking then is that statement in Revelation 7:1-17, where John beheld a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kindred and people and tongues? John saw them standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. They were crying with a loud voice, "Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb." Then one of the elders asked John saying, "What are these that are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they?" John said unto him, "Sir thou knowest." The elder replied, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb."
Thus, from the Garden of Eden, as God brings the coats of skin to clothe the naked pair, taking away withal their coats of fig leaves, we seem to catch again the echo from Calvary's Cross, "What man covers, God uncovers, but what man uncovers in his contrition and confession of sin, God covers." It will be a wonderful thing to stand before the Throne of God, clothed in garments made white in the Blood of the Lamb!
AN ILLUSTRATION
During the Civil war, George Stewart, the president of the Christian Commission, was hurrying on his way on horseback to the Army encamped in Virginia, When, as he approached the lines the sentinel cried out, "Halt."
Stewart drew rein and said, "What is wanted?" "The countersign," said the soldier. Mr. Stewart explained that he was on a hurried trip and that he had left headquarters forgetting to ask for the countersign. The sentinel on picket duty made him return eight miles to get the required countersign.
When, several hours later, Stewart returned with the password, he was allowed to enter the lines. After he had passed by the sentinel, he stopped his horse and turning round, said, "Sentinel, you may want to enter Heaven one of these days, and do you know the countersign to Glory?" "That I do," said the soldier; "it is 'The Blood of Jesus Christ [God's] Son cleanseth us from all sin'." "That is right," said Stewart, "who told you so?" "You did sir, for you are the very man who taught me that Christ died for me, and I am saved."
Let us all be sure that we are "under the Blood" for there is no other way of salvation provided for sinners.