redemption

Creation, fall, redemption, and restoration are the foundation of Christianity. Creation explains who we are, as well as how and why we are here. In Genesis 1:26-27, God states: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (NIV). Since Adam and Eve were the first humans in existence, they had free range to all that God had to offer. The only command was that they were not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but it did not take long for them to disobey this command. Unfortunately, they gave in to the serpent’s temptation which resulted in a curse to all of human kind. “To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:16-19, NIV). I believe that this curse is the reason why sickness and disease is now our reality. Although our sins are what keep us separated from God, He still gave us a way to be reunited with Him in Heaven. This is through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice by dying for all of our sins. With all this sickness and disease, it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but Psalm 41:3 reassures us by stating that “The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness” (NIV). This should provide us with comfort knowing that God is in the process of restoration.