Creation, Sin, & Redemption

 Read Luke 15

We are not going to do a chapter-by-chapter review of Genesis. You can do that any time that you please.  We will look at the very big picture and focus on 3 areas: creation, sin, and redemption.

Creation. God created. God created good.

Sin. Sin confounded the good and dragged humankind with it.

Redemption. We are more than we were once redeemed. We see how great the love of God truly is.  God gave us a choice and we didn’t choose him, but he still loves us.

He made a way to be in right standing with him and to be with him for all eternity.

Creation is a wonderful story. We believe that God spoke everything into existence. We don’t get wrapped up in how long a day was at creation.

Sin has been with us all of our lives. We do not know a world without sin. Sin destroys. Sin kills. Sin moves us away from God.

God redeems.  God brings us home. God loves us. God will never stop loving us. God is love and God wants us near him in spite of our sinful journey.

Genesis is the prologue to the Torah and the Torah the prologue to the Greatest Story Ever Told.

Genesis brings me to Luke 15.  There are the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, but let’s look at the lost son.

The Parable of the Lost Son

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

The parable of the lost son—the prodigal son—is less about the son and more about the father. We can relate to the lost son.  We have all been there to some extent.

Perhaps we didn’t have all the wild living, maybe we did. Perhaps we didn’t eat worse than pigs, maybe we did.  We all have fallen short.  None of us live up to the standards of God. We fall short of his glory.

But God welcomes us home. God runs after us when he sees us coming near him.  When we draw near to God, he draws near to us.

God holds a celebration when we come home.

There was creation and it was good.

There was sin and it was not good.

There is redemption and in redemption we find the heart of the story that begins in Genesis. In redemption we find the heart of God.

Without the fall, we might have never known the extent of God’s love.  He didn’t just love us when he made us and we were good.  He loved us and loves us when we have fallen and are broken.

Consider how long ago the stories in Genesis took place.  God has been after you for that long and longer. 

God wants you with him forever. His love goes back to the beginning.

Amen.