Yesterday we left off with the story of original sin and glimpsed at how it, multiplied over one person’s life, has tragic consequences worthy of the worst imaginable punishment. God could have ended humanity then and there, but one thing the serpent told Eve was true, “you shall not surely die.” At least not then and there. God handed out curses all the way around, to Adam, to Eve, the serpent, and even the earth but he wasn’t done with them yet, not any of them. For all but the serpent would have their chance at redemption, something eluded to cryptically by God.

When writing to Timothy (1 Timothy 2.13-15), the apostle Paul makes reference to Eve saying she will be saved through childbearing. He was right. If God had destroyed Adam and Eve after original sin, then the savior could not be born. Only after humanity had started to fulfil the command to multiply could the savior come, the one who would crush the head of the serpent and deliver humanity to its rightful place in the Earthly council of God. Elohim had a vision for this world, one that he was unwilling to cede even though we joined the rebellion of angels in sin.

A single act broke our relationships with God, each other, ourselves, the animals and the planet. Putting it all back together is more complicated. God came to walk and interact with Adam and Eve before the fall, and while it was greatly curtailed afterward God still liked to walk among his people as we see at the Tower of Babel, and elsewhere in the Old Testament. His greatest achievement, however, came when God decided to show us what it meant to be human as intended and came to mankind, born of flesh and blood. At this time God didn’t simply come to visit, he came to live among us and to do so perfectly, without sin, so that he might become the sacrifice for our sins. Through the cross, Jesus secured the path of salvation for all humanity even though not all would follow that path.

Even though salvation is now possible and available, salvation in itself does not restore us to our former glory. We are forgiven, to be sure, but we do not have the innocence and righteousness mankind enjoyed before the fall. The sin nature still lives within and we still give in to its demands and it continues to shape our world and our existence. So what, really, has changed?

Quite a bit, actually. Adam and Eve subjugated humanity to slavery, Jesus emancipated us. Before we were under the control of sin, and now we don’t have to be (though we still willingly chose to give into it from time to time). By trusting in Jesus’ work on the cross and in God’s acceptance of his sacrifice we can once again walk with God, tell him our concerns and troubles, and know that he hears us. Our relationship with others and the resto of the world might still be broken, but our relationship with God is now open. Even though we may continue to sin God doesn’t treat us as the sinners we are, he treats us as we will be when total restoration is complete.

And that is the plan. God built a physical world and he created mankind to rule it and that plan has not changed. A portion of humanity will be fully redeemed and restored to their intended state, but that will mark the end of sin which isn’t for discussion today. Perhaps tomorrow.