A Blessing and a Curse
—Genesis chapters 1 to 3
The Creation came into being by God’s word. God saw that all his creation was good. The earth was blessed. Then Satan came, and his word caused man and woman to knowingly defy God’s word, bringing in a curse of death in the form of eternal separation from the life of God. However, God provided a way of salvation, a blessing of everlasting life, to counter the curse.
1 GOD SAID
—and His word was done.
How did the heavens and earth begin? The Bible answers that question in two statements —"God created", and "God said" (Genesis 1:1-3).
This shows that the world came into being out of the mind of God via what he said. The creation came from the word that he uttered. 1 "For he spoke and it was done" (Psalm 33:9), "the worlds were framed by the word of God" (Hebrews 11:3 NKJV).
1Note:— (GOD SPOKE) To whom did God speak, and who obeyed what God said? Answer, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit (John 1:1-4, Genesis 1:2). When God said, "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26), using the plural form, he was speaking to others, namely his Son and his Spirit who were with him.
So, when in Genesis 1 we read, "God said", we realise that God’s creation was accomplished through God’s word. The heavens and the earth, and everything they contain, did not originate from nothing, but from the word of the eternal God.
2 GOD SAW
—that His work was good.
The origin of the world is not the only theme to consider. What about the nature of the creation? Was there anything wrong with it? Or was it absolutely good?
We notice that "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good" (Genesis 1:31 NKJV).
Some time later, however, the devil entered this perfect world and his word caused man to knowingly defy God’s word, bringing in a curse of eternal death, everlasting alienation from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18).
It was in the nature of the creation that created beings could choose to be loyal and obedient to God, or they could choose to oppose and disobey God, and be marked for punishment. Does that constitute a fault in God’s creation? No, not at all, because "the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Romans 8:21 NKJV).
So God saw, with an all-knowing and all-seeing eye, that everything he had spoken into being was very good. Just as he judged his own work, he also judges the deeds of man and woman, the last of all the creatures he made.
As mentioned above, God punishes evil deeds with death in the form of eternal separation from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18).
3 GOD SAVED
—and the world was blessed.
Fortunately God had a plan by which he could save sinners from this curse of spiritual death if they would believe the promise of the coming Saviour, and obey God’s word. Yes, God would restore them to everlasting fellowship in his life and light.
God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15 NKJV). The term "seed" here means offspring —many in the case of the serpent, and One in the case of the woman.
That matches God’s promise to Abraham as Paul says, "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, 'and to seeds,' meaning many, but 'and to your seed,' meaning One, who is Christ" (Galatians 3:16).
The marvelous blessing in this is that God already had the lineage of Christ the Saviour fixed before Adam and Eve had produced their first child. Indeed God had determined the day that Christ would die for all mankind.
So John was able to say, "1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father —Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments" (1John 2:1-3 BSB).