Sound current? We humans still think we can play God. We fool ourselves into supposing that we can control our lives, that we can call the shots, that we can be independent agents. We might call on God when “we need Him,” but in reality, we are in charge of our lives. The Bible calls this sin. What a mess we make.

What are the results? As in the ancient story, our sin, our stubborn pride, has devastating effects. The Bible levels with us: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Sin destroys our self esteem; it destroys our relationships; it destroys our environment;  and it destroys our relationship with God. We feel far away from God. Who moved?? The Bible tells us the truth: “All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). The ultimate end of those going their own way is hell, that dimension where there is only self, where God is absent.

The Bible is really a love story of God’s rescue, of his amazing grace reaching out to restore relationship with His beloved human creatures and to repair the damage done by sin in all creation. The first two thirds of the Bible, the Old Testament, points to the last third, the New Testament. What is sketched out in the Old Testament is filled out in the New Testament.

What’s a loving and grieving God to do about the deadly problem? Right away, there is a hint. “God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve and clothed them” (Gen 3:16). God killed an animal and with its skin covered human shame. The rescue script is filled out as God then called together a Covenant people, Israel, and entrusted them with more of the story. At the center of Israel’s life was the Temple where the blood of unblemished animals served as a preliminary covering for human sin, so that a holy and pure God can relate to an unholy and impure people. Israel was to take this light to all the nations, so that all humanity and all creation could be brought back into harmony with God.

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