Adam And Eve

Unfaithful Humans, Faithful God

READ Genesis 3

As we receive the sacrament of communion in our churches on Sundays, we often hear about how God faithfully kept covenant with us even when we humans fell into sin. God pursued us, covered our sin, and gave Christ to secure our salvation at the cross. The amazing faithfulness of God sustains us through every season of life.

We see this from the very beginning, with the first two humans, Adam and Eve. God created them in his image, giving them the special task of caring for his creation (Genesis 1:26–27). Archaeologists point out that ancient temples often had “images,” or statues of gods, placed inside them.^* The picture in Genesis is that all creation is God’s temple, and humans are his living images within it.^* These first things we learn about this pair are still at the core of what it means to be human today: We carry the image of God, and we care for creation.

Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden, in harmony with God, with the world, and with each other. Sadly, this state of innocence and harmony was short-lived. One day, the Serpent tempted Eve to eat from the one tree God had forbidden them to eat from, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. After being tempted, Eve took and ate from the tree and shared the fruit with her husband (Genesis 3:6). The blame isn’t on Eve alone; Scripture is clear that Adam was “with her” during this encounter, and he was the one who first received the prohibition from God not to eat from the tree (2:16–17).

With this act of disobedience and unfaithfulness, Adam and Eve brought sin into the world. The harmony in their relationship with creation was broken, as was their relationship with God and each other (3:16–19).

It may seem strange to begin a forty-day journey on faithfulness with this story of human unfaithfulness. However, Adam and Eve’s story shows faithfulness of the most important kind. Yes, they disobeyed God, but God nevertheless showed amazing grace and faithfulness toward them. He pursued them (Genesis 3:9) and covered them in their shame with animal skin (v. 21).

God’s faithfulness to his people, even in the face of sin and failure, is a deep and sure comfort in life. God is the faithful one in this story, and that’s wonderful news—for Adam and Eve at the very beginning, and for you and me today. We are still made in God’s image, so by God’s grace and Spirit, we can mirror God’s faithfulness. In fact, faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit, and it looks like living reliable, steadfast lives of commitment because of what we believe. This means honoring commitments to God and to the people in our lives and honoring our responsibility toward all creation.

A life of faithfulness displays God’s love to the world. When you live out your response to God’s faithfulness to you, you begin to restore what was broken through sin.

Today, as you begin this forty-day journey, pray for God’s grace and guidance as you seek to live faithfully in response to his faithfulness to you.