(Genesis 3:1-20)
Although the family is meant by God to be a blessing to man, not everyone experiences the blessing that God established the family to confer on them. The evidence for this assertion abounds everywhere. Many people have had their lives messed up by the experiences they had while growing up in their families. But why is this so? The frustration of God’s plan to bless man through the gift of family began when man fell to the temptation of Satan.
Satan always acts to frustrate the plan of God. He is the person that Jesus was referring to when He said, “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10a). As soon as God gave the gift of marriage and family to Adam, through the creation of Eve, Satan came to turn the blessing into a curse. He did it by destroying the faith of Adam and Eve in the word of God, and causing them to depend more on their five senses instead of God as the basis for determining how to live and what to do. The effect of the Fall was immediate: they were ashamed of their nakedness and afraid of God’s presence; and they began to blame each other for their predicament. The punishment and judgment of God on their sin were immediate and profound.
First, God placed a curse on the serpent (Satan) and made a promise about the coming of the Seed of the woman (Jesus Christ) who would destroy the works of the devil (Gen. 3:15).
Next, God changed the physiological makeup of the woman so that she would experience excruciating pains while giving birth to children. This would be an eternal reminder to mankind that sin has unpleasant consequences. In addition, the woman would henceforth have the natural tendency to usurp the position of the man as the head but the man would rule over (impose his will on) her. One of the characteristics of a woman’s sinful nature is the inability to voluntarily submit to the leadership of a man in marriage. One of the characteristics of a man’s sinful nature is the inability to truly love a woman in marriage. The interplay of these sinful natures inherent in a man and a woman is the reason for the marital conflicts and difficulties experienced in marriages till today.
Third, God cursed the ground because of Adam’s sin of choosing to listen to his wife instead of God. The productivity of the ground would be seriously curtailed or diminished, and man would experience a great deal of pain in his effort to provide for himself and his family. Evidence abounds in the Bible that after the Fall, marriage and family stopped being the blessings that God intended. This situation persists today.
However, about 2,000 years ago, God redeemed the institution of marriage so that mankind could once again experience the blessing of family. But how did He do it? Just as He promised, when He was pronouncing a curse on the serpent, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die for our sins.
One of the things that Jesus accomplished by His death on the Cross is the destruction of the power of the sinful nature that all human beings inherited from Adam (Romans 6:6— “6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin”). Whenever a person repents from his sin, and accepts Jesus as his personal Saviour and Lord, the power of the sinful nature to control that individual is broken.
But not only this. In addition to the destruction of the power of the sinful nature over them, those who are saved are also granted the divine nature through the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell them. A believer is made a partaker in the divine nature with the new birth experience and made a participant of it when he realises that God is in his heart by the presence of the Holy Spirit and he yields himself to God’s control (Rom. 6:11-14; Gal. 5:16, 25). What, then, is required to experience the blessing of family?
One, every member of a family must be born again.
Two, every member of a family must be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:15-6:4).
Your eternal salvation and spiritual well-being are our concern. If you wish to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour, you can pray the following prayer to God: “Dear God, I thank you for sending Jesus into the world to die for my sins. I repent of my sins right now and invite Him into my life to be my Lord and Saviour. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.“
If you offered this prayer to God, please write to let us know through the address below. You are also invited to join us in worshipping the Lord every Sunday in Yoruba language at 7.20 a.m. and in English language at 9.00 a.m.
Good News Baptist Church,
47/49, Olufemi Road, Off Ogunlana Drive,
P. O. Box 3781, Surulere, Lagos.
