The offer was accepted and she reached out and took what was forbidden. With her first bite her eyes were opened. Eyes that before had only seen the goodness of God now saw evil. With the knowledge of evil came the death of innocence. The curse was spoken and sorrow and grief were born. The creation that God had declared good now became infested with thorns. Man whom God had made in His image and declared to be “very good” was now destined to die and to return to the dust from which he had been formed. Cherubim were stationed with flaming, whirling swords to guard the way to the tree of life. Paradise was lost. It was now impossible for a sinful man to have access to a holy God. But with the curse a promise was given that one day a Deliverer would come. “With man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27).
Time passed, and the promise was given to Abraham that it would be through his descendants that the Deliverer would come. But the years came and went until hope was lost. Abraham and his wife Sarah were cursed with infertility. “But by faith even Sarah, when she was barren, received power to conceive, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the One who had promised was faithful.” “With man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27)
What happened to the descendants of Abraham through whom this promised Deliverer was to come? In only a short time they were in Egypt, bound as slaves to Pharaoh. Pharaoh, who was not only ruler of one of the most powerful nations on earth, but who was considered by others and by himself to be a god. Abraham’s descendants were in Egypt, powerless and without hope of ever being set free. “With man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). After 400 years in Egypt God said to Moses, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments” (Exodus 6:6). How was deliverance accomplished? It was with the blood of a lamb and the death of the firstborn son.
For generations both the promise and the curse strove together until in the fullness of time the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah. Again a woman past the time of childbearing, who had suffered with infertility, was to be the mother of a son. Next, Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she would conceive and give birth to a son, whom she was to call Jesus. Her son would be called Son of the most High, and He was to have a kingdom that would have no end. When Gabriel told Mary that her relative Elisabeth had conceived a son in her old age he added, “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).
At last the promised Deliverer came. There was the pain of childbirth, but with it came the promise of hope. Jesus entered into a world that was enslaved by sin and sorrow. He heard the desperate cry of mothers and fathers who watched their children being destroyed and were helpless to save them. He stood at the grave of His friend and heard and felt the grief of death. The sweat of His brow became blood as He accomplished the work of salvation. The curse of thorns that infested the ground became a crown that He wore while on the cross. It was impossible for man to break the curse that came with the knowledge of evil. But what is impossible with man is possible with God. When Zechariah’s son John saw Jesus he proclaimed, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
Jesus told His disciples that with men it was impossible for anyone to be saved. “So they were even more astonished, saying to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Looking at them, Jesus said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:26,27). So the curse has been broken and what was impossible has now been made possible by God. Now what is offered is not the knowledge of good and evil but a breaking of the curse that evil brought, and entrance into the Kingdom of God!
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