Promise Keeper: The God Who Redeems

Genesis 3:14-22

St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
January 19, 2025
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes

For many people the New Year is an opportunity to make new resolutions (I think that goals and habits are more important that resolutions). Then there is quitters’ day, the 2nd Friday of January. What if this year we focus on the promises of God which He does keep?

In the next few weeks, I want to invite you to see the covenants of God, God’s contract with His people and how he keeps his side of the promise, even when we don’t.

It has always been that way. It is not OUR love for him but HIS love for us that transforms us.

Today we’re reflecting on the Adamic covenant in Genesis 3.

What if this year, even with all that has taken place in our lives, decisions that brought pain or tragedy to our lives, the mistakes we have made, the things that we think are unredeemable, the things that beat us down and leave us underwhelmed, all that happened, and experienced redemption through God? He can flip all of that use that for His glory and for our good.

What if this was the year of the “eucatastrophe?” J.R. Tolkien who wrote Lord of the Rings came up with this term. “Eu” is the Greek word for “good” so he just attached this as a prefix, so it is a good catastrophe or “happy accident.”

Eucatastrophe is part of our lexicon. It is when the worst is happening and things turn around: when the hero is in trouble and he is about to die and everything is dark and then something happens and flips it all around. You see it in Lord of the Rings when Gollum falls into the cracks of mount doom and the one ring is destroyed. You see it in the death star explodes in Star Wars. You see it in Snow White when she is kissed and she is brought back to life. You see it when Gaston stabs the beast and he lies and he dies and Belle comes and the Beast is transformed.

Tolkien, who is a Christian, said the greatest example of eucatastrophe was the death of Christ. Everything was dark and then resurrection took place.

God has the capacity to redeem all that He allows, for His glory and for our good.

God Redeems Conflict

God’s word is paramount, thus the importance of knowing His word, hearing His word, meditating on His word.

God Puts Satan in his place. This is not a battle of two equals. Satan’s place is humiliation.

The conflicts we are in are a part of a larger struggle. Consider the wars in our world, Ukraine, Russia, Israel and Hamas. The presence of evil in our world. In our country there were more mass shootings in 2024 than days, evil, struggles, sin.

There are exterior factors, the enemy who is going about like a roaring lion seeking to destroy. Then there is the human heart.

James 4:1-2 encouraged us to look into our own hearts.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

At times we feel that someone is not giving us what you want and we play God. That is what happened in the Garden. Adam took the authority, usurping God’s authority and sin came into our world. However, God redeemed the world through Christ. God’s promise was fulfilled.

As we experience conflicts it is important that we believe the war is already won. In midst of hostility is the seed, Jesus.

Often, we fail because we don’t believe the battle is already won and also because we fight spiritual battles with earthly ways.

God Redeems Pain

Pain is one of the greatest things that draw us closer to God. There is no such thing as gratuitous pain. God uses it as a tool to draw us closer to him.

God will not let us suffer without meaning. Through pain of child birth, the Christ is born.

In verse 20, God called Adam’s wife Eve the mother of all. From blaming to honoring.

He Redeems Struggles

God cursed the ground that produced Adam and the tree, yet He was gracious.

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.  Genesis 3:21

Ephesians 4:24

and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

I Cor. 1:30

And because of him[a] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

Heb. 10:23

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Our God is faithful and He is our redeemer. He keeps His promise to us. This is the word of the Lord.