God’s first law was, like all His commandments, a wonderful expression of His love:

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

you shall not eat” (Gen. 2:16-17).

God made everything good,

and when He told Adam not to eat from this tree

it was for his protection.

“Adam, you already know about good,

but you also need to understand that there is a terrible reality

in the universe called evil.

I don’t want you ever to experience it.

So whatever you do, don’t eat from this tree!”

But Adam and Eve felt that they would like to have this knowledge of evil,

and we have all lived with it ever since.

Instead of saying to Adam, “Cursed are you,”

God said, “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Gen. 3:17).

Here we discover one of the most important things

that we need to know about God.

He announces that He will destroy evil,

but at the same time He deflects the curse

so that it falls on the ground

and not on the man or the woman directly,

creating room for them to be reconciled to God.

God is just, and the curse must go somewhere,

so at the right time, God sent His Son

and directed the curse of our sin onto Him.

That is what the cross is all about.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

This content is from OPEN is a new online resource that serves as a guided journey through the Bible.

OPEN will help you to see that the Bible is much more than a historical book. Yes, it was written a long time ago but the Bible is the Word of God. That means it’s the way that God speaks to us today. So when you open the Bible. Come, expecting to hear from God.

OPEN will help you to see that the Bible is much more than information, reading the Bible is about transformation. So when you open the Bible, you’re not simply trying to gather knowledge, your aim should be to meet with God. There really is power in opening the Word of God

OPEN will help you to see that the Bible is one story. It begins in a garden. It ends in a city, and all the way through it points to Jesus Christ…and Jesus Christ is the Bible’s treasure. When you find him. You’re at the beginning of discovering all that God has in store for you.

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