BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

2 2 : B V O V So the more they multiplied, the more the eects of the curse increased! Under the curse of sin, life on Earth, which had once been so sweet, became indescribably bitter. In fact, "bitterness" is the definition of the Hebrew root of the word curse. I doubt if Adam realized the full extent of what had happened right away, but as time passed, the magnitude of it must have dawned on him. He must have thought, Dear LORD, the seed of everything in the Earth is bitter! My own seed is bitter! How will anything on Earth ever be pure again? God, how can I ever be Your friend again? Adam didn't have a clue. He didn't know what God's plan was. It was a mystery hidden in God before the world began (1 Corinthians 2:7). Yet from the very first moment the curse hit the Earth, God began to talk about Redemption. Right there in the Garden of Eden after Adam sinned, God spoke to the devil and said, There is One coming, the son of a woman, and He will crush your head (see Genesis 3:15). God Did the Impossible The devil himself must have wondered how God was ever going to find such a man. After all, the entire race of man was under his demonic lordship. They were all sinners. They couldn't defeat the devil. They were his slaves. And through their sin, they'd all earned the same wages: bitterness and eternal death. Of course, according to God's system of covenant justice, if God could find one pure man, the blood of that man could be shed for the rest of mankind. He could become their substitute and take their punishment. But God had no pure seed on the Earth to work with. He couldn't even start again from scratch to form a new Adam from the dust of the Earth, because the dust itself was cursed and impure. How could God ever find human blood that was not already cursed with bitterness? It was impossible! Or so it seemed. But God made a way. He visited a young woman named Mary and spoke His WORD to her. She believed it, and that WORD went into her. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Jesus, The WORD Himself, was born as the pure, sinless Son of Man and Son of God. There was no bitterness in Him. No trace of the curse. He passed every test of temptation that Adam had failed. He lived as a free man. Death could not touch Him. But then He did the unthinkable. "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8). Jesus was already free. He didn't have to do that. But He chose to do it so "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:14-15). Living In Heaven's Sweetness That's what happened on the Cross! Jesus redeemed us from the bondage of the curse by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). He opened Eden's goodness to us again." Jesus took away the authority of bitterness and released THE BLESSING— heaven's sweetness— back into the Earth!... "

• Cover