2. The Need for Redemption: Genesis 1-11

In first chapters of the book of Genesis, we see how the need for redemption developed. God created man in his own image for a special relationship with himself. Because they were created in the image of the sovereign God, they were endowed with freedom. God tested Adam and Eve by forbidding them to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, warning them they would die if they disobeyed. Satan appeared in the form of a serpent, and tempted them to go ahead and eat. Contradicting God, he deceived them saying, "You will not die" and "you will be like God."

Tragically, our first parents believed the lie of the Devil instead of God's word, and fell from their created perfection into corruption. Since like reproduces like in the spiritual realm as well as in the physical, moral pollution entered into the whole human race. By Genesis 6, the Lord was grieved that he had ever made man, because "every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." We need to be redeemed because the whole human race has fallen into a depraved condition. Such things as crime, wars, injustice and holocausts are manifestations of this root spiritual problem. Spiritual death, separation from God, became the common lot for the human race. That is why we need to be redeemed.

When God curses the serpent after the Fall, he foretells something of the Redeemer who will come, "he will crush your head, and you will strike his heal" (Genesis 3:15). That is, Satan will wound the Messiah who would come, but the Messiah would destroy the Devil. God was not caught unawares when Adam fell. The all-knowing Lord knew he would fall, and God began to reveal his great plan of Redemption, which was prepared from eternity.