Sundays at 10:30am

 

Menu

Advent Devotional - December 13, 2014

"No more let sins and sorrows grow / Nor thorns infest the ground / He comes to make His blessings flow / Far as the curse is found / Far as the curse is found / Far as, far as the curse is found"

-Joy to the World

This stanza from “Joy to the World” sings of the furthest reaching salvific effects of the coming of Christ. Four important words in this song carry us all the way back to Genesis 3. Those words are sins, sorrows, thorns, and curse. In the story of creation, the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, are placed in the Garden of Eden, in God’s presence, in total perfection. But in time, they rebel against God. The deliberately disobey His commands. They are punished for their disobedience and the curse of the Fall overtakes them, as well as every human in history. The curse manifests itself in sorrows for all people, in the production of thorns and thistles from the once fruitful ground, and ultimately in physical and spiritual death of all people. This is our reality.

But a greater reality comes into view as Christ comes into the world. Though the sin of Adam brought the curse upon us all, the perfect work of Christ dispels it, for those who place faith in Him. The total reversal of the curse is in view here. In the coming of Christ, Genesis 3 is turned on its head. Though we still wrestle with sin, though we still experience sorrow, though the thorns manifest themselves all over creation, the curse has ultimately been broken in Christ Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. When we read Genesis 3, we do so with sadness and sobriety over the fallen condition of the world. But in Christ, we celebrate and anticipate the eradication of that curse forever. In hope, we hold fast to the fact that the blessings of Christ have come, are coming, and will indeed come in full, “far as the curse is found.”