The Bible begins by stating that God has always existed. This may be hard for us to understand, but God has no beginning and He will have no end. God created the universe including our earth and its heavens. He formed the seas and dry land by the power of His voice. The land, air, and water He filled with plants and animals of every kind. All things were created by God in just six days. On the final day of creation God created man and woman and prepared a beautiful garden paradise for them. The garden was decorated with the most beautiful trees, flowers, gems, and metals. The garden home was on the banks of two crystal clear rivers, every smell, every sight, and every taste around them was an expression of God’s creativity, love, and majesty. In the center of the garden were two special trees, The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. God gave the man only one restriction, “Do not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for in the day that you eat from that tree, you will surely die.” For a time Adam and Eve obeyed God’s command and enjoyed perfect health, friendship and joy with God and with each other. Everything was perfect!

The perfection of all creation was first destroyed by Lucifer. Originally, Lucifer lived in Heaven in the very presence of God. Because of his great beauty and power he became proud and led many angels to follow him in rebellion against God. His name was changed to Satan and the angels who followed him are the demons. Satan set his evil gaze on God’s most precious being in all creation. He disguised himself as a serpent to deceive and tempt the man to disobey God by eating from the forbidden tree, “Eve, look at this fruit, it is attractive yes? It looks tasty yes?, Eating this fruit will probably make you wise, yes? God is not the friend he pretends to be, he is lying to you. He’s afraid that if you eat this fruit you’ll be as smart and powerful as he is, and he doesn’t like the competition. Go ahead, taste it, you’ll see.” Eve examined the fruit and reasoned with the snake that the fruit was beautiful, and looked good. Heart pounding, palms sweaty, she took a bite and then handed some to Adam!

In only a moment it was clear that they had been deceived and everything had changed. Frantically they searched for a way to cover themselves and made clothing from fig leaves. They heard God walking toward them in the Garden. Fearfully they hid from God among the trees of the garden as God called to them, “Adam where are you, why are you hiding, did you eat from the forbidden tree?” “God, it was that woman you gave me, she invited me to eat”,“God, I only did it because the serpent lied to me” There was a long silent pause. If God were to ignore this sin, He would be unjust, but God is just and fair! If God were to kill Adam and Eve He would be unmerciful, but God is merciful!What neither the serpent nor the man knew was that God had already put a rescue plan in place before He formed the earth. A plan that would satisfy both His justice and His mercy.God would send a second man to crush the serpent and restore hope to men. The second man will be fully God and fully man. His name is Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus will live in perfect obedience to God and then die as the innocent substitute for sinful men. In this way, God will satisfy His justice by the death of an innocent substitute, and offer forgiveness and the hope of eternal life to show His mercy on those who repent and believe. The plan was set for long into the future, how was God to make clear to Adam and Eve the high cost of their sin? God chose animal sacrifice as a way to illustrate the high cost of sin. From the skins of an innocent animal God made clothing for Adam and Eve. Their clothing was a constant reminder that their sin caused the death of an innocent substitute. Adam and Eve were now sinners.To ensure that they did not eat from the Tree of Life and live forever in their sinful condition, God sent Adam and Eve from the Garden, and placed two angels to guard the way of the Tree of Life. For Adam and Eve and all their children life will be filled with difficulty, pain, sorrow, and eventually death; but by faith they could live with hope trusting that God’s plan would bring them forgiveness and eternal life in the future.

To help sinful men understand how God wanted him to live, God provided Ten rules or commands to live by. Worship only God, Don’t bow to idols, Don’t speak God’s name in vain, Keep the Sabbath day holy, Honor your father and mother, Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not lie, Do not covet. But God knew that despite His instructions, sinful man would find it impossible to keep His commands. God continued to use animal sacrifice as a symbol to remind sinful men about the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus who would die for the sins of the world far into the future. “Bring a perfect animal, tell the priest what sin you have done, place your hands on the head of the animal, and then kill the animal, in this way I will forbear your sins” By following God’s difficult instructions, sinful men were showing that they trusted God’s plan.Throughout Bible history God used prophets to predict many things about the coming Savior so that everyone would know who He is when He arrived. They predicted many things like the place of His birth, the miracles He would perform, and the way He would die. In this way, God provided hope for the world as they awaited the arrival of Jesus.

And then one day, in a stable in Bethlehem, it happened! Jesus was born! Angels announced His birth, singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward all men.” Shepherds came to worship Him. Kings feared Him. Wise men followed His star to bring Him gifts and celebrate the arrival of the Savior. Jesus grew and developed from a baby into a boy, from a boy into a young man, from a young man into an adult. But despite the passing of time Jesus never once sinned.Satan took notice of this and personally came to test Jesus in an effort to get Him to fail. On one occasion he came to Jesus after 40 days with no food. “if you be the Son of God, command these stones to become bread”, “if you be the Son of God, jump from the top of the temple and have your angels catch you”, “do you see all the kingdoms of the world?, bow to me and I will give all of them to you” One by one Jesus resisted Satan’s temptations with the truth of God’s word. Jesus remained in perfect obedience to God the Father because Jesus was not a sinner!

God had prepared a special prophet named John the Baptist to introduce Jesus to the world, John said, “Look, God’s Lamb, who will take away the sin of the world, I am not worthy to stoop and untie his sandals, I must decrease, He must increase.” Many began to follow Jesus.In His life, Jesus was an amazing teacher, He was the smartest man who ever lived, He was gentle and caring, but strong and confident. As God, He was powerful too, He could raise His voice and calm a raging sea, He could heal people, and even bring the dead back to life. He was the most amazing and unique person who ever lived. But not everyone was happy to meet or follow Jesus. Many were angered as Jesus taught them about who He was, “I and my Father are one.” Though His miracles and sinless living certainly showed that He was both God and man, on several occasions His enemies picked up stones to kill Him. But Jesus remained unafraid to speak the truth.

He often lovingly but sternly warned sinners of the reality of eternal punishment in Hell and the urgent need to escape it. But rather than listen to the message, the religious leaders rejected Jesus and led others to reject Him as well. They hated Him and sought an opportunity to kill Him. The pressure to reject Jesus became so great that it even reached Jesus’ closest followers. In the end, Jesus was finally betrayed by one of His friends, a man named Judas. Judas led a group of soldiers to the place where Jesus was praying. Jesus asked but one question, “is it with a kiss that you betray me?” Jesus did not resist arrest but willingly and peacefully went with His captors.Although Jesus was never proven guilty of any wrongdoing, He was unjustly beaten and whipped so badly that He was unrecognizable. The Roman governor tried to release him, but the crowds, led by the religious leaders cried out, “crucify him, crucify him, if you don’t crucify him you are no friend of Caesar” Finally He was condemned to die by Roman crucifixion.

The sky grew dark as midnight for three hours in the middle of the day as Jesus hung on the cross. With one final breath Jesus cried out, “it is finished”, there was a massive earthquake, and finally silence. Everyone knew something strange was going on. Jesus the sinless Son of God had died as the substitute for all the world.Friends came and took the body of Jesus down from the cross and prepared it for burial. Jesus predicted that after His death, He would rise on the third day, of course nobody believed Him, but to insure that His followers did not come and steal the body claiming that He had risen, they sealed His body in a guarded tomb. Despite their efforts to guard the body, an angel rolled the stone away and God raised Jesus from the dead!After His resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days instructing His loyal followers about the message they were to proclaim to all the world with the promise that one day He would return to take those who have received His offer of forgiveness and eternal life to be with Him in a heavenly paradise. God will make a new Heaven and a New Earth with no more sin, sorrow, pain, or death. God will dwell among His followers for eternity while those who rejected Jesus will suffer in eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire.