BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS

When we understand God as our creator and the source of life, the world, and all its goodness, it is hardly a surprise that breaking that relationship will damage all other aspects of our lives and relationships. The story in Genesis 3 details each of these broken relationships in turn. First, we suffer from a broken relationship with ourselves, reflected in the sense of shame described in Genesis 3:7 (compare to Genesis 2:25).

Our relationships with other people are also broken and strained. Without much prompting, Adam and Eve were quick to blame someone else for what had gone wrong (see Genesis 3:12, 13). Their marred human relationship to the earth itself and to the rest of creation was, as described by God, the consequence of their broken relationship (see Genesis 3:16–24).

These broken relationships are the origin of our many experiences of fear, ultimately all pointing us back to this “abiding human plight.” “We fear that our lives have no story, because we have fled from the story God has given us. Our deep fears point us back to the deep story in which our flight from God leaves us fearful of a world that was meant to be received as a gift.”* Every aspect of human life and experience was distorted by sin, and fear was the most obvious, immediate, and enduring result. But even in describing these broken relationships and their consequences, God offered a promise (see Genesis 3:15). Somehow, within this broken and fearful human story, there would be One who would defeat the source of lies and fear, even if at great cost to Himself. In restoring these broken relationships, God would bring an end to fear and ultimately re-create the world as it was intended to be. At this tragic moment of sudden fear and shame, God gave hope.

* Scott Bader-Saye, Following Jesus In a Culture of Fear (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2007), 159.