Panoramic: Seeing the Gospel in All of Scripture
Summer 2011 Sermon Series

Dysfunction, Destruction, and Death Genesis 4-9 | Pastor Joshua Michael Soto | June 5, 2011 | 41mn:31sc

Renown biblical theologian, Graeme Goldworthy writes,

The most compelling reason for Christians to read and study the Old Testament lies in the New Testament. The New Testament witnesses to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the One in whom and through whom all the promises of God find their fulfillment. These promises are only to be understood from the Old Testament. The fulfillment of the promises can be understood only in the context of the promises themselves.

The New Testament presupposes a knowledge of the Old Testament. Everything that is a concern to the New Testament writers is part of the one redemptive history to which the Old Testament witnesses. The New Testament writers cannot separate the person and work of Christ, nor the life of the Christian community, from this sacred history which has its beginnings in the Old Testament.

This Summer we will discover how the story of the bible does not begin with Jesus in the New Testament but rather begins with Jesus in the Old. Joins as we discover how the Panoramic of the Scriptures point is to Jesus.

Panoramic: Seeing the Gospel in All of Scripture

Dysfunction, Destruction, and Death

So last week we finished in Genesis 3. We look at how the rebellion of Adam and Eve led to their exile from the garden and presence of God. We learned that their rebellion subjected God’s good creation to a curse. The curse extended to physical creation, humanities’ relationship with God, and one-another.

The temptation at this point in our story is to underestimate the extent to which Adam and Eve’s rebellion destroyed God’s perfect world. In the mind of most, is the notion that people are inherently good.

Thus, rebellion and sin is reduced to a series of welling meaning mistake committed by generally good people that ultimately should not be held responsible for their actions because they are struggling to navigate through a confusing world.

But the biblical text reject this idea. The bible teaches that Adam’s sin corrupted everything and the bible waste not time in proving this point. In Genesis 4, we are introduced to Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve. In Genesis 4:8, we see that things are drastically wrong in this family,

8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. [4] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. -Genesis 4:8

Cain, like his parents are confronted by God, he is cursed like his dad Adam, and exiled away from the family. If that is not enough, we are given a closer look at Cain’s legacy and find that his great great grandson also turns out to be a murder.

The point that the biblical writer is making is that, Adam’s rebellion has lead to the opposite of God’s intent for humanity. Humanity was meant to live, love, and serve God and one-another. They were meant to multiply the image of God over the creation. But instead, their is bitterness, envy, rivalry, and murder. All is not right, God’s perfect creation is in turmoil