Genesis 3:14-24: The Grace in the Curse

Prayer of Adoration - Holiness

You are Holy, O Lord.

You are light, and in You there is no darkness at all. You speak, and what You say is true, righteous, and good. From the beginning, You have been perfect in all Your ways— unshaken by sin, untempted by evil, and utterly just in judgment.

We adore You because You are not like us. Your purity exposes our corruption. Your justice humbles our pride. And yet, in all Your holiness, You have not abandoned us.

You are the Holy One who walks in the garden. The Judge who comes looking for rebels. The Righteous One who covers the guilty. The Glorious One who promises salvation.

We praise You for Your majesty, Your perfection, and Your mercy poured out without compromising Your holiness.

You alone are worthy of our worship.

Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

O Lord our God,

You are holy and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We come before You with hearts full of thanksgiving for the week You have given us. Thank You for the children who filled this place with energy and joy—children made in Your image, loved by You, and invited by You to know the gospel. We pray that the seeds of truth sown in their hearts this week would take deep root. May they remember what they’ve heard—that You are the one true God, good and glorious, strong to save, and faithful to keep every promise.

We ask, Lord, that these children would grow to know and trust Christ, that they would rejoice in the gospel—not as a distant story, but as their only hope and greatest treasure. Guard them from the lies of the world. Use their memories of VBS not merely for nostalgia, but as echoes of Your call on their life.

And Father, we thank You for the army of volunteers who gave of their time, energy, and love. Bless their efforts. Strengthen those who are weary. Encourage those who wondered if what they did made any difference. Remind them that nothing done in Your name is wasted. Use every snack passed out, every verse taught, every game played, every prayer whispered to bring You glory and draw little hearts to Christ.

And Lord, we pray that our church would be marked by a holy striving for faithfulness—not to impress, not to perform, but to honor You. Help us love Your Word more than our preferences, and help us love our neighbor more than our comfort. Where we have been lazy or indifferent, forgive us. Where we have been faithful, be glorified.

Teach us, Lord, to live as a people who are Yours—set apart, joyful in obedience, and unashamed of the gospel.

We pray also for those among us who are hurting today—for the sick, the grieving, the doubting, the lonely. Draw near to them. Remind them that You are near to the brokenhearted. Give us eyes to see how to love and serve them well.

And finally, Lord, we ask that all of this—not just this week, not just this Sunday, but every part of our life together as a church—would redound to Your glory and be pleasing in Your sight.

As we hear your Word proclaimed this morning may You be glorified. May your word convict and change us, bless and encourage us, and may we respond to your truth with repentance and faith.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and King, Amen.

Sermon

Scripture Reading

Genesis 3:14–24 ESV

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Intro

We’re now in our sixth week in Genesis 1–11, and today we finish chapter 3—bringing to a close the Garden of Eden narrative. These chapters aren’t just the beginning of the Bible—they’re the beginning of everything. They show us who God is, who we are, what went wrong, and why the world is still groaning for redemption.

In our first two weeks in chapter 1, we saw God as the eternal, sovereign Creator—forming the heavens and the earth by His Word, filling them with life and beauty, calling it all good. He is a God of order, purpose, generosity, and joy. And He made mankind—male and female—in His own image to reflect His glory, to rule over creation under His authority, and to walk with Him in perfect communion.

Then we turned our attention to humanity in chapter 2. We are creatures from the dust, yet made with dignity. God gave Adam

a priestly mission (to work and to protect the garden),

a boundary (every tree was available to eat except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil),

and a delight in receiving Eve (At last! One who is like me!).

We saw that were made for obedience, for worship, for joyful dependence upon the Lord—and for fellowship with one another.

But last week, we saw the tragedy unfold. The serpent whispered his lies and Adam and Eve listened.

They questioned God’s goodness and grasped at His throne.

In that moment, everything changed.

Shame entered.

Fear took root.

They hid from the God who had walked with them in the cool of the day.

The sin wasn’t just a slip—it was a cosmic treason.

And the tragedy is not just theirs—it’s ours. In Adam, we all fell. His failure is our inheritance, and we’ve all followed in his footsteps. None of us has kept God’s Word. All of us have hidden in shame.

And that brings us to today. Today we see the curse—the consequences of sin that ripple through the world. The ground is cursed. Childbearing is burdened. Marriage is distorted. Death is introduced. And humanity is driven from the garden, away from God’s presence.

But even here—amid the thorns and thistles, the pain and exile—we see grace. God does not destroy Adam and Eve. He speaks. He promises. He covers them.

And He hints at something greater: that one day, a better human will come.

A truer Adam.

A serpent-crusher.

One who will not fail where Adam failed.

One who will represent us not in rebellion, but in righteousness.

So today, we look at both the curse and the hope—the justice of God and the grace that will not let His people go.

I. The Curse That Spreads

After confronting the man and the woman, God speaks—but He begins not with them, but with the serpent. And what follows is not just consequence. It is curse—the first curse in the Bible. And it is not merely the natural result of bad choices. This is the spoken judgment of a holy and offended God.

“Because you have done this…” (v.14) “Cursed are you…” (v.14) “Cursed is the ground because of you…” (v.17)

This is what sin deserves. Not a slap on the wrist. Not a second chance.

But divine judgment.

Final. Just. Devastating.

1. The serpent is cursed.

God begins by cursing the serpent, the deceiver and tempter. It will crawl in the dust—a vivid picture of utter humiliation and defeat, forever stripped of its former status. No longer proud or elevated, it is condemned to live in shame, slithering close to the earth. But the curse is not only personal disgrace; the serpent will also be forever marked as an enemy of God and His creation.

More than that, God declares an ongoing, cosmic war—a spiritual battle that extends far beyond Eden. He sets enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between their offspring. This is not just a family dispute; it’s the opening of a great spiritual conflict that will shape the course of history — that shapes the rest of the entire biblical story!

Two lines, two kingdoms, two destinies emerge: the seed of the woman, representing God’s people and purposes, and the seed of the serpent, representing rebellion and destruction.

And if you remember when we were working through Matthew, what does John the Baptist and Jesus call the hypocritical religious leaders? Children of serpents. Genesis 1-11 is foundational to understanding all the rest of the Bible. If we just set it to the side as children’s stories then we will misunderstand the rest of this blessed book.

God then turns and judges the woman.

2. The woman is judged.

To the woman, God speaks of pain.

The very calling that once carried the blessing of creation—“Be fruitful and multiply”—will now carry the weight of sorrow. Childbirth, which was meant to be a joyful participation in God's creative work, is now laced with anguish. Life will still come, but it will come through pain.

But it’s not only labor pains that enter here. The effects of sin strike at the heart of her most intimate relationship. The partnership between man and woman, designed for joyful cooperation and mutual delight, is now broken. What was created as a "helper corresponding to him" (2:18)—a reflection of unity and shared purpose—will now be marred by selfishness, desire, and struggle for control. “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” The beauty of oneness is now fractured by power dynamics, mistrust, and the distortion of love.

The home, meant to be the cradle of life, love, and worship, becomes the front line of sin’s effects. Pain in bearing children. Pain in raising them. Pain in living beside one another. The garden was meant to be expanded outward by a holy people, starting in the home. Instead, sin starts there too.

This is not just ancient history. Every marital argument, every broken family, every child lost or born into hardship, every home that becomes a battleground instead of a sanctuary—traces back to this curse. The judgment on the woman ripples forward into every generation.

3. The man is judged.

To the man, God speaks of futility.

The ground from which he came is now cursed, and the work he was created to do will be marked by sweat, struggle, and sorrow.

The garden gives way to thorns. Joyful labor becomes survival.

And at the end of it all stands the grave:

“Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (v.19)

Death now reigns. Everything God made good is now groaning.

Division, decay, disease, death—it’s all here. And it doesn’t stay with Adam and Eve. It spreads.

What’s Wrong With You People?

And sometimes, when we read this judgment, part of us might want to say: “Wasn’t that a bit much? All this—because of a bite of fruit?”

That same question was once asked at the 2014 Ligonier Conference during a live Q&A. The moderator read it aloud: “Since God is slow to anger and patient, why, when man first sinned, was His punishment so severe and long lasting?”

R.C. Sproul’s response was unforgettable. He stopped and said:

Time out! Didn’t we just have that question just a second ago? That God’s punishment for Adam was so severe. This creature from the dirt, defied the everlasting, holy God.

After that, God had said, “The day that you shall eat of it, you shall surely die.”

And instead of dying that day, he lived another day and was clothed in his nakedness by pure grace and had the consequences of a curse applied for quite some time, but the worst curse would come upon the one who seduced him, whose head would be crushed by the seed of the woman.

And the punishment was too severe?!?

What’s wrong with you people?! I’m serious!

I mean this is what’s wrong with the Christian church today.

We don’t know who God is.

And we don’t know who we are.

The question is, why wasn’t it infinitely more severe?

If we have any understanding of our sin and any understanding of who God is, that’s the question, isn’t it?

The Unworthiness of Adam

We need to feel the weight of what has happened here in Genesis 3. Adam, our first father, was not just a man who made a mistake—he was humanity’s representative, entrusted with the worship and rule of God's good world. He was created upright, in the image of God, and placed in a garden temple with a clear command and every provision. He was not hungry. He was not needy. He was not ignorant. He was beloved and blessed.

And yet—he fell.

He traded the truth of God for a lie. He listened to the serpent instead of the Creator. And when his eyes were opened, they were not filled with wonder, but shame. He hid. He blamed. He failed.

And when Adam fell, we all fell with him. The apostle Paul says in Romans 5:12, “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

In Adam, we are not born neutral. We are born guilty.

We don’t just break things—we are broken. Inclined toward rebellion.

And so we see in Genesis 3 not just the story of one man’s failure—but the beginning of our story. A story that is stained from the start. A story where every child of Adam is born outside the garden, under the curse, sent out east of Eden.

You don’t need to teach a toddler how to defy authority. You don’t have to convince a teenager to think the world revolves around them. You don’t have to train adults in selfishness, pride, or blame-shifting. We come by it honestly.

Because we come from Adam.

Adam failed the test—and the infection of that failure now lives in us all.

We are his sons and daughters. And we are unworthy.

Unworthy to return to the garden. Unworthy to stand before a holy God. Unworthy to be trusted. Unworthy to fix what’s been broken.

Adam was the best of us. And if the best of us failed, what hope do the rest of us have?

This is the darkness we must reckon with. Not just that we make bad choices, but that we are in Adam, and therefore under the curse. Romans 3 is not a discouraging exaggeration—it’s a divine diagnosis:

“None is righteous, no, not one… all have turned aside… there is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10–18)

We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. We are Adam’s children. And we are unworthy.

And as the pages of the Old Testament unfold, the weight of this curse only deepens.

Cain murders Abel.

The flood drowns the earth.

The tower of Babel rises in arrogance.

Israel sins like Adam.

The kings fail.

The temple falls.

The prophets weep.

The Old Testament ends not with triumph, but with tears.

There is no resolution, only longing.

The serpent still whispers.

The sting of death still burns

The grave still wins.

The curse still reigns.

And so as we read the whole Old Testament we are asking:

Is there any hope? Can the curse be reversed? Can the serpent be silenced? Can the garden be restored?

There is one thread of hope running through the wreckage.

In the middle of all the curses, a promise.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (v.15)

It’s a whisper—but heaven is already planning its rescue. The bruised heel points to a cross. The crushed head to an empty tomb. It’s the gospel in seed form—and it’s enough to kindle hope in the dark.

A Deliverer will come. One born of woman. One who will do what Adam failed to do. One who will not fall, but will crush the Serpent.

But that is yet to come in this story.

The curse spreads. And we cannot fix it. We are cast out. We are east of Eden. And only God can bring us home.

This is a tragic song—but grace still sings. Even as the world breaks, God keeps reaching. Even as we're cast out of paradise in His presence, He’s already preparing the way back in.

There is a Grace that Remains and we see it all throughout the chapter.

II. The Grace That Remains

Genesis 3:8–24

Sin brought ruin. Shame took hold. The curse spread like wildfire. Humanity was driven from the garden—east of Eden, under judgment. But even there—in exile, pain, and death—grace remained.

This is what sets the God of the Bible apart: He does not abandon His people in their guilt. In wrath, He remembers mercy.

Last week we saw God’s grace in the pursuit.

1. Grace in the Pursuit (vv. 8–9)

“But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’”

God comes walking in the garden—not storming in judgment, not shouting in fury. Walking, moving toward the guilty.

And He calls—not to figure out where they are, but to draw them out of hiding.

“Where are you?” is not the demand of a tyrant; it’s the call of a Father. Before He declares judgment, before He speaks any curse, the first movement is grace as God comes looking for His lost ones.

Pastoral Connection: This is still how God works. When we sin, shame says “Run from home.” But grace says, “Come back home.” Even when we are covered in sin, failure, and shame the heart of God is not to destroy, but to restore.

2. Grace in the Judgment (vv. 14–19, 22–24)

We may not think of judgment as grace. But look closely. There’s mercy even here.

God never directly curses Adam and Eve. The curse falls on the serpent, on reproduction, and on the ground. To the man and woman, God doesn’t speak harsh vengeance—but there are consequences to sin.

Life will be hard—but life will go on for a time.

Pain will be a marker of life.

And even death, as bitter as it is, is a mercy from God.

God gives his reasoning for banishing them from Eden.

He bars them from the Tree of Life! Not to torment them, but to ensure that their sin will not go on growing and growing for eternity. Their specific sin will die with them. The extent of their ruin will be limited by their lifespan. (22)

“He drove out the man… and placed the cherubim… to guard the way to the tree of life.” (v.24)

This is not just banishment—it’s protection.

The way to the tree will be blocked for now, but not forever.

A sword guards the path, but one day, Someone will pass through the gateway again.

Pastoral Connection: So friends, God’s discipline is not the end of His story with you. It may feel like rejection—but it’s actually preparation. Correction. Protection.

Even the hardest things He does in our lives are still saturated with grace.

3. Grace in the Promise (v.15)

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This is more than a judgment—it’s a declaration of war. And a declaration of hope.

The serpent will not win. A child will come—born of woman—who will suffer, but in suffering, He. will. triumph.

This is the protoevangelium—the first gospel. It is a whisper of a future victory. The rest of Scripture flows from this seed of a promise.

From this promise in Genesis 3:15, a question begins to echo through every generation: Who is the seed? Who will crush the serpent? Is it Cain? Noah? Abraham? David?

Biblical Thread: Eve names her son in hope. Abraham receives the promise of a seed. David is promised a Son who will reign forever. Isaiah says a child will be born… But by the end of the Old Testament, the curse remains. The serpent still slithers. And the Promised One has not come.

And yet—God’s promise stands and will be fulfilled.

4. Grace in the Covering (v.21)

“And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”

The fig leaves weren’t enough. They never are. Adam and Eve’s first instinct after sin was to cover themselves. But their efforts were shallow, makeshift, and ultimately useless. Just like ours.

Every man-made attempt to deal with guilt—whether through excuses, achievements, distractions, or even religion—ends up being just another fig leaf. They might hide shame for a moment, but they can’t cleanse it. They can’t deal with the real problem.

But God steps in. He provides a covering—and this one comes at a cost.

For the first time in Scripture, something dies. An animal is slain. Blood is shed. A substitute is given. The innocent dies so the guilty can be covered.

This is the first death in the Bible—and it isn’t Adam’s or Eve’s. It’s the death of another, sacrificed to cover their shame. And with it, God is preaching the gospel before the word “gospel” was ever spoken.

This is more than clothing. It’s a theological act. God doesn’t just forgive them—He clothes them. He doesn’t just wipe the slate clean—He covers their guilt with something better than their own effort.

This moment becomes a shadow of the great covering to come—the true Lamb who would shed His blood, not for one couple, but for many.

Pastoral Reflection: This is grace. You don’t bring your own covering to God. You receive His. You don’t hide behind fig leaves of performance, defensiveness, or comparison. You wear the righteousness only He can provide.

God provided the first sacrifice in Eden. And one day, He would provide the final one on Calvary.

Until then, the message rings out: "You are not enough. But He is."

Summary & Transition to Conclusion

Genesis 3 ends not with a resolution, but with a promise. A sword. A closed gate. And a world waiting for the One who would make a way back to the tree of life.

God pursues and promises. God judges, but doesn’t destroy. God covers.

But the seed has not yet come. The curse has not yet lifted. The sword still stands.

And all of history begins holding its breath. Waiting. Hoping. Longing. For someone worthy. 5. Grace in the Gospel: The True Seed and the Undoing of Adam’s Curse

As we heard earlier, Paul explains in Romans 5:12-15, that through Adam’s one sin came condemnation and death to all humanity—because we are all counted as his descendants, unworthy and under curse. But God’s grace flows like a flood through Jesus Christ, the Second Adam. Where the first Adam brought death, the Second Adam brings life.

“But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many… For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:15, 19)

This is the climactic hope for all who stand under the curse of the first Adam. Jesus is the promised Seed, the serpent-crusher, who takes our unworthiness and covers it with His perfect obedience and sacrifice. He enters into our exile, bears the curse on our behalf, and ushers in the new creation where the sword will be removed and the gate to life will be opened once and for all.

Pastoral Connection: The story of grace that began in Genesis 3 does not end in shame or exile—it culminates in Christ. His righteousness is credited to us, His life becomes our life, and His victory is our hope. So as we sit in the weight of our failure in Adam, we also lift our eyes to Jesus, the worthy One who makes all things new.

Conclusion

And so the Old Testament ends—not with a triumphant chorus, but with a haunting silence.

The serpent still slithers. The curse still clings. The seed of the woman—the one promised to crush the serpent’s head—is still nowhere to be found.

The law reveals sin, but cannot remove it. The sacrifices cover guilt, but cannot cleanse the conscience. The prophets proclaim hope, but they die without seeing it fulfilled.

Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon— were all raised up, used by God, but still flawed, still fallen, still dying men. Each a shadow, but not the substance. Each a signpost, but not the Savior.

And so the curtain falls on the Old Testament with longing. With waiting. The ache of Eden unresolved. The cry for deliverance unanswered.

The prophets stop speaking and centuries pass.

And then— A voice cries in the wilderness. A virgin gives birth. A man walks among us—full of grace and truth. John the Baptist sees Him and declares: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

But He too is struck and pierced. He dies, just like everyone else.

And for a moment, it seems like the serpent has won yet again. Another grave. Another silence.

Until…

He rises.

And the silence is shattered. The serpent is defeated by the only human to ever live and die without sin. The grave itself bows at the feet of our King Jesus, God in the flesh walking amongst us again.

He was crucified on the cross to bear the sin of his new created people.

And he leads them home, back to the garden, back to God!

As Paul explains in Romans 5:15–19, through Adam’s one sin came condemnation and death to all humanity—because we are all counted as his descendants, unworthy and under curse. But God’s grace flows like a flood through Jesus Christ, the Second Adam. Where the first Adam brought death, the Second Adam brings life.

“But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many… For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:15, 19)

This is the climactic hope for all who stand under the curse of the first Adam. Jesus is the promised Seed, the serpent-crusher, who takes our unworthiness and covers it with His perfect obedience and sacrifice. He enters into our exile, bears the curse on our behalf, and ushers in the new creation where the sword will be removed and the gate to life will be opened once and for all.

Pastoral Connection: The story of grace that began in Genesis 3 does not end in shame or exile—it culminates in Christ. His righteousness is credited to us, His life becomes our life, and His victory is our hope. So as we sit in the weight of our failure in Adam, we also lift our eyes to Jesus, the worthy One who makes all things new.

And we see in Revelation 5, the search for the worthy one begins again.

John sees a scroll held out in the right hand of God—sealed, sacred, the key to history and redemption. And a mighty angel cries out: “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

And again—there is no one worthy. No one in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth. And John weeps. He weeps for the whole story of the world. He weeps for the brokenness of Genesis 3. He weeps because if no one is worthy, then the curse holds, the grave wins, and the story ends in silence.

But then a voice— And it’s not the serpent this time, but one of the elders who says, “Weep no more!” “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered.”

And John looks—and he sees… a Lamb, standing as though slain.

This is the one. This is the seed of the woman. This is the one promised in the garden, longed for through the ages. This is the one who bore the curse to break it. This is the one who crushed the serpent’s head.

And all heaven erupts in praise:

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”

This is the resolution the Old Testament could never give. This is the return from exile, East of Eden. This is the King of Glory. This is Jesus Christ.

And all of this is directly tied to Genesis 1-11! Praise God for His wisdom from before the very foundation of the world! He is not surprised, He never has been! He is wise and good and lays out our very footsteps! We can trust him!

And so I remind you, friends, you are either still in Adam—or you are in Christ. The curse still clings to all who remain in Adam and many remain in Adam, falsely believing they are in Christ.

But Jesus offers you a new beginning. A new covering. A new name. Trust Him today. Turn from your sin. Turn from the hiding and the shame. And come home. Believe God and turn from your sin, be born into the new humanity under the True and Better Adam.

So when we ask: Is Jesus worthy?

Heaven has already answered!

Will you join the heavens in proclaiming:

He is worthy!

Let’s pray

O Lord God, We confess with sorrow that we are the children of Adam— Dust-born, prideful, rebellious. His sin is our sin. His shame is our shame. His failure echoes in every generation, including our own.

We, too, have reached for what is not ours. We have listened to lies. We have covered ourselves with leaves. We have blamed and excused and hidden in fear. And still You come, asking, “Where are you?”

We are unworthy, Lord. Unworthy to walk with You. Unworthy to stand in Your presence. Unworthy to speak Your name.

And yet—You did not leave us naked. You made a covering at the cost of blood. You gave a promise in the midst of the curse. And in the fullness of time, You gave Your Son, Jesus the Messiah.

So now we look to Him— The Seed who crushed the serpent, The Lamb who was slain, The Righteous One who took our place. And the One who sits at Your right hand interceding on behalf of His people.

Is there anyone worthy? Is there anyone whole? Is there anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll?

We know the answer. And we will sing Your truth back to You.

Confession and Assurance

Assurance

Church, we have confessed that like Adam, we were unworthy. Guilty. Naked in our sin. But hear the good news:

Romans 5:19–21 ESV

19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is the grace of God: The unworthy are made righteous. The guilty are declared innocent. Because Jesus, the spotless Lamb, took our place.

If you are trusting in Christ alone, your sins are forgiven, and you are clothed in His righteousness.

All: Thanks be to God!

Benediction

Go now in the grace of the God who comes looking for sinners. Go clothed not in fig leaves, but in the righteousness He provides. Go in the hope of the promised Offspring— the One who crushed the serpent’s head and bore the curse in your place.

Walk in faith. Wait in hope. And live as those who are covered by grace.

Amen.