Text: Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 2:18-24
God is a God of life. In the beginning … was life. In the beginning, was the Word. It was the Word of life, and by its power, God created life. He said, “Let there be,” and there was. And so He created the heavens and the earth. He made the sea and the dry land. And God saw that it was good.
And then He filled it all with life: fish of the sea and birds of the air and all manner of animals upon the ground. And God saw that it was good.
But it was not yet very good. He had one more life to create, and it was the most precious gift of life yet. God would make human life. As the crowning achievement of His creation of all life, as that which separates the good from the very good, the incomplete from the complete, God made man. Well, not just a man. God made man in His own image; male and female, He created them. It wasn’t just a man; it was the first human couple. This was the final gift of life, the gift of human life.
In the beginning … was life. And He said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” The God of life would extend the gift of life, from parents to children, from one generation to the next. This wasn’t “planned parenthood.” Parenthood was the plan.
And to be fruitful and to multiply takes two parents; male and a female He created them. (This is biologically irrefutable whether one attributes the plan to God or not!) But it was God’s plan, and God is a God of life.
To quote from our Agenda, the Rite of Christian Marriage states, “the union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is intended by God for their mutual joy, for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversary, and when it is God’s will for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and the love of the Lord.” “When it is God’s will,”-parenthood, you see, is according to His plan, when and where He pleases. It was a good plan. It was God’s plan. It was a plan for the continuation of life, for the sustaining of life. God had even put a Tree of Life in the midst of the garden, and Genesis chapter 2 continues the story with the history of that life. That is the next chapter, the history of the next generation. That’s what the Hebrew text calls it, “the generations.” This Hebrew word is probably as close to our understanding of the word “history” as any word in the Bible. But what is interesting is that the word itself is based on the verb “to bear children” (toledoth). It is usually translated “generations,” and it shows how God’s history is continued by our children.
But children begin with parents. And so the story starts anew with the first parents. Now God notes that although everything was supposed to be good, there was one thing that was not good. It was not good for the man to be alone, and so God made a woman, a partner, a helper “fit for him.” The word means “suitable, appropriate, fitting.” It might best be translated “complementary” (with an “e;” she should be complimentary with an “i” as well!). The old English translations used “meet,” which sometimes gets misread as “mate.” She was a mate all right, but the mate was meet for him.
Note that the helper was not to be found among the animals, even though Adam had looked there first. Nor was his mate to be found in another man. The mate meet for him, his opposite who fit him just right, was not an animal nor another man. It was precisely and singularly a woman, formed of one flesh and intended to become again one flesh with him in a union that had as its plan the next generation. It was God’s gift of life-the gift of life from the God of life.
But then something went terribly wrong. The problem was not with the plan. The problem was certainly not with God. The problem was on account of man-and of the woman! You see, our first parents had a choice. They actually had a full and free choice. God was pro-life. Man and woman had a choice.
And that old serpent Satan knew how to play to our human desire for the freedom of choice. It begins with doubt. It builds on a sense that we know better than God. It leads to a suspicion that God’s plan may not be the best plan. Eve was tempted with Adam at her side. It was not enough to know God’s goodness and with it His gift of life. They wanted not only the knowledge of good but also of evil. Remember the other tree in the garden? It was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told them not to eat of it, because in that day they would surely die. They knew only God’s goodness and life. They did not know evil and death. So it seemed God was holding something back, and they had a right to know. And so the first couple chose the way of death.
Oh, they brought forth new life all right. Eve became pregnant and gave birth to a son, but the next generation was no longer in the perfect image of God. Instead he was born in the sinful image of his parents. And with that new life was sown also the seed of death. Adam and Eve would die. Cain and his brother Abel would die. But it was even worse than that. Remember the story, the story of the next generation? Cain was jealous and then angry with his brother Abel, and he murdered him. That was not God’s plan, but it became the sad story of our human history. No longer just a story of life, it was now a story of life and death, even death by murder, death by choice.
But God did not abandon His plan. Even in the face of death, and now in a world filled with bad choices and wrong choices, filled with sin and its consequences, God is still a God of life, not of death. In the midst of Adam and Eve’s dreadful realization of their sin and its sorry results, God carried out His warning and judgment and even pronounced a curse-against the serpent and against the earth, but not against the man and the woman. Instead He promised conflict, hostility-remember another old English word, “enmity,” the same word as in “enemies?” There would be enmity between the woman and that old serpent Satan and between their offspring.
But remember that this was a curse against the serpent. There would be a fight to the finish, but the offspring of the woman would come to be a Savior who would crush the head of the serpent. We know from the beginning how the story would end, how all human history has its end in the death of Christ for our sins and in His great victory in crushing the power of Satan and with him all sin and death and powers of the devil, including our own bad choices and wrong choices that we make in our world of death.
You see, in the midst of that first moment of death and of God’s curse, the God of life promised a gift of life, of hope, salvation, victory, and new life in the seed of that woman.
Oh, it took a long time. God’s ways are not our ways, and His timing is not our timing. Imagine all those Old Testament women wondering what the next generation would bring. It is no wonder that in the history of God’s people the gift of children was so precious and blessed and the lack of children, of barrenness, was often understood as a curse.
But God is a God of life. His plan is good. He promised to bring life, and He showed that He could do it even where there was no life. That is the plan of God, where and when He pleases.
Remember Abraham and his wife Sarah? He promised them a child, even though Sarah was way too old to have a child. But that was God’s plan. This human couple made other choices. Abram tried to take matters into his own hands. He chose to adopt Eliezer; then he chose to have a child with Hagar. But God had another plan. He brought life where there was no life, and the barren Sarah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Isaac, which means “he laughs.” Remember that she had laughed at God’s plan, but God had the last laugh-it was happy, joyful, and blessed laughter at God’s gift of life.
There are other stories of God’s gift of life; in fact, they are a major theme of the history, the “generations” of God’s people “B.C.” There was Manoah’s wife at the time when the judges were judging Israel (Judges 13). She, too, was barren, with no hope of new life. But God’s messenger came and told her that she would conceive and bear a son and that he would be a special child from his birth. You remember him; his name was Samson.
Then there was Hannah, wife of Elkanah. In fact, Elkanah had two wives: Peninnah had children but Hannah had none. Do you remember the story? For this child she prayed, and the Lord remembered her. She conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel. And this couple gave their child back to the Lord to serve God and His people. God used him as a prophet, as a priest, and as one who helped shape their understanding of king.
Throughout His holy history, throughout the generations, the God of life was at work, giving the gift of life, even bringing life where there was no life.
Finally there was Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah, priest in Jerusalem. In spite of their prayers and their hopes and their dreams, they had no children. Remember the story? The angel came to Zechariah and said, “Your prayer is heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son and you shall call his name John (Luke 1:13 RSV).” This child, too, would be a special child with a special role. Indeed, he would prepare the way of the Lord and announce the coming of the kingdom of God! We know this child as John the Baptist, and he was another of God’s gifts of life.
Then as one ultimate gift of life, God had one more surprise. This time He came to a woman not past her childbearing years but who had not yet even been married. She was a virgin, engaged to a man named Joseph, but she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. This was a double miracle: not just overcoming the limitations of normal human conception, as with women beyond childbearing years, but going beyond nature, without benefit of a human father. The Creator of life was at work again. We confess it in our creed every week: “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.” The God of life gives the gift of life; indeed He gives life where there is no life. He creates it by His power. He sustains it by His Word. He conceives it by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the God of life.
But if this would be the end of the story, the fulfillment of all human history and of God’s holy history, the conception was only the beginning of our Lord’s earthly life. But you know the end. It was more than the end of His life; it was the end, the goal, the fulfillment of all life. Jesus’ life would end in death. But it was His self-giving, self-sacrificing, and innocent death, not for His own sins but for the sins of all the world. We confess that every week as well: “He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.” The God of life would give the gift of death, an innocent death of His own son, for the sake of the life of all the world.
Even though that work of redemption was finished, it is not the end of God’s story of life. God was at work again, bringing life where there is no life. He is risen! He is risen indeed! There is new life, life from death, life after death, new life in Christ, resurrection life, baptismal life. We confess it every week: “He descended into hell, and on the third day He rose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead!”
Yes, God is a God of life, new life after death. That is His plan. That was His plan from the beginning.
It is a plan that is carried forth in every generation by those who are marked by the sign of the cross both upon the forehead and upon the heart in token that we have been redeemed by Christ the crucified. Buried with Christ by baptism into His death, we are raised again to newness of life. It is a plan for a new beginning.
With Christ is buried our old mortal life, our old sin-filled life. With Christ are buried our sins of selfishness and self-centeredness, by which we would choose death. In Christ is found the common bond of faith and forgiveness of all of our sins. In Christ, we know the humility of our broken lives as they melt before the grace and love of God that enables us to be revived and restored and renewed as we celebrate God’s gift of life. In Christ we embrace and support each other, fully aware of our bad choices, of our wrong choices in our wonderment and wondering about God’s plan and purpose for each one of us. In Christ we daily celebrate His gift of life, as that new man comes forth and arises who shall live before God in righteousness and purity, not just in this new day but forevermore!
In Christ, and in Christ alone, by grace alone, we know God’s gift of life. In the beginning, from the beginning, God gives us all a new beginning! The God of life has given us the gift of life.