Content in my lord

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17 NASB).

Many writers, theologians and serious students of the Bible consider Genesis 3:15 to be the Protoeuangelion (the first gospel or good news) in all the Holy Scriptures. The reason for this is dues to the fact of being the first time that redemption through a Redeemer was promised to mankind by God Almighty. While meditating in all of these passages, I came to realize this to be so. Between Genesis 1, 2 and 3, one can see the whole plan of salvation, including the sanctification process that believers must endure while living on this earth. In these three chapters, we have God not only as the Creator but also as the divine Lawgiver, Judge and Executioner; we also see the Adam created in God’s image and as His viceroy to rule the planet and its other inhabitants, rebelling against his Creator through disobedience and disbelief in the Word of the Lord. In chapter 3, we read about God’s promise of reconciliation to mankind and of defeat of the accuser, liar and destroyer, satan. However, tucked in in these chapters in a very subtle way, we have the process of sanctification, testing of faith and the learning of contentment.

This is what I mean: Adam with his wife, Eve, fell into the state of sin because they were not content with what God had said, provided and/or didn’t provide (Genesis 2:16-17, Genesis 3:6); therefore, when their faith was tested, they failed, resulting in the state of death (physical and spiritual) to themselves and to all their progeny. They needed to practice contentment to all that God provided or did not provide for them, which included the prohibition of not eating from that singled out tree. While doing that, they would have been sanctified through their obedient faith in response to the Word of the Lord (Genesis 2: 16-17, John 17: 17).

Now in these days where the grace of God reigns in all His affairs with mankind, sinners are called and empowered by the Spirit of His Son to follow in the footsteps of the Second Adam in fulfilling what the first Adam failed to accomplish, namely, to trust the Word of God and to be content with what He says, provides and/or does not provide. Just as distrust was what caused the separation between Adam and his Creator, trusting faith must be what brings him back to his Creator, and this through Christ Jesus, the Lord (‘The Gospel and Its Ministry’ by Sir Robert Anderson). And this is the true biblical definition of contentment, which is what I must continue to learn. I confess that learning and practicing contentment in my spiritual walk is easier said than done; I realize that there are passions and sinful desires that wage war against our souls (1 Peter 2:11); however, the apostle Paul encourages us by saying that this spiritual discipline can be learned (Philippians 4:11-12), that our Lord is ever present to strength us that we might do all things according to the will of the Father (Philippians 4:13), which is being content with what He says, provides and/or does not provide.

May the grace, power and Spirit of our Lord and great God, Jesus the Messiah, be with all His people for the learning and practicing of contentment for the glory and praise of God, the Father! Amen.