Genesis 3
Nancy Pearcey and Chuck Colson argue that a worldview should answer 4 basic questions (How Now Shall We Live?):
1. Where did we come from?
2. What is wrong with the world? (Why so much pain and suffering?)
3. What is the solution?
4. How should we live in light of questions 1-3?
Genesis chapters 1-3 provide answers for these questions and give us foundations for how to think. Genesis 3 directly answers the second question, why is there evil? The problem with the world is sin – we have rebelled against God. This has thwarted our efforts to fulfill our God-given purposes of bearing fruit and representing Him. Jesus restores us to that purpose both now and forever by removing the problem of sin.
Genesis 4
Genesis will now develop a troubling theme, which is the spread of sin. Sin has entered the world and its destruction will only increase. This theme will carry the narrative through chapter 11, until Abraham is introduced in chapter 12.
So, to summarize, Genesis 1-11 is the first major section of scripture. It provides for us foundations for all of our thinking:
- Creation
- The universe
- Man as male and female
- Work
- Marriage
- Sin, its curse and spread
And yet there is one more theme subtly introduced as well. God is with us, showing grace and preventing us from being completely destroyed because of our sin. He preserves Adam and Eve, and then Cain, in spite of rebellion against Him.
