Love - Creation and Redemption

God's love for his people is linked with his love for his Only Begotten Son. We see that in creation and redemption. Creation was for him (Col. 1). Humanity was made to share with him. We see God's love in the fact he created us to enjoy - and he blessed them. We were created to share, both with the Son of God and with a complementary person - a wife was the only thing lacking in Adam's creation. Adam's relationship with God was the opposite of casual - it was structured on certain terms and conditions - God blessed him, and commanded him not to eat of a certain tree. This responsibility gave human dignity, and a sense of security based ultimately on God's faithfulness. The Fall was a conscious choice not to obey God. It showed a change of heart, from love to rejection. It was a breach of covenant, therefore the relationship was broken. The consequences included loss of communion with God, progressive distancing, mutual antipathy, God's wrath against our sin, and death as the penalty. There seemed no hope, nor any way of mending the broken relationship. But God in his love promised a Redeemer - he found a way to bring back his banished ones. He was under no obligation - such love is at one's discretion. We are totally dependent on his grace. Such grace leads to grateful service. The 'seed of the woman' would be one of to act on our behalf and give sympathetic support. But he would not come from man's action - this would be the work of God alone fulfilled in the virgin birth of Christ. God's next act was to clothe them with animal skins, a hint that the 'Seed' would die in our place. That would undo Satan's work, while he would live again.