What will become of this broken world in light of the curse of sin??? – that is the driving question of the biblical story. Will creation unravel entirely, like a cloth that has been torn inexorably apart? Is the cosmos destined to a fate of death and dissolution? Or can thing yet be set back to rights?
The short answer is: YES! Salvation is coming! And the rest of the Bible is, in the words of the great 20th century theologian Geogle Ladd, “the story of God setting right what went wrong in the Garden of Eden.”
As we move towards the solution, we note that the primordial history of Genesis (chapters 1-11) ends with humanity’s last, best attempt at restoration by our own efforts (the Tower of Babel) – a project that comes to ruin, and with it humanity’s hope at engineering our own solution to sin.
But the God of love, unwilling to abandon his beloved to our fate, makes the pledge to which we still cling: that by his own efforts he will make all things new. And it is with this pledge – this promise to one man, Abraham – that the Salvation Project begins.
