woman’s “seed” is an odd expression, since in Hebrew and other languages, the seed refers to the man’s contribution to the conception of a child. This promise of a woman’s seed was perplexing, until a Virgin conceived a Child by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit millennia later, and he was named “Salvation” — that is, Jesus. The curse of the ancient serpent was at the same time the promise of a future salvation.
After the punishments, the Lord God showed mercy by clothing the couple with animal skins to cover the shame engendered by their disobedience to his commandments. Even their exclusion from the Garden of Eden was a mercy; they would not be allowed to eat the fruit of life in their sinful state until the defeat of the serpent by the Seed of the Woman at the new tree of life — the cross.
This episode shows that while God took the initiative, the couple still retained their own free will. They chose to hide, and at the Lord God’s insistence, they came forth to meet him for justice and for merciful promise. The salvation of humanity entails a true relationship because both God and humans have free will within it. God chooses to freely give his grace to save sinners, and humans can either hide or come forth to meet him.
This free quality of the relationship is what makes the process of salvation seem so complicated. However, like any relationship of free persons, the complexity is the basis of the richness of the relationship. In the Introduction, we saw that the Lord God took the initiative to walk in the cool of the Garden of Eden and call out to the recently guilty man and woman, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9).
Consider
Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wonderfully saw “Where are you?” as the most basic question of the Bible, one which distinguishes the Bible from human philosophy. Philosophy poses the human questions that seek where God or the meaning of life might be found, and looks for answers based on reason and experience. From Genesis 3:9, the Bible is a story of God asking human beings, “Where are you?” — seeking them out for a purpose greater than they can conceive.
The Lord God sought out Noah (he was the one staring at the skies for a rainstorm). The Lord sought out the pagan Abram and called him to become a blessing for all the nations of the world by worshipping the one God alone. Moses was looking for sheep when the Lord found him and spoke from the burning bush. The apostles were mending nets, or following John the Baptist, or caring for a tax collector’s booth when the Lord Jesus called each of them from private business to God’s mission. God takes the initiative with human beings, and asks “Where are you?” in order to draw them to himself.
Study
Furthermore, as with the case of Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes, he calls them while they are still sinners and does not wait until they are perfect: “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:6, 8).
The fisherman Simon Peter recognized this reality when, after the greatest catch of his career, he knelt before Jesus and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Lk 5:8). Many people are tempted to think that they must make themselves perfect, holy, and good before God will accept them. However, the biblical history points out that salvation is always offered at God’s initiative to undeserving sinners. For that reason, Jesus said to some Pharisees who were offended that he sat at table fellowship with sinners: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:12, 13).
Love of Israel
The Lord made clear to the people of Israel that his love for them was prior to their love for him.
Stop here and read Deuteronomy 7:7 and Isaiah 63:9 in your own Bible.
Not only did the Lord declare his love for Israel before they chose to love him, but he also made it clear that they did not deserve his love; his choice of Israel was undeserved and yet filled with his gracious devotion and concern for them. He would love and guide them as a father does his small children.
The Lord declared this while the Israelites were turning away from him to worship Baal, Asherah, and the other Canaanite gods that personified the mere forces of nature, a nature he had created. Yet he continued to love Israel and guide it through a salvation history that culminated with the mission of God the Son to redeem Israel first and then the whole world.
Stop here and read Hosea 11:1-4 in your own Bible.
Consider
The New Testament
The New Testament continues the same message that God initiates the saving relationship with people. As Jesus gave his first instruction on the Eucharist, he told the crowd of disciples, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:44). Later, the Lord Jesus told his eleven apostles at the Last Supper, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (Jn 15:16), which he follows with the command, “This I command you, to love one another” (Jn 15:17). St. John, one of those present at the Last Supper, wrote, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10), followed by the great truth that “We love, because he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). Like St. John, we can only marvel at this tremendous and unearned gift: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn 3:1).
Stop here and read Acts 9:1-22, 22:4-16, 26:9-20 in your own Bible.
Paul, an Apostle by Grace
St. Paul, whose conversion from being a persecutor of the Church and therefore of Jesus Christ himself, knew that his call to be an apostle was an act of God’s undeserved grace when he wrote to the Galatians, “But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (Gal 1:15).
Investigate
“Unworthiness”
Read the following passages and note where St. Paul recognizes his unworthiness to be an apostle.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| 1 Corinthians 15: 9 | |
| Ephesians 3:7-8 | |
| 1 Timothy 1:12-17 |
Note also how he wonders at the conversion and redemption of all Christians in Romans 8:29-32.
“Let there be Light”
A gaze into the amazing night sky shows the vastness of space and stirs up wonder at God, who made all of space and is infinitely more vast than the universe he created with a word, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3), a light that exploded in a “big bang” and brought forth the orderly universe where we live. Such is the Lord God, who is “mindful” enough of man to care for each person and save all who would accept
