The Problem
At For the Love of God, D. A. Carson gives brief commentary on Genesis 3.
[T]he heart of all human problems is rebellion against the God who is our Maker, whose image we bear, and whose rule we seek to overthrow. All of our problems, without exception, can be traced to this fundamental source: our rebellion and the just curse of God that we have attracted by our rebellion.
Have you ever noticed that God’s curses are related to the duties he assigned humankind before the fall?
The Solution
It is God who will make everything right again during the second coming. Michael J. Kruger writes that it is important for believers to be future-oriented, because if we are not, we
- will forget that redemption is more than “spiritual”: Downplaying the physical aspects of redemption “can create a quasi-Gnostic spirituality amongst Christians, where the spiritual and physical are pitted against one another.”
- will lose perspective regarding the problem of evil: The second coming provides “an essential perspective without which the problem of evil could not be addressed.”
- will lack an appropriate context for personal holiness: “If we only focus on this current world, then holiness is going to seem strange and out of place… . But, what if our minds were set on another world? What if our hearts were longing and waiting for a future world? A world where “righteousness dwells”? If we did that, then holiness has a context where it is meaningful. Holiness and godliness make sense.”
Read the whole post at Canon Fodder for more explanation of these points.