14 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:14–15

Everything in the garden had been perfect until this point. God saw the tricky serpent and the disobedience of Adam and Eve and had no choice but to confront and punish them. But who did He punish first? He cursed the one who caused His children to sin—the deceptive serpent. God told the serpent he would crawl on his belly and eat dust for the rest of his days, bringing him to the lowest place possible. There’s nothing much lower than slithering around in the dirt for the rest of your life.

In fact, Isaiah 65:17, 25 says that when the new heavens and the new earth are formed, the serpent—the Enemy—will continue to eat dust for all eternity. Everything will be restored as in the original garden, but the serpent will continue to live out his life sentence, slithering around in the dirt.

God also said in Genesis 3:15 that there would be enmity between the serpent and the woman and between the serpent’s offspring and hers. This is called the protoevangelium, meaning “the first gospel.” It was the first mention of how God would turn all this sin around. He would send a Savior, Jesus Christ, to conquer sin and defeat Satan.

When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, sin entered the world. And the consequence of their sin was death—the beginning of death for all of us. But God gave us a promise in that same moment. He cursed the serpent to death forever and offered us the hope of eternal life. Even though life on earth is now temporary, a new promise of eternal life was made available—a second chance.
God loves us so much that instead of turning away from Adam and Eve and brushing them off as failures, He already had a plan. They did not surprise Him. He knows everything about everything. And instead of wiping the slate clean and starting over, His plan was to give His one and only Son as a sacrifice to save all of humanity.

Sin is crippling. It can change so much about our character—how we act, how we talk, how we posture ourselves. It changes how we think, who we surround ourselves with and it affects every decision we make in life. Sin can completely alter the trajectory of our lives.
The Bible tells us in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. But God’s promise of eternal life is made available through Jesus Christ.

No matter how much we sin and rebel against God, there is always hope. Yes, God punished Adam and Eve to a life that would end in death here on earth, but He did not condemn them to an eternal death as He did the serpent. God gave His image-bearers a second chance. And if you keep reading the firestorm of Adam and Eve’s lives, you’ll see He gave them more than just a second chance. God’s forgiveness is endless for all who call to Him and accept Jesus as their Savior.

It is hard to believe that after all the screw ups, do-overs, mistakes and poor decisions we make every day—God freely and without hesitation—hands us the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Grace is not something that can be earned or bought. It’s something that we simply have to accept from Him. We have to believe that even though we don’t deserve it, God desires us to take hold of it and live with a freedom that only He can give.

Sisters, do you truly understand and accept the gift of grace? Do you genuinely believe that God wants you to let go and walk in freedom? It’s difficult to let go of sin. It can feel comfortable—even valuable. We cling to it as if clutching a purse in a foreign city known for its pickpockets, afraid someone might snatch it away.

And then what? I mean, everything is in that purse—our identity, our security, our failures, our excuses! Why do we hold on to those things so tightly? Is it fear of change? Fear of the unknown? Fear of facing it? Fear of failing again?

Sometimes, we get so comfortable carrying around our past sins and failures that we cannot see the beauty of the restoration that God has for us. When we continue to carry around our sins, we allow the Enemy’s voice to be louder than the voice of truth. We cannot be rooted in God’s truth until we walk away from the Enemy’s lies and lay all those things at the feet of Jesus.

God can use your past experiences for His glory! No matter how big or small your story, God can use you. Where is God leading you today?

God, I thank You for the gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ—a second chance we did not deserve. I pray for the strength to stand firm, drop the heavy burdens of our past at Jesus’s feet and use our story for Your glory. Amen