The word of God, the worth of God, and the wisdom of God find their meeting place in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Nothing marks a Christian more than trust, and nothing proves God to be trustworthy more than His Son. In Him, none are disappointed, and all are satisfied.
There is an old story of a father who took his young son out and stood him on the railing of their back porch. He then went down, stood on the lawn, and encouraged the child to jump into his arms. “I’ll catch you,” the father said confidently. After a lot of coaxing, the little boy finally made the leap. When he did, the father stepped back and let the child fall to the ground. He then picked his son up, dusted him off, and dried his tears.
“Let that be a lesson,” he said sternly. “Don’t ever trust anyone.”
That story isn’t from my childhood, and I don’t think it’s from yours either (if it is, let me know). But it would seem that each of us has been through the unfortunate experience of this fooled son. Trust issues run deep in the hearts of men. Promises are easily broken, character is almost always compromised, and the wisdom of our confidants can often prove folly. It seems that the more we live, the less we can trust. From start to finish, life’s journey is met with disappointments, heartaches, injustices, loss, pain, sorrows, trials, and temptations.
The easy answer to our trust problem is to say that we should trust the Lord, and undoubtedly, we should (Ps. 9:18, 28:7, 37:4-6, 112:7; Prov. 3:5; Isa. 26:3; Jn. 14:1; Rom. 8:28). The reality is that we often don’t. What trust seems unimaginable between an earthly son and his father is exactly how we naturally relate to our Heavenly Father.
Humanity’s trust issues with God dates back to the Garden of Eden. And in view of this perfect setting, we want to see that our issues with dependence and confidence in God have never stood to reason because God has never changed. God’s unwavering trustworthiness and our fickle trust are bound to three key things seen in Genesis 3:
God’s Word
Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Very Good.
That is the Sparknotes recap of each day of creation according to Genesis 1 (1:4, 10, 12. 18, 21, 25, 31). The whole of creation summed up in one word. This is not merely how God felt about the world He made; it’s how He saw it. The world was not good simply because God thought it to be so, though that would be sufficient. The world was good because it was perceivably so. “And behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).
God’s goodness in creation was to be sustained by His commands to the creatures of the earth. Mankind, most notably, was given dominion over creation and commanded, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17).
Seems like a fair deal. As a matter of fact, it was a good one. But very quickly, in the temptation that ensues in Genesis 3, we find the root cause of all mistrust in God. A crafty, cunning little serpent hisses a small but lethal question: “Did God actually say…” (Gen. 3:1).
