Man owed a debt he couldn't pay, God paid a debt He didn't owe

Published 4/18/2025
We are in the midst of Holy Week—the highest feast days of the year.
We were made by God to be with Him forever.  Reading the first few chapters of Genesis tells us that the man and the woman walked with God in the cool time of the day.  We were created for that reality. He never intended it to be any other way.
Unfortunately, things took a turn when we read chapter three of Genesis.  We find the man and the woman in the Garden, but now they aren’t alone with the Lord.  No, there is a stranger in Paradise and he is there to deceive and divide.  The serpent challenges the man and the woman.  The serpent assures the couple that they do not need to listen to God—he makes it clear that God is not a friend to the man and the woman. The man and the woman listen to the lies of the serpent, believe those lies, reject God and reject the relationship.
Genesis 3:8-9 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible.  It recounts that the man and the woman heard that God was in the Garden.  God calls to them, but the man and the woman rejected Him and were hiding.  He allowed the man and the woman to reject Him—God honors their free choice. How tragic.
I am not here to throw Adam and Eve under the bus, but I want us to honestly face the magnitude of the rejection by our first parents.  Adam and Eve did not suffer temptation in the same manner we do, prior to their own fall, there was no Original Sin.  I can long for things because of my fallen nature. Adam and Eve had a freedom to choose well beyond our fractured freedom.  They fully and freely rejected God.  Rejected Him as Father.  Rejected intimacy with Him.  Rejected that God is Good and wants what is best for us.
This rejection by Adam and Eve, as tragic as it is, is allowed by God.  We freely chose it and He allows us to make those mistakes.
Fortunately, the story does not end there.  Within one chapter of the Bible we are told that there is a better ending.  We have the first prophecy of the One who will crush the serpent and all of his lies at the end of the third chapter of Genesis. It has been said—Man owed a debt he could not pay, so God paid a debt He did not owe. 
May God bless you and your family throughout the Easter Season!
— Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected]. For more information concerning the events of this office, visit us at mobilefaithformation.org