“A reflection on our call to stewardship of God’s creation

Psalm 139:7–12

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

  If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

  even there your hand shall blead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

  even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

Genesis 3:14–19

 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.

  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.”

 To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;

iin pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,

but he shall rule over you.”

 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,

‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you;

in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

  thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

and you shall eat the plants of the field.

  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,

till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Romans 5:12–14

Death in Adam, Life in Christ

 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—  for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.  Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Genesis 4:8–14

 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.  Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”  And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.  And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”  Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.  Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, hand whoever finds me will kill me.”

Psalm 139:8–10

 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

 even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

Romans 5:15–17

 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.  And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.  For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:15: If judgment followed Adam's transgression, it is "much more" certain that God's grace abounded and will abound, because judgment is not God's ultimate purpose in the universe